Summary

Recently, wealthy business elites have engineered the political and economic system to allow for the undisclosed and unrestricted purchase of elections. The legal pretext for this phenomenon began with the Fourteenth Amendment, which granted all persons due process of law. While the original intent of the amendment was to protect freed slaves who were not yet citizens, it was strategically implemented by the business class to protect the rights of corporations as persons. Gradually, the “outrageous” concept of “corporate personhood” began to take shape (98). This concept paired with the 1976 Buckley v. Valeo Supreme Court decision deeming money a form of free speech set the stage for the monumental 200 Citizens United ruling. If corporations were people, and money was free speech, then corporations technically had the right to exercise free speech under the First Amendment. The Supreme Court echoed this sentiment in Citizens United...