Colbert's joke might not be so funny

Synthesis.net

A front page story from Politico today shows just how dangerous Stephen Colbert's famous practical joke may become.  For those who are not regular viewers of the show, the joke referred to here is Colbert's Super PAC (political action committee), which he is starting to mock the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. FEC.  Colbert's general idea is to expose how ridiculous it is to allow corporations to levy unlimited campaign contributions from their general funds, and to use his SuperPAC to fight against such interests (the irony being that his SuperPAC would itself be a sort of corporate extension of Comedy Central's Colbert Report).

Opponents of his PAC worry that it would open the floodgates for public figures such as Sarah Palin to siphon funds from Fox News or other conservative corporate interests into campaigns via a SuperPAC.  This argument seems very weak, however.  All Colbert would be doing is giving them a new idea, as the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United could already be interpreted as permitting such an egregious act without Colbert's FEC request even being granted.  In other words, the Supreme Court could be said to have opened the gate, while Colbert may only be showing others how to walk through.

Of course, Colbert's idea is great as a joke on his televised comedy show, but terrible when acted upon in real life.  The fact is that the humor and irony all go away when the joke is no longer a joke, and Colbert actually takes legal action to create something he would fight against: a corporately-funded political action committee.  Then again, perhaps the irony stays, but the humor definitely runs out.

Whether conservative of liberal, ironic or not, the idea of building a corporately funded political body out of a legal fiction is terrifying.  It essentially means that while individuals have caps on their campaign contributions to prevent the wealthy from buying a bigger voice than the poor could afford, the extremely wealthy can use their corporate funds to create a fictitious entity that knows no bounds when it comes to campaign contributions.  Though appreciable as a form of social commentary, Colbert's SuperPAC joke really may backfire as Politico contends.  In the end, however, it really does not matter if it is intended as a joke or not; it is still a SuperPAC, and therefore something that should never exist.