Welcome to the Age of Government by Infomercial

Thanks to the Supreme Court ruling today on corporate investment in political campaigns, Americans may look forward to election seasons peppered with corporate ads promoting various candidates for Congress and the Presidency. The theory that corporations should be granted the same First Amendment rights as individuals when it comes to speaking on political candidates is causing quite an uproar across the country. From irate users on Twitter to Alan Grayson with his petition against it, the online community of political junkies is screaming foul.

Predictably, Senator Russ Feingold has vowed to address the issue legislatively, and there is a revolving door of politicians offering their two cents on the news networks. But for better or worse, for now the people will be left with corporate sponsored advertising during campaign seasons.

Other than becoming the new annoyance on the airwaves, what does this really mean for the American voters? Theoretically, the people could just sit back and take in the information spoon fed to them on their TV screens, and do just like they do with any other product advertised – decide to “buy” or not. It’s a passive reply, and not very difficult to manage. Or they can take the route of folks like the sponsors of Stop Beck.com, and actively let corporations know what they really think about the ads.

True, this situation has the potential to tip the scales in favor of corporate America, leaving government under control of business. But there is one thing that all corporations in America need to survive – customers. Simplistic as it may seem, the bottom line still remains in the hands of the masses with the money to spend. If the people don’t like the message or the candidate the corporations have to sell, they don’t have to buy it. For that matter, if the people find it objectionable that the corporations are promoting candidates in the first place, they can take advice from at least one user on Twitter – as LauraNo put it, “Well one thing I can do is take my money out of any corp that butts into politics.”