<Took me a couple of reads to see that you don't actually disagree that big business has thoroughly corrupted our government...you just needed to let that knee jerk and blame it all on Democratic politicians. Still, that's progress.

When I can make you see that no corrupt businessman ever successfully bribed anyone unless there was a corrupt politician on the other end, then we'll see some progress. No one ever holds a gun to a Senator's head to force him to take money. On the other hand, a business which doesn't play ball may find worse than a gun held to its head. Ask Bill Gates. Is it really part of your mindset that politicians would be as pure as the driven snow if not for the "corruption" of Big Business" dragging them forcibly off the straight and narrow?

Both political parties play this game enthusiastically. I singled out the Democrats for their worship of centralized government power, and their constant hammering on "campaign finance reform," as though they actually believed it would change anything. That, along with their hypocrisy in delaying the onset of reforms until after the election, to allow them to rake in enough "crooked" money for the election before it officially becomes "crooked." The entire reform issue was artificially generated in the first place--the subject didn't even show up on most polls of things that the public was interested in.

The real goal of the Democratic "reform" juggernaut was the attempted strangling of normal Republican sources of funding, and the silencing of privately-financed political advertising within a month of an election, leaving the field of political commentary to the Democratic-leaning media.

It should be noted that new organizations and mechanisms are already being generated to do end runs around the new restrictions, and if that doesn't work, why they'll just ignore the laws. Certain politicians, who shall remain nameless, busted the hell out of then-existing campaign finance laws in the last election, without consequence, which shows how useful such laws are in the long run.

As for corporations having free speech, why the hell shouldn't they? Are we that afraid of what they might say? I am flabbergasted by the blindness that is terrified of an accumulation of wealth and power in the private sector, but ignores the endless accumulation of power over all parts of our lives by our politicians.

In any case, I don't see anything in the new restrictions that limits them only to corporations, so it's not a real issue anyway.