I had a dream. Not any more.

(stop smiling. y'all just destroyed the country.)

I had a dream that one day this nation would wake up and realize how far we have strayed from our own ideals. Freedom. Equality. Open arms that welcome people who don't look like us, or speak like us. Open minds that are willing to listen to other points of view.

I had a dream that one day the people would take the power back from corporate interests and lobbyists and Washington insider politics.

I had a dream that my voice would count.

That dream is over.

Yesterday, our conservative Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4, along party lines, that corporations are free to spend unlimited funds on political campaigns.

Unlimited funds. Think about that.

The original lawsuit was filed by Citizens United. Kind of an ironic name, I think.

This is the group responsible for the famous Swift Boat attack ads that destroyed John Kerry's campaign. They launched a smear campaign against Hilary Clinton. The founder spearheaded the "vast right-wing conspiracy" Hilary complained about during the Clinton presidency, relentlessly pursuing stories, rumors, and outright lies about Whitewater.

Citizens United has this heart-warming mission statement on their website:

Citizens United is an organization dedicated to restoring our government to citizens' control. Through a combination of education, advocacy, and grass roots organization, Citizens United seeks to reassert the traditional American values of limited government, freedom of enterprise, strong families, and national sovereignty and security. Citizens United's goal is to restore the founding fathers' vision of a free nation, guided by the honesty, common sense, and good will of its citizens.

Unfortunately, the exact opposite is true. If WalMart and Bank of America can spend unlimited funds backing the candidates of their choice, then our voices have just been drowned out. Completely.

Am I exaggerating? I don't think so.

Over the past couple of years, I have learned four things:

1. The American people tend to believe the loudest voices. We've seen that over and over. The truth doesn't matter. Most people won't bother to look for it.

2. The radical, far-right wing has the loudest voices. President Obama has flat-out lost the message war.

3. Big corporations, who will soon be behind all of our political messaging, are not guided by honesty, common sense, or good will. They are guided by profits. Period.

And 4. No offense, but the American people are morons. If they see an ad, hear a slogan, read an email, watch Fox News - then that's what they believe. End of story.

End of dream.

Citizens United does not speak for me. They never will. They have a right-wing corporate-sponsored mission, dedicated to keeping the power in the hands of the wealthy. And the Supreme Court ruled in their favor.

The dream is over, my friends. The nightmare is just beginning.

~~~