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THE COMEDIAN SHEDS LIGHT ON HOW CITIZENS UNITED HAS LED TO MURKIER WAYS FOR CORPORATE MONEY TO INFLUENCE OUR POLITICAL SYSTEM
Stphen Colbert proclaimed to throngs of assembled reporters and onlookers: "Moments ago the Federal Election Committee made their ruling. And ladies and gentlemen I'm sorry to say, we won! " On June 30, 201 1, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) gave its formal approval for Stephen Colbert to form a political action committee (PAC) that could raise unlimited sums of money to be used on independent political expenditures . Colbert's committee, known alternately as Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow and the Colbert Super PAC, thus became the 1 14th Super PAC - a new and powerful supped-up version of an old campaign financing vehicle - formed in the country since two Supreme Court rulings significantly reshaped the boundaries of what free speech is and who holds the right to it.1 The implications for the upcoming November 2012 election are still not fully known, but so far these changes have enabled a few wealthy donors to exercise great influence in the Republican presidential primary.
Colbert has used Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow to draw attention to these changes in American campaign finance law. As Colbert remarked to the New York Times, his Super PAC "is 100 percent legal and at least 10 percent ethical." Foundational to our political economic system is the right to use our property as we choose, as is the right to say what we want - yet most Americans are squeamish about the idea of a system that combines both these rights without restrictions. Colbert, by highlighting the tension between the right to free speech and the manifestation of wealth as speech, seems to be asking us if we are creating the kind of society that accurately reflects our values as a nation. From this, the reader should question which specific changes is Colbert trying to highlight with his Super PAC. And, given his satiric humor meant to critique our political economic system, what aspects of these changes does Colbert believe Americans should find troubling, and why? But first, a little background on how the Super PAC came to be.
HISTORY OF PACS
As influence of Washington...