Left-wing comedian Stephen Colbert loves to lampoon conservatives by posing as one on his Comedy Central television show, and creating caricatures of conservative arguments. But this month, one of his attempted jokes has backfired, making an accidentally brilliant point. In attempting to demonstrate how lax our campaign finance laws are, he has instead demonstrated how badly they can stifle free political speech — even comic political speech. Like many liberals, Colbert is bizarrely fascinated with the recent Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission, which overturned some limits on political speech, including a ban on independent political spending by corporations that criticizes federal candidates shortly before their elections. Liberals have incorrectly assailed the decision as an open invitation for corporations to buy elections, and even for foreign money to influence the process.
In 2009, as the arguments in Citizens United were still being heard, Colbert mockingly described corporations as “an oppressed minority” and said he would stand up for their right to “speak in the only way they can: through billions and billions of dollars.” More recently, he took this parody to a new level by announcing that he would form his own political action committee, to bundle money and send it to candidates.
