Watching Supreme Court Justice Alito’s performance last night at the State of The Union speech by President Obama, I was struck with the sudden revelation that America has entered into a new and dangerous era of political fanaticism. Political fanatics are nothing new in America, some of them came over right after the Mayflower. However, what is new and disturbing is this fanaticism has infiltrated the very foundational governing fabric of this country. More about my concern below the fold.
In the past there have always been sharp and often violent ideological differences between political factions, but not since the Civil War has that divide so threatened the security of all Americans and the stability of the nation in general. Five of the justices currently sitting on the SCOTUS are ideologues whose ability to think and reason is blinded by their fanatical dedication to their common “conservative” ideology. When this block acts in this manner without thoughly weighing the effect of their decision on the future of the nation it becomes a very serious problem. Effectively the five justices that supported this ruling were legislating from the bench, because to apply the freedom of speech provisions without restriction to a legal entity created by the States, namely a corporation, and then blithely apply a silly canard that a corporation is a person and is entitled to free speech protection under the constitution is completely devoid of logic on any scale of reasoning. Their weak association is limited to that fact that a corporation is composed of people instead of dogs, cows or birds. So therefore it must be a person (guilt by association). From this point of reasoning a TupperWare party is entitled to the free speech provisions as it is also composed of people.
All of the argument considered by the SCOTUS was bounded around the idea that all of the corporations in question are domestically owned. The majority didn’t utter a peep about multinational corporations in their written decision. You would think in this era of multinational corporations this would be front and center in their minds urging caution in respect to this global reality. This is the blind spot that I am referring to caused by their ideological fanaticism. Do the rabid five think that the Chinese are stupid and don’t know what is going on in this country?
Over the past decade many foreign corporations have purchased well known American businesses, such as Firestone, Dial Soap, Shell Oil, Holiday Inn, Trader Joe’s, 7-Eleven, Budweiser, coors, Miller, Ben & Jerry’s Babe Ruth, Eskimo Pies, and Nestle. Now these retail firms though foreign owned for the most part have little interest in influencing our government. However, The Peoples Republic of China (PROC) is a much different problem when it comes to the prospect of ownership of American businesses. The American business community and Wall Street have devoted much energy to obscuring the fact that China is still very much a strongly Communist country. Covered up in all the business dealings with Walmart is the fact that technically we are still at war with China. No cease fire or treaty has been signed between the United States and China following the Korean war. The United Nations, along with the United States signed an agreement with the North Koreans which ended the Korean war, but this agreement does not extend to China. Wall Street and Walmart have not been empowered by the Constitution to manage such agreements between the United States and its enemies. So shiploads of stuff from China does not officially change the goals of the government of the PROC.
I personally believe it would be economically healthy for China to invest in the United States. However, it has to be done carefully with the appropriate safeguards to preserve national security while preventing interference with our democratic system of government. However, the five justices gave none of this any thought when they blundered thoughtlessly into the delicate balance between the U.S. and China regarding relations. For example the U.S. Military has been very concerned recently with China’s acquisition of several new large aircraft carriers. No one in the government is comfortable with China’s current and future position in world affairs. The decision by the five justices opens the door for ANY OWNER of any American corporation to freely interfere or meddle in Congressional and Presidential campaigns. Just a couple of weeks ago China announced that she will be in the market to purchase struggling American businesses. This was before the five justices rendered their decision and I predict unless Congress moves rapidly to fix this SCOTUS back door political blunder, China will move in and take advantage of it.
Those who embrace the extreme oligarchy rapidly spreading throughout America are becoming more and more fanatical in the effort to institutionalize their ideology within the governmental fabric of the United States. The common thread that unites these people is their dedication to reducing the Federal government in size to little or no government. Further, they place no limitations on their efforts to accomplish this, even to the entering, knowingly or unknowingly, into collusion with sworn enemies of the United States. Therein lies the danger of this upsurge of ideological fanaticism as it becomes embodied in people holding high positions in the very government they originally swore to UPHOLD and PROTECT. I saw it clearly expressed by the behavior of Justice Alito during the president’s remarks when he raised concern over the recent SCOTUS decision.
