Supreme Court's Hands are the Devil's Playthings

Here in the United States of America, less than one percent of the population controls ten percent of the wealth. This is a figure that many have no doubt heard before, but it takes on new meaning in the era of corporations' rights that we now live in. In this new era, money changing hands is no different than conveying thoughts and feelings through articulate sounds in the eyes of the supreme court, both are equally protected by the first amendment. This shift in the basic nature of reality is dangerous because, by its very nature, the decision affords more rights to the moneyed and well-connected and diminishes the rights of those who are not. Post Citizens United, less than one percent of the population controls ten percent of the free protected speech in this country, and the balance is further skewed by the inclusion of corporations and interest groups into the equation. Very little is left for the average citizens of the United States. In Arizona, a case is building momentum that once again aims to place the hope for free and fair elections in this country into the hands of the supreme court, a group famous for such other even-handed decisions as Bush v. Gore and Plessy v. Ferguson. The right of the people in this country for free and fair public elections has few defenders these days, and it falls the citizens of North Carolina and all the other states of this union to do what they can to protect their voting rights and the integrity of our electoral system.