The Power of Ideology

Here is an interesting article by Felix Salmon. He points out how the John Roberts, the Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court is blinded by his own right wing ideology, a belief that "markets are always right" and, in this case, corporations should be let loose to play a role in politics as if they were "individuals" with a similar stake in the society:

If only the Chief Justice of the United States spent more time reading blogs! James Fallows finds this passage from oral arguments in the case in which John Roberts helped overturn over a century of jurisprudence to allow corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money in political campaigns:

” ‘When corporations use other people’s money to electioneer,’ as Kagan explained, ‘that is a harm not just to the shareholders themselves but a sort of a broader harm to the public,’ because it distorts the political process to inject large sums of individuals’ money in support of candidates whom they may well oppose.

“Roberts sharply challenged this line of argument. ‘Isn’t it extraordinarily paternalistic,’ he asked, ‘for the government to take the position that shareholders are too stupid to keep track of what their corporations are doing and can’t sell their shares or object in the corporate context if they don’t like it? … ‘ “We the government have to protect you naive shareholders.” ‘

Of course, as both Fox and Fallows could have explained to Roberts, that isn’t how it works at all. Here’s Fallows, making mincemeat of Roberts’s argument:

Virtually all such “wealth” as my wife and I hold, apart from our house, is in low-cost indexed mutual retirement funds. I literally have no idea which specific companies I might have bigger or smaller positions in. By the prevailing wisdom of the day, I’m behaving rationally for a non-expert prudent investor. By Roberts’ standard, I am “too stupid to keep track” of what every one of these companies is doing and shifting my positions day by day in response. Or maybe just too lazy.

As long ago as 2003, Roberts owned no fewer than 46 different common stocks, on top of 31 different mutual funds, one ETF, and a REIT. I very much doubt that he was keeping track of what all of the corporations he owned were doing, and selling his shares or objecting in the corporate context if he didn’t like it. And I don’t think that he believed that his mutual-fund managers were doing that either. Maybe he assumed that the magical qualities of the efficient market hypothesis meant that he didn’t need to do that, and that some other group of shareholders would do it for him. Although it’s hard to understand why someone who believed so strongly in the EMH would own 46 individual common stocks.

John Roberts is a fanatic ideologue, so the fact that his own behaviour doesn't live up to his crazy view of "reality" doesn't give him pause. He is so blinded by what he wants to think is "real" that he can't be bothered to see the world as it really is. And the fact that this beliefs lead to much pain and suffering won't stop him. I think back to the days of Southern slavery. The myth was that the darkies were happy, just singing and dancing, and that the 'ol Massa was a kindly gent who had his slaves interests deep in his heart. The fact that you could look around and see exploitation with one class of people living in big mansions while many toiled long, long hours in the fields couldn't break through the rosy hue of the ideology. That's exactly the same as what's going on with John Roberts today. He may be an "intelligent" man but he is a fool because he lives blinded by his own right wing ideology. And the really sad truth is that he has turned the United States down a path of toil and ruin as he has handed over the keys of the kingdom to corporations to buy elections. The myth that a corporation is a "person" is a cruel hoax that will destroy American democracy.