Things are looking pretty bleak right now, aren't they? The solid partisan split of the decision makes me (morbidly) curious to see whether our rightist brethren will oppose it, or march in lockstep once again. It's such a self-evidently destructive decision that one can at least dream of bipartisan condemnation...but it was 5-4 along strictly party lines.

Add "claims free speech rights" to "too big to fail" on the list of toxic features of unlimited use of incorporation. Obama's on the right track conceptually when he talks about limiting the size of banks. I can only hope that that's just the tip of the iceberg. If corporations are going to claim political power as peers with humans, we need to make sure the playing field remains level and that we're not introducing thousands of Godzillas to stomp on the ruins of democracy.

It also occurs to me that the law of unintended consequences may come into play. That subtext of also increasing the power of unions could be very significant in the long run, because the present Republican obsession with interfering with the organizing power of unions could come into focus as the blatant attempt to silence a political opponent that it's always been. Unions will gain power too, and maybe that's the only way to balance the power of corporations. A Faustian bargain, but that's about the only kind of bargain we're offered these days.