Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Teddy Roosevelt On Limited Corporate Suffrage: 100 Years Ago

"We must have complete and effective publicity of corporate affairs, so that people may know beyond peradventure whether the corporations obey the law and whether their management entitles them to the confidence of the public. It is necessary that laws should be passed to prohibit the use of corporate funds directly or indirectly for political purposes; it is still more necessary that such laws should be thoroughly enforced. Corporate expenditures for political purposes, and especially such expenditures by public-service corporations, have supplied one of the principal sources of corruption in our political affairs."

- former President Teddy Roosevelt on Aug 30, 1910

Adding: "For every special interest is entitled to justice, but not one is entitled to a vote in Congress, to a voice on the bench, or to representation in any public office. The Constitution guarantees protections to property, and we must make that promise good But it does not give the right of suffrage to any corporation."

Justice Roberts' Right Wing court has given this idea the big "fuck you". His activist court ruled from the bench and has allowed unlimited campaign financing by corporations.

D'ya think fake limited government Tea Baggers and strict Constitutionalist give a shit?

Posted via email from liberalsarecool.com

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