The Pros And Cons Of Citizens United

Citizens United Essay
Debates about the Citizens United case have been ripe throughout the entire country. In the case, the majority of the Supreme Court ruled that company broadcasts could not be limited. In addition, they ruled that there was no cap on company funding on candidates, but that there had to be a middleman of a superpac. Setting dangerous future implications, this decisions greatly undermines the future democracy of the country through condoning skewed political power based on wealth and by giving first amendment right to a company (Citizens 1). Setting a regulation to funnel the wealthy elite’s money into super PACs takes away power from the everyday individual and their right to have a government by the people for the people. Also, it perpetuates corruption due to the super PACs not being legally obligated to disclose their spending, which is known as “dark money”. This continues the cycle of corruption by decreasing transparency of a candidate, making the candidate and their interests less known to the public. Due to this, he public is unable to make informed decisions to better not only their own lives, but the entire country through their vote (Levy 1).
On a different note, the financial implications and monopolization of companies on a political level is staggering.
Actually, “the Fortune 100 companies alone had combined revenues of $13 trillion and profits of $605 billion during the last election cycle”(Pro 1). Through this money, the companies have the ability to push their agendas onto candidates, which creates politicians only focused on a select fews problems because they are worried about appeasing them to gain the necessary funding. In addition, this decision drastically puts back the time scales of democracy by more than a century, which is treatourous for the entire country (Pro
1).
Additionally, on an equality and democratic scale concerning companies this decision strongly favors those businesses in the present that are firmly cemented financially and more often than not are rooted in the past rather than the future. Because of this, businesses or companies that are relatively new and do not have money to spend towards campaigns are unable to have the equal opportunity to give to campaigns. This puts an unfair and undemocratic bias towards the bigger, older companies with the financial means, even though” small businesses create 70% of new jobs in the private sector according to the Small Business Administration”, which further solidifying corruption in the United States (Brodwin 1).
On all scales of corporate america the verdict during the Citizens United Court case has left the United States with a weaker democracy as a whole. More importantly, it has undermined the individual rights of each citizen in those smaller companies and nationwide regardless of their lack of affiliation with a company due to the skew towards the rich people’s agendas by candidates and politicians. Because of this, it is imperative that individuals are educated about this issue and use their vote as well as their right to free speech to protest this ruling, enacting positive change in their nation.