Wisconsin has been sold to the highest bidder: the Koch brothers and their fellow billionaire benefactors. Gov. Scott Walker’s puppeteers outspent Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett 8:1 — $31 million to $4 million.
They are assured a prolific future return on their investment. This abominable distortion of our electoral system was made possible by the disgraceful Citizens United decision, which morphed corporations into people by the four conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court.
This allows a corporation’s “personhood,” as freedom of speech, to donate as much money as they choose to candidates of their choice. Yes, these are the same conservative judges, legislating, who were nominated by Republican administrations. That is the same party which constantly decried that judges nominated by a Democratic administration would legislate from the bench. They give emphasis to the term hypocrisy.
The Wisconsin debacle is a precursor of the 2012 general election, where conservatives and their brokers in the secret super PACs plan to spend $1 billion to buy the presidential election. That is more than 32 times what it cost to buy Wisconsin but less for each of the 50 states to buy the presidency.
This is possibly due to the futility of trying to dupe the voters in the more enlightened coastal states, such as New York and California — at least the majority of the voters.
The lamentable Citizen’s United decision has made a mockery of our once-proud electoral system.
John Molnar
Bayside
