Oct 2, 2012
Free Speech Is for Billionaires, Not School-Teachers
At an educational forum this week, Mitt Romney called for restricting teachers’ unions from participating in the political process.
What does a plutocracy look like? How about a leveraged buy-out artist who used his family connections – and gamed the tax code – to amass a $378 million fortune, and whose campaign is almost entirely financed by deep-pocketed conservative sugar-daddies, saying that while money equals Constitutionally protected free speech for his own donors, there should be limits on political spending by teachers making $75,000 per year.
That’s exactly what transpired on Tuesday at an education forum in New York. According to CBS, Romney said that “we simply can’t have” elected officials who may receive contributions from teachers’ unions negotiating with them. “I think it’s a mistake,” Romney said. “I think we have to get the money out of the teachers unions going into campaigns.” CBS adds: “He suggested that money should somehow be diverted or cut off,” but — as is typical with Romney — “he did not offer details.”
One would be hard-pressed to come up with a better example of rank hypocrisy. The conservative view – now broadly accepted in our courts – has long been that money equals speech, that individuals and organization have a Constitutional right to donate to the politicians of their choosing. That was the rationale behind Citizens United – and a series of related cases – which allowed Romney to dominate the early fundraising race on the backs of a very small number of extremely wealthy donors
There is much more to read in this article, so “you people”, please click here to see it. It furthers the ALEC objective of breaking unions, particularly public sector unions.
BTW, the end of the article states:
As billionaire industrialist David Koch – who’s bankrolled any number of union-busting politicians – recently said of campaign donations, “People can invest what they want.” What’s clear is that – in the rarified world inhabited by the Koch brothers and the Romneys — that’s simply not the case for You People.
