Maggie's Farm

Will Wilkerson uses the quote below as a take-off point to try to understand the Progressive's view of the Constitution:

The majority in Citizens United believe that the U.S. Constitution establishes a government of limited and defined powers. They asked: “Does the Constitution give government the power to prohibit speech by corporations (and others)?” The First Amendment indicated the government did not have that power.

The critics of the Citizens United decision assume the Constitution created a government of  plenary powers with limited exceptions. They recognize that free speech for individuals is one such exception.

The short post is Two Conceptions of Government Power. 

Of course, we tend to think that the Constitution already resolved these issues. Furthermore, we view government as an interest group itself - or assemblage of interest groups (the political classes, those dependent on government for jobs or money, etc etc) with unique powers (such as police powers) rather than as a purely benign and altruistic expression of "the will of the people."