--- [ ARCHIVE ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=16) # McCutcheon Decision Exposes the Ineffectiveness of the Left ***![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/stories/Apr-2014/12028H.png)MY TURN-***It is virtually impossible to have a vibrant progressive movement in this country and a balanced political debate of the issues when the left continues to relegate itself to merely responding to whatever conservatives do by allowing them to frame all political debate and terms of engagement. The latest incarnation of this formula for continuing to allow the minority conservatives to move the country further to the right took place this Wednesday, when the Supreme Court decided M[cCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, No. 12-536](http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/13pdf/12-536_e1pf.pdf "http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/13pdf/12-536_e1pf.pdf"), by a 5-to-4 vote along ideological lines. While the conservatives were allowed to frame the arguments before the court around a supposed 1st Amendment right to free speech, where the ability for the rich to spend disproportionate amounts of money was characterized as merely exercising their right to free speech, the left abdicated its responsibility to raise other more compelling constitutional based arguments that could have shined a light on the clearly disingenuous rhetoric of the conservatives, while showing the actual threat it poses to these same constitutional rights and protections. One such argument has to do with the separation of powers under our constitution, where no one branch of government is given a complete power that it can exercise on its own without the concurrence of the other branches of government. Even these checks and balances have already been significantly dismantled by the disproportionate spending of money by the corporate rich, so that the checks and balances envisioned by our Founding Fathers between the executive, judicial, and legislative branches no longer exist, when a Koch, Adelson or NRA can already distort the voting process that only assures their supposed "1st Amendment right" by compromising everybody else's. More specifically, the McCutcheon case in advancing the money as speech argument already decided by the court in [Citizens United](http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/09pdf/08-205.pdf "http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/09pdf/08-205.pdf"), in their 2010 decision that struck down limits on independent campaign spending by corporations and unions, presupposes that an individual citizen or corporate person has a right to effect elections all over the country. Our constitution's fundamental principle is that "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." So, in drafting the constitution not only were the different branches of government given only limited power that could not be exercised without the concurrence of the other branches, the very government itself was divided into federal and state governments where only those powers specifically given to the federal government could be exercised, while reserving those not given to the states. Already there has been significant erosion and consolidation of more power in the federal government than our Founding Fathers anticipated. But in addition to separating state and federal governments, each citizen was only able to vote for their local, state, and federal representatives. Nowhere was it anticipated or desired to allow any one citizen … human or corporate … to have the ability to effect elections in all the states. The very diffusion of power so that no one individual could wield disproportionate power was fundamental to our constitution, whose purpose was to avoid the centralization of power in a monarchy- hereditary or corporate. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for four justices in the controlling opinion in McCutcheon, said the First Amendment required striking down the limits. "There is no right in our democracy more basic," he wrote, "than the right to participate in electing our political leaders." I would argue that the rulings in Citizens United and McCutcheon make the participation and consensus of the majority irrelevant. It is now clearer than ever that the only proactive action that the left can take is to get behind the passage of a constitutional amendment to overturn the findings in Citizens United, McCutheon, and further cases that the conservative majority of the Supreme Court will not decide, since clearly there has been no effective response from the left. ***(Leonard Isenberg is a Los Angeles observer and a contributor to CityWatch. He’s a second generation teacher at LAUSD and blogs at perdaily.com. Leonard can be reached at )*** ***-cw*** ***CityWatch*** ***Vol 12 Issue 28*** ***Pub: Apr 4, 2014*** Written by Leonard Isenberg on December 31 2015. [](https://www.addtoany.com/share) ***![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/stories/Apr-2014/12028H.png)MY TURN-***It is virtually impossible to have a vibrant progressive movement in this country and a balanced political debate of the issues when the left continues to relegate itself to merely responding to whatever conservatives do by allowing them to frame all political debate and terms of engagement. The latest incarnation of this formula for continuing to allow the minority conservatives to move the country further to the right took place this Wednesday, when the Supreme Court decided M[cCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, No. 12-536](http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/13pdf/12-536_e1pf.pdf "http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/13pdf/12-536_e1pf.pdf"), by a 5-to-4 vote along ideological lines. While the conservatives were allowed to frame the arguments before the court around a supposed 1st Amendment right to free speech, where the ability for the rich to spend disproportionate amounts of money was characterized as merely exercising their right to free speech, the left abdicated its responsibility to raise other more compelling constitutional based arguments that could have shined a light on the clearly disingenuous rhetoric of the conservatives, while showing the actual threat it poses to these same constitutional rights and protections. One such argument has to do with the separation of powers under our constitution, where no one branch of government is given a complete power that it can exercise on its own without the concurrence of the other branches of government. Even these checks and balances have already been significantly dismantled by the disproportionate spending of money by the corporate rich, so that the checks and balances envisioned by our Founding Fathers between the executive, judicial, and legislative branches no longer exist, when a Koch, Adelson or NRA can already distort the voting process that only assures their supposed "1st Amendment right" by compromising everybody else's. More specifically, the McCutcheon case in advancing the money as speech argument already decided by the court in [Citizens United](http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/09pdf/08-205.pdf "http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/09pdf/08-205.pdf"), in their 2010 decision that struck down limits on independent campaign spending by corporations and unions, presupposes that an individual citizen or corporate person has a right to effect elections all over the country. Our