A Sane and Healthy Energy Policy Cannot Come from a Corrupt Political System

In response to my post on Big Oil and campaign finance reform, a friend wrote such an eloquent response that I wanted to post the whole thing without editing a comma.

Just wanted to comment to you regarding the Citizens United decision, cited in your post. Both the left and the right should be outraged by that decision. The justices approved it as a protection on the first amendment. Nevertheless, it does great damage to the concept of democracy.

The decision virtually surrenders our political system to a handful of billionaire lobbyists. Note the following list of individual PAC donors.

You may be happy about money from the largest contributor Tom Steyer, since his issue is Climate Change. Nevertheless, you may be unhappy about the Koch brothers, or Paul Singer. I’m unhappy about the whole lot of them from both sides. Each selects and elects his own talking head, by flooding TV with mind-numbing repetitive ads that seldom resemble the truth. Isn’t there something wrong with the accepted fact that a presidential campaign requires a minimum of $1-Billion to succeed? Supposedly, Bill and Hillary have already collected pledges of $2-3-Billion. How can any other Democrat get a shot at the nomination? Which Republican candidate will the Billionaires Club select to face Hillary?

Bottom line is that the Citizens United decision marks the end of polling booth power, unless someone figures out how to get rid of it. My thought is that the First Amendment must have limitations. The prohibition of “screaming fire in a crowded theater” needs to be joined by a prohibition against hijacking the essence of American democracy.

Again, to say anything more would be to gild the lily.