The American Future Fund — a shadowy right wing 501(c)(4) “social welfare” group which can raise any amount of money without disclosing its donors– has released an absurd online ad suggesting that World War II veterans fought and died to protect unlimited corporate political spending.
The ad features images of the founding fathers, American troops on D-Day, and video of Mitch McConnell’s impassioned defense of Citizens United. As patriotic music soars in the background, the ad warns:
Heroes fought and died four our rights. Among them, the right to speak freely. It’s what makes us American. And our president swore to uphold it. But now, the First Amendment is under attack. By our own President.
Somehow it seems unlikely that, as American troops stormed the beaches at Normandy, they were thinking of how to make it easiest for Sheldon Adelson to give $100 million to Newt Gingrich.
As Think Progress’ Josh Israel points out, the ad is not only outrageous, but also irrelevant:
Prior to the Supreme Court’s election buying decision in Citizens United, no corporate CEO was prevented from saying anything he or she wished about political candidates and issues, as loudly and as often as he or she wished. This ruling was about whether CEOs and other corporate leaders could use unlimited pools of money from their corporate treasury to drown out the speech of everyone else.
Furthermore, McConnell himself is on shaky ground when he attacks President Obama for pushing in favor of disclosure. After all, the minority leader himself said in 2000 that “Republicans are in favor of disclosure…Why would a little disclosure be better than a lot of disclosure?”
Surely McConnell’s friends at the American Future Fund could answer that question for him.