constitution's fundamental principle is that "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." So, in drafting the constitution not only were the different branches of government given only limited power that could not be exercised without the concurrence of the other branches, the very government itself was divided into federal and state governments where only those powers specifically given to the federal government could be exercised, while reserving those not given to the states. Already there has been significant erosion and consolidation of more power in the federal government than our Founding Fathers anticipated. But in addition to separating state and federal governments, each citizen was only able to vote for their local, state, and federal representatives. Nowhere was it anticipated or desired to allow any one citizen … human or corporate … to have the ability to effect elections in all the states. The very diffusion of power so that no one individual could wield disproportionate power was fundamental to our constitution, whose purpose was to avoid the centralization of power in a monarchy- hereditary or corporate. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for four justices in the controlling opinion in McCutcheon, said the First Amendment required striking down the limits. "There is no right in our democracy more basic," he wrote, "than the right to participate in electing our political leaders." I would argue that the rulings in Citizens United and McCutcheon make the participation and consensus of the majority irrelevant. It is now clearer than ever that the only proactive action that the left can take is to get behind the passage of a constitutional amendment to overturn the findings in Citizens United, McCutheon, and further cases that the conservative majority of the Supreme Court will not decide, since clearly there has been no effective response from the left. ***(Leonard Isenberg is a Los Angeles observer and a contributor to CityWatch. He’s a second generation teacher at LAUSD and blogs at perdaily.com. Leonard can be reached at )*** ***-cw*** ***CityWatch*** ***Vol 12 Issue 28*** ***Pub: Apr 4, 2014*** [![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/ME%20DENTAL%20SPA/me%20dental%202026%20final.jpg)](http://medentalspa.com/) ![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/banners/signup-for-cw.png) ## Get The News In Your Email Inbox Mondays & Thursdays First Name [ ![LA DWP #2 (Pay Your Bill Help)](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/LADWP/dwp%20level%20pay%205-7-25.jpg) ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/component/banners/click/82 "LA DWP #2 (Pay Your Bill Help)") [ ![Home - HHR Rent is too High - SB-2](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/HHR/AHF-rent-too-high.jpg) ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/component/banners/click/104 "Home - HHR Rent is too High - SB-2") --- ## Featured CityWatch Stories [ ![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/media/yootheme/cache/fd/064h-fdb0b507.jpg) ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=29355:remembering-ken-draper-citywatch-and-transparency-are-his-legacy&catid=12) ### [Remembering Ken Draper: CityWatch and Transparency Are his Legacy](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=29355:remembering-ken-draper-citywatch-and-transparency-are-his-legacy&catid=12) LA WATCHDOG - Ken Draper, the editor and publisher of CityWatch for more than 20 years, passed away on August 8, 2022… [ ![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/media/yootheme/cache/0f/061a-0f1ada2f.jpg) ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33148:brace-yourself-for-a-worse-housing-crisis&catid=398) ### [Brace Yourself For A Worse Housing Crisis](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33148:brace-yourself-for-a-worse-housing-crisis&catid=398) PLANNING WATCH - The California State Legislature will soon vote on the following draft legislation. Please carefully… [ ![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/media/yootheme/cache/54/064j-54f0ecbd.jpg) ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33204:be-prepared-to-protect-our-democracy-in-november-from-a-trumpian-plot&catid=9) ### [Be Prepared to Protect Our Democracy in November From a Trumpian Plot](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33204:be-prepared-to-protect-our-democracy-in-november-from-a-trumpian-plot&catid=9) BE AWARE - Back in the days when conservatives were so hungry for media platforms that they’d come on progressive shows… [ ![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/media/yootheme/cache/ab/063e-ab3b1ba1.jpg) ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33174:nithya-raman-loses-the-homelessness-gavel-her-record-explains-why&catid=396) ### [Nithya Raman Loses the Homelessness Gavel — Her Record Explains Why](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33174:nithya-raman-loses-the-homelessness-gavel-her-record-explains-why&catid=396) THE BOTTOM LINE - Raman wants Los Angeles voters to promote her to mayor. Before handing her the keys to City Hall, v… [ ![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/media/yootheme/cache/75/064a-75d5dbb3.jpg) ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33199:your-boss-owns-your-workday-not-your-brain&catid=425) ### [Your Boss Owns Your Workday—Not Your Brain](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33199:your-boss-owns-your-workday-not-your-brain&catid=425) THE NEURAL WORKPLACE - California must protect workers before workplace surveillance crosses the final frontier: the hu… --- ## [ ARCHIVE ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=16) [ ![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/stories/Apr-2018/034e.png) ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=15339:early-intervention-and-jobs-are-key-to-stemming-chronic-homelessness-in-los-angeles&catid=16)### [Early Intervention and Jobs are Key to Stemming Chronic Homelessness in Los Angeles](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=15339:early-intervention-and-jobs-are-key-to-stemming-chronic-homelessness-in-los-angeles&catid=16) ### [Tucker Carlson and Gay Rightwinger Blame California Wildfires On Hiring LGBTQ People](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=18755:tucker-carlson-and-gay-rightwinger-blame-california-wildfires-on-hiring-lgbtq-people&catid=16) ### [Anti-LGBTQ Veep Just Can’t Stop Talking about Mayor Pete](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=17690:anti-lgbtq-veep-just-can-t-stop-talking-about-mayor-pete&catid=16) [ ![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/stories/Apr-2018/033j.png) ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=15316:news-pulse-corrupt-system-reason-for-not-voting-in-2018-majority-wants-more-than-two-parties&catid=16)### [NEWS PULSE: ‘Corrupt System’ Reason for Not Voting in 2018 … Majority Wants More Than Two Parties](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=15316:news-pulse-corrupt-system-reason-for-not-voting-in-2018-majority-wants-more-than-two-parties&catid=16) [ ![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/stories/Jan-2016/1404d.png) ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10245:dead-dog-set-on-fire-sparks-fears-for-strays-in-los-angeles&catid=16)### [Dead Dog Set on Fire … Sparks Fears for Strays in Los Angeles](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10245:dead-dog-set-on-fire-sparks-fears-for-strays-in-los-angeles&catid=16)