Dumb Ron Johnson wants to Corporate and Special Interest Dark money to reduce the Power of the Press.

As we're finding out, that "money is free speech" shredding of the 1st Amendment was only the beginning.

Dumb Ron Johnson has taken that next jaw dropping step to redefine who's speech is constitutionally protected, a political ratings system to determine who's more deserving.

Forget about the "originalist" view of the 1st Amendment, and that odd confusing "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press." Johnson won't have it.

Johnson: "Trust me, we will not allow the Supreme Court to flip, it's not going to happen." 

Johnson: “I have never had the press press me so hard to make a change of position. The press wants the Supreme Court to flip because the press is not particularly interested in freedom of speech."

So Johnson blamed the press, the cornerstone of a free and informed nation, for having no interested in preserving free speech. As Johnson suggested, "originalist" founding father Thomas Jefferson had it all wrong when he made these observations centuries ago:

"Our citizens may be deceived for a while, and have been deceived; but as long as the presses can be protected, we may trust to them for light." 

"No experiment can be more interesting than that we are now trying, and which we trust will end in establishing the fact, that man may be governed by reason and truth. Our first object should therefore be, to leave open to him all the avenues to truth. The most effectual hitherto found, is the freedom of the press. It is, therefore, the first shut up by those who fear the investigation of their actions." 

"The only security of all is in a free press. The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted freely to be expressed. The agitation it produces must be submitted to. It is necessary, to keep the waters pure."

Silly Jefferson believed newspapers actually sparked a healthy public debate over the issues.

It appears Dumb Ron Johnson wants corporate and special interest dark money to "reduce" the power of the press, abridge it with Citizens United:

Johnson: "When other Americans, other than the members of the press, can get their message out, the press’s power is reduced. You engage in campaign finance reform, which restricts free speech, that makes a few members of the press have all the more power. So the press is really not for freedom of speech. They like restrictions in speech because it gives them more power. So again, they want to see the Supreme Court flipped. I got that."

This is a final nail in the coffin of the free press, which has already been delegitimized by right wingers as "liberal." I found it humorous when one of their favorite conservative news sources, Breitbart, fell apart over in-fighting. Even Marco Rubio trashed it as conspiratorial.