The Robert\'s court ruled in January 2010, in a 5-4 decision, to overturn a 20-y
ID: 398133 • Letter: T
Question
The Robert's court ruled in January 2010, in a 5-4 decision, to overturn a 20-year-old ruling that prohibited corporations from contributing to campaign ads from their own company coffers. This ruling is a major setback for campaign finance reform decisions like the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law—also known as the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002—which restricted the use of "soft money" in campaign elections. Do you agree with this decision? Why do you agree or disagree with this decision? What are the benefits or drawbacks of this decision to corporations AND individual citizens?
Explanation / Answer
Yes, I do agree with this decision. The reason why I agree with this decision is that the very premise of campaign finance reform was not based on fair grounds. A tangible and proper campaign finance reform, given today’s context, would entail allowing companies to give unlimited amounts of their after tax money towards political campaigns. Of course the contributions will have to be documented and filed as per norms of the law.
Another reason why I agree with this decision is that in the long run it will help strengthen our country’s democracy further. When corporate are free to make donations the middle class candidates will stand to benefit. Currently many middle class candidates are not able to fight elections on an even keel due to lack of funds. This will change given the recent ruling.
The benefit of this decision to corporate entities is that they can freely support the candidates of their choice and hence will be more influential when politicians spell out business reforms and other measures that will affect the growth of economy and business.
The benefit of this decision to individual citizens is that the restrictions will no longer be anti-middle class and citizens from different economic strata can aspire to contest in the election and do not worry about the funding part. In the long run citizens will stand to gain from the strengthened democracy that will emerge due to this reform.
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