re: #169 iossarian

My point was that, when forming my opinion of an issue, I don’t think it’s particularly helpful to consider establishment views as inputs. They can be helpful for sanity-checking outputs though.

Well, your opinion is one thing. However, as regards what actually happens, the decisions of SCOTUS bind us, and no matter how much you may agree or disagree, it is what it is.

Is there a difference? Of course, people are technically “free” to say whatever they like, but in practice, poor people get less of a say than rich people, which in my book isn’t exactly “freedom of speech”.

It depresses me how much fund-raising politicians in the US have to do, and how beholden to corporate interests they become as a result. The recent Supreme Court decision only furthers this process.

There are many organizations with money to spend that are not the dreaded corporations - employee unions, special interest advocacy groups (both conservative-leaning and liberal-leaning), advocacy groups for the poor, the disabled, the elderly (that’s me!) - the list goes on and on and on.

I trust that in the end, the important needs and points of view of all groups get promoted somewhere, by someone, who has the means to promote them. Candidates receive money from all sorts of groups; individual candidates may get more from one type of group than another; in the end, all the elected officials must eventually work together, and so all the various needs of the various groups get balanced out, maybe to your liking, maybe not, but at least enough that we are not stagnant. Just my .02.