Should we amend the Constitution to prohibit or restrict corporate spending on elections?

squashed:

To me, this isn’t even a close question—but I’ll let a few people answer before I tip my hand.

(I’ll also let people do photo replies because I like to check boxes. And why not? Of course, if people respond with their feelings in picture form, it could get sort of surreal.)

To expand on my Tumblr answer to this question, I think that the debate as framed is missing the larger point - corporations should not have the same legal rights (or Constitutional protection) as individuals. The Constitution, and our entire legal system, is simply a social contract between individuals. A corporation is an artificial entity created within that legal system to confer rights upon a business organization (profit or nonprofit), and the real crime here is that the same Congressional representatives, lawyers, and interests that will trample all over the rights of the individual will rush to defend this fictional ‘corporate bill of rights’.

Corporations should have no First Amendment protection because the Bill of Rights was designed to protect individual rights. Case closed, no constitutional amendment required.

Further reading: Jim Sleeper in the Boston Globe.