Citizens United
“It was our dumbest decision of this century…so far.”
In 2010, the Supreme Court handed down one of the most consequential rulings in modern American history: Citizens United v. FEC. In short? It told corporations, “Yes, you are people,” and told the rest of us, “Good luck out there.” In this week’s episode of Toonsplained, we take a sharp, snarky look at how that ruling came to be, what it’s done to U.S. politics, and why trying to reverse it now feels like bringing a butter knife to a tank fight.
The episode features our usual suspects: I’m hosting; Stacey, a Gen Z progressive who has more opinions than dollars; and Joey, our resident far-right himbo who thinks Citizens United is just capitalism “hustling harder.”
We explore how a documentary about Hillary Clinton snowballed into a legal precedent that unleashed unlimited corporate spending in elections. Since the ruling, Super PACs and dark money groups have exploded, while voter trust in democracy has imploded. It’s become easier to buy political influence than it is to buy oat milk at Whole Foods.
Overturning Citizens United would require a constitutional amendment or a drastically different Supreme Court. In other words, don’t hold your breath unless you’re planning to ascend to the 1%. We also discuss other major blows to American elections—from voter suppression laws to the gutting of the Voting Rights Act—all of which have one thing in common: making democracy harder and buying power easier.
