Necessary Roughness

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sophia-a-mcclennen/colbert-super-pac_b_1208772.html

Stephen Colbert is making a fool of the political process, and I LOVE IT.  What he is doing is good for several different reasons.  First he is showing, in plain form, how the system of SUPERPACS and 501C4s work. In addition to this, he is adding well needed volume to the "Corporations are people" argument that the American public needs to continue to debate.  Had Colbert not have taken up this cause, we the voting public would know very little about both. 

Colbert having formed a SUPERPAC on National television certainly changed my opinion about 501c4s and SUPERPACs.  I knew very little about the whole process, but since have learned a good deal more.  The whole system is wrought with corruption that has caused the Democratic process to be taken away from the American people.  We have money changing hands that, had it be done so for any other reason besides politics, would cause serious jail time to those involved. 

Colbert has not only shines a large spot light on the process, but allowed the ordinary person to get involved in the system.  Very few of us would know what PAC, SUPERPAC or 501c4 to donate to in order to support the candidate we want.  Yes, there are plenty out there but they are so shady, few people are sure they are giving to what.  Colbert's SUPERPAC makes it easy to know where your money is going.  To Stephen Colbert.  Initially, there was no specific place he was giving the donations, but now that he has launched his run for President of The United States of South Carolina, we know.  Even without a clear campaign, money poured into the Colbert PAC and Americans For A Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow SUPERPAC. I certainly had no problem sending him five bucks to get my name on the scroll line, even if it did not tell me where it was going. 

Finally, Colbert has blown the lid off the Corporate Speech/Speech Is Money argument, that I think needs serious debate amongst the American public.  Those who support the ruling by the Supreme Court argue that corporations are people and therefore must pay taxes. They have a fair point.  I certainly do not want corporations to not be taxed. I have a harder time swallowing the idea that speech equals money, er go corporation can speak freely.  Yes, if a corporation is a person, it is granted the freedom of speech, but does speech really equal money? Is there not a better way corporations can speak? I would think advertising would be a more effective way, but corporations do not want that blood on their hands.  How many people would stop eating at McDonald's if they found out it supported Richard Nixon, etc, etc.  Heaven forbid a corporation do something upfront and above the table in the realm of politics

I think it is clear that the time to throw the money changers out of the temple has come.  We Americans need to take back our Democracy and ensure that our politicians are not the puppets of big corporations.  What we have as human people that corporations as paper people do not have is a voice.  We can knock on doors, and make the process ours again.  The person taking the biggest step in the right direction is Stephen Colbert.