Initiative 735 proposed to limit the contributions of corporations in elections. I am for it, as we all should, in spite of the argument made by the Seattle Times editors on Saturday’s editorial-page (Oct 1, 2016), in which they urge voters to “vote no on faulty Citizens United remedy.”
The argument is itself faulty and inimical to Democratic principles. There is no reason why fictional legal entities should have the right to muster their outsized financial weight to influence elections, regardless of which side of the political spectrum they are on. As is often truly said, corporations are not people. Only real people should have that right. The Times seems to support the undemocratic doctrine that money is speech. Because of that doctrine giant corporations and well-heeled political action committees are able to aggregate their financial strength to drown out the voices of the people, giving their self-serving agenda an unfair and undeserved advantage in the marketplace of ideas
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Jerry Cronk , Shoreline Washington, Oct. 4, 2016