Would you like to make sure that the so called ‘anti-India’ Republican United States Congressman from Indiana, Dan Burton (who always supported Pakistan and who opposed aid to India) does not get re-elected to the US Congress ever? If you do, simply form an advocacy organisation and openly run TV, newspaper and Billboard ads against Mr Burton during the next election. Make sure you run strongly negative ads against the hapless Congressman. Negative ads work. Just destroy his reputation.
Thanks to a recent US Supreme Court Ruling, this is eminently possible. In fact, India’s Infosys or Satyam can also run ads against the Congressman. Some have argued that if foreign companies want to spend enough money, they can probably one day buy a majority of US Congressmen. Attention: China. Instead of buying US treasury bonds, consider buying some American politicians. It will be a much better investment.
When the US Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ideologically polarised verdict on January 21 2010, ruled that Corporations, non-profit advocacy groups, labor unions or any other organisation could spend unlimited amounts of money in advertisements directly supporting or opposing any candidate, it sent a jolt through America. Many conservatives supported the ruling – saying that it was a victory for free speech but most liberals were horrified that it would lead to large corporations picking their favourite candidates and that would be the death of American democracy.
Dan Burton
The First Amendment to the US Constitution says: “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech or of the press”. The fact that powerful corporations now have ‘free speech’ rights just as we ordinary mortals do - is a rather unique verdict. Other democracies do not implicitly grant this right to Corporations. President Obama rebuked the Supreme Court Judges for their odd verdict recently, as the judges listened to his State of the Union Speech. That was high drama.
Historically, powerful business interests and labor unions have always manipulated elections by spending money in favour of their favorite candidates. Even before the recent Supreme Court decision, US corporations could form Political Action Committees (PAC) or simply buy newspaper or TV stations to influence elections. It’s an open secret that Big Businesses and Unions use coercion all the time to influence politics. They ‘buy’ votes and fund election campaigns in numerous legal and illegal ways. That’s true in India as well as in the US. Although Indian Election Commission imposes a 25-lakh-rupee upper limit (for a political party) on electoral expenditures for a parliamentary seat (2003 Conduct of Elections Rules), expenditures by nonparty individuals and big businesses are still unregulated in India. We all know how it works. There is bribe, there is black money and there is murder.
The exact line between politically biased free speech and availability of balanced information in a representative democracy is hard to define. But the Supreme Court ruling that legalised the voices of the most powerful will encourage the creation of a framework where the less resourceful individuals technically may still have a ‘voice’ but no one will be able to hear them. The powerless can write blogs, distribute pamphlets, and organize street meetings but the Big Brother Corporations will be louder, glitzier and will have better message marketing strategies.
The Supreme Court was right in pointing out that the Big Corporations and Unions already influence elections via PACs and media ownerships. They already have tremendous influences in electoral politics. But the Court’s decision to grant unlimited free speech rights to these organizations - as if they are human beings - will likely remove all the remaining speed bumps in the road to corporatization of American democracy.
It is not clear whether the Corporations will actually use their newly acquired power to openly oppose and support candidates. Such political posturing will create both friends and enemies which may not be good for their bottom-line. But the fact that an Exxon or a Wal-Mart or a Raytheon can potentially run a multibillion dollar campaigns against candidates who oppose these corporations, will have a chilling effect in most political discourses in America.
The anti-India Congressman Dan Burton is coming up for reelection in December 2010. In the past, Burton has missed important Congressional votes to play golf; he has also fathered an illegitimate child outside marriage. There you have it. That’s a lot of dirt on him. Go get him, guys!
Welcome to the brave new world of American democracy; brought to you by Coke.
(Purkayastha is Professor of Economics at California State University)
