Democrats and progressives lately treat it as an article of faith that Citizens United is a Supreme Court decision that wrecked the country like nothing since Dred Scott.
Tonight in her New Hampshire concession speech, Hillary Clinton reminded every American paying attention exactly how important that decision was, when she had the chutzpah to say out loud that the real problem with that decision is that it did not permit the legal barring of a documentary critical of her, which she thinks should have been allowed to stand because the legal entity behind it was organized as a corporation.
"In this campaign, you've heard a lot about Washington and about Wall Street. Now, Senator Sanders and I both want to get secret, unaccountable money out of politics, and let's remember, let's remember, Citizens United, one of the worst Supreme Court decisions in our country's history, was actually a case about a right-wing attack on me and my campaign. A right-wing organization took aim at me and ended up damaging our entire democracy. So, yes, you're not going to find anybody more committed to aggressive campaign finance reform than me," Clinton said tonight.
This is a common theme for her, personalizing an allegedly destructive expansion of the First Amendment and free political speech which is so bad because it harmed her.
And it is what all the angry brouhaha about Citizens United is about: Politicians trying to limit the circumstances under which Americans can band together in certain legal structures and say bad things about them. That is the principle that Clinton and her fans cheer: that government should have more power to make it illegal to criticize politicians.
It's a little weird and creepy, but then a lot about American politics today is.
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