Citizens United is the kind of Supreme Court decision you can expect until a Democratic president can get more reasonable justices confirmed. It is one of the most toxic rulings in recent history, and you are about to see why.

Threatening Congress members, or any elected official, with, “We can raise enough money to get you booted out if you don’t do what we want” isn’t exactly what the founders had in mind.

Free speech? Hardly. Corporate people? There should be no such thing. Extortion? Sure looks that way.

This not the America I was taught about, not the one I grew up in, not the one I want my kids to have to face. 

“Bankers Form SuperPac for ‘Surgical’ Strike at Industry’s Enemies” is a must-read. Via American Banker:

They have formed the industry’s first SuperPAC — dubbed Friends of Traditional Banking — that is designed to target the industry’s enemies and support its friends in Congress. [...]

“Congress isn’t afraid of bankers,” adds Roger Beverage, the president and CEO of the Oklahoma Bankers Association. “They don’t think we’ll do anything to kick them out of office. We are trying to change that perception.”

Matt Packard, the SuperPAC’s chairman and president and CEO of $670 million-asset Central Bank in Provo, Utah:

“BankPAC is much broader and covers lots of different candidates. This is much more surgical,” Packard says. “If someone says I am going to give your opponent $5,000 or $10,000, you might say, ‘Yea, okay.’ But if you say the bankers are going to put in $100,000 or $500,000 or $1 million into your opponent’s campaign, that starts to draw some attention.

This is why I will not become complacent about President Obama’s chances. Well, this and voter suppression (Voter I.D. laws) and the irrational hatred of the first African American president.

I’ll leave you with this chilling excerpt. Please read the entire piece, though:

If 10,000 supporters sign up at the minimum pledge level — not a high bar considering 2.1 million people work in the banking industry — Friends of Traditional Banking would be channeling more than $1 million. That’s enough to make a difference in a tight race.