Stephen Colbert kept Joe Scarborough in stitches Friday morning as he prepared for his rally with former presidential candidate, Herman Cain. Colbert is using comedy to illustrate the very serious and destructive nature of the Super Pacs which seem to have taken over the election process with little or no accountability. According to the Washington Post:
Calling himself the “Martin Luther King of corporation civil rights,” Colbert said that in a time maybe not everyone in the audience could remember — two years ago — corporations were sadly limited in the amount of money they could pour into political campaigns.
But that changed, he said, when “five courageous justices” on the Supreme Court ruled in the 2010 Citizens United decision that “corporations are people,” that people are entitled to free speech, that free speech equals money and that corporations should thus be entitled to dump as much money as they like into the political water table, provided they don’t coordinate with the campaigns they’re funding.
It’s the super PACs that are funding the flood of negative ads that the candidates all say they hate, even though the Citizens United decision was widely praised by Republicans.
Then Colbert asked the crowd, which included people of all ages and political persuasions, to send a message about super PACs by voting for Cain, who is still on the ballot here, though he suspended his campaign for the GOP presidential nomination. And, somehow, both Republicans and Democrats were charmed.
and…
The event — dubbed the “Rock Me Like a Herman Cain South Cain-olina Primary” — began with a gospel rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” with Colbert harmonizing, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance and the crowd shouting, “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!”
Colbert sends a very serious message. Hopefully Americans will rise up and grab back their own influence over elections. Super PACs seemed to take everyone by surprise. Any strong feelings on super PACs? Perhaps this is an area for common ground. So far, the Republicans have been more manipulated by Super PACs than Democrats.
