It's impossible for the vast majority of people to understand what this decision really means right now. It'll be 15 or 20 years before the full impact begins to be apparent. By that time I expect the skepticism towards this decision will be much greater. But for now it's as if the Supreme Court struck down laws against child labor. "Child labor? What's that? Why's that so bad?"
That's one of the most ridiculous statements I've ever heard. I'm really surprised to see you say this.
Why?
Because it's hyperbole to the most extreme extent in terms of effect. Legally, the Supreme Court's decision was correct here - I can't make the same argument about the child labor cases (or the minimum wage cases, etc..)
Maybe. The point is just that people
intellectually know this is a huge decision. But that's not the same as years or decades of evidence of the decision's effects on politics and policies, and the real stories, the real people, the real examples, that these decades of history present. People today understand that child labor is deeply wrong intellectually, but unless they've done some unconventional overseas tourism, they've never seen long lines of children manning assembly lines, never had their own children work instead of school, the idea seems distant, difficult to imagine.
The Justices of 1907 saw what unfettered corporate political speech meant; the Justices of 2010 never have.
