Monday, January 25, 2010

The Cost of Speech

On Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations and unions can now directly fund campaign ads. This flawed conclusion stems from the flawed premise that money is equal to speech, and limiting somebody's ability to spend money on a campaign limits the fundamental right for the super wealthy to speak.

Current campaign finance laws limiting spending don't keep anyone from speaking or voicing their opinion, they simply limit how much money you can spend to make that opinion heard. The first amendment promises a right to voice political viewpoint, but it doesn't give corporations the right to make us listen to them.

As the cartoon suggests, I'm worried that individual voices and opinions will be drowned out by the deluge of corporate and union money on political campaigns.

I ended up drawing this cartoon on the fly and super fast. I drew a cartoon on a change to campaign finance rules in Wisconsin, that became irrelevant after the supreme courts ruling Thursday morning. I drew this cartoon in about 2 hours on Friday afternoon, in time for Sunday's paper.

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