Is current arrangement what founders intended?

So, let’s really examine what type of government we have. We are a constitutionally limited, representational, democratic republic. At least, that was the concept.

Democracy, a word of Greek origin, means popular government: by and for the people, distinguished from a government by a privileged class. Unfortunately for we the people, three U.S. Supreme Court decisions have made it legal for corporations and elite citizens to own politicians and thereby legislate to their favor. In 1976, conservative justices in the Buckley vs. Valeo decision ruled that money is free speech, implying that those who have more money have more speech in our political system.

In 1978’s First National Bank of Boston vs. Bellotti, conservative justices again overturned restrictions on corporate political spending, giving First Amendment rights to corporations, effectively enabling oligarchy. The 2010 Citizen’s United decision doubled down on the aforementioned. So you see, money buys policy. That is not democracy.

Jim Broadbent

Snohomish