The political ads are relentless this election cycle. No medium is safe from countless grave warnings, fearful forecasts and predictions of disaster if the other guy is elected. Political marketing always gets bad during election season, but its especially so this time around. Spending on political marketing is off the charts, in large part due to a Supreme Court ruling called Citizens United, which removed limits on advertising by corporations during elections, as well as accountability for the messages in those ads.
The Citizens United ruling
Politics are going to see a lot more funding coming their way with the Citizens United ruling by the Supreme Court. This ruling said that under the First Amendment, a corporation trying to do independent political marketing can’t be limited. Siding with the right wing political group Citizens United, the Supreme Court struck down a provision of the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, or the McCain–Feingold Act. For-profit and non-profit corporations were all told they can no longer run broadcast, cable, or satellite marketing within 60 days of a general election or thirty days of a primary with the provision.
The change made by Citizens United
The Citizens United ruling will be widely seen with the mid-term election coming up. There could be many deceptive attack ads sponsored by special interest groups on the air in all the states. Nobody even tells the voters who is running their ads. The new York Times explains that even foreign companies are in on it. They want a candidate to vote for them. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has decided to get in on this. Apparently “dues” are taken from the foreign companies in Bahrain, India and Egypt that are buying ads for the midterm races, reports the Center for American Progress Tuesday.
What Citizens United should prepare for
Citizens United presents a severe problem to the U.S. This is what the Los Angeles Times explains. The Times writes that within the last two years government has stood up to the abuses of the financial industry and insurance companies. You will find less tax breaks for companies shipping jobs oversea. We are also enforcing clean air and water rules. Republicans may just be able to stop the unregulated, out of control political spending with November elections because of Citizens United. If that happens, the lobbyists will start writing the laws once again. Congress should fix this, says the Times. The election will still be damaged even if they do change things now.
Articles cited
New York Times
nytimes.com/2010/10/06/opinion/06wed1.html?scp=2 and amp;sq=us chamber and amp;st=cse
Los Angeles Times
latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/09/weekly-remarks-greg-walden-stop-tax-hikes-obama.html
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