Notice how quiet liberals have gotten about the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling?
Seems like only minutes ago they were gnashing teeth and rending garments that it was the end of democracy as we know it. (video clip after page break)
With polls showing President Obama leading Mitt Romney in several swing states, liberals' previous claims that the Citizens United ruling would let big-moneyed interests buy the election through their Republican lackeys are a tad more difficult to make.
In fact, a decidedly different claim is now being made as shown by Markos Moulitsas's appearance on Stephanie Miller's radio show Sept. 21.
Moulitsas, creator of the influential liberal blog Daily Kos, said something about the aftermath of the Citizens United ruling that even a fringe leftist like him has no choice but to acknowledge, with Miller saying much the same thing --
MILLER: It was interesting, one of the parts of the tape (secret recording of Romney at fundraiser in Florida last May) people missed is that, somebody asked, basically there were donors asking him, why are you so unlikeable? Stop it! (laughs) They were saying, what can we do to help explain you to people? And he just said, just help me raise more money. I mean, it seems so far, that's what's being disproven. It doesn't seem to matter how much money you have when you have a candidate this unlikeable, right?
MOULITSAS: Yeah, but you know, this being a moving under the money issue, like everybody else I was worried about Citizens United and the flood of unregulated big dollars in politics. But we have seen, not just in the presidential where you can say, well, Romney's not likeable, but in how in Senate races also, you have these Senate candidates, Democrats are being pounded by tens of millions of dollars and the numbers really haven't really taken a hit.
This is one of the big stories of this election, just how little effect this money is. And it may be DVRs (allowing viewers to skip ads), it may be the fact that people are watching more content online or they've just gotten really good at ignoring those stupid attack ads with the grainy film and the stupid music. Everybody's just deciding this is all BS, I'm going to ignore it. But the fact is, as worried as we may have been about that money, it's just not having an effect! And so when they say, well, if we're going to have money we're going to nuke Obama the last six weeks of the race, they've been nuking him the last six months and that nuking really hasn't done anything except damage Romney further.
Here, for example, is a sampling of the headlines for Daily Kos posts in the days after the Citizens United decision in January 2010 --
"Help stop the corporate takeover of our democracy"
"SCOTUS gives corporations green light to buy elections"
"IT'S TIME TO FIGHT THE SCOTUS TREASON" (capital letters IN THE ORIGINAL)
"It's official. Corporations rule"
"Look at what greed is doing to our country"
Welcome to the corporate fascist states of America"
"Should charges of treason be filed against 5 SCOTUS judges?"
"Welcome to the United Corporations of America"
"Goodbye democracy, hello oligarchy!"
"Welcome to political apartheid"
True, there was the occasional dissenting voice, though it was milquetoast -- "Just maybe, the Supreme Court ruling is a good thing" -- compared to the overwrought hyperbole at Daily Kos against the court.
Back when it appeared to liberals that the Citizens United ruling might hurt Obama and Democrats, democracy was dead in America and "apartheid" took its place (Let's not forget fascism!). But now that it looks like Obama could win a second term, gee, what was all that fuss about big money in politics? Which goes to show that liberals' opposition to the ruling was never principled to begin with.
