This election season will live in infamy. History will remember it not as the year a pseudo-grassroots Tea Party movement was able to change America’s political landscape; nor as the year witches, Nazis and shameless bigots suddenly became viable candidates for public office. No, 2010 will forever be remembered as the year the Supreme Court of the United States turned its back on the American people and paved the way for corporations and special interests to purchase political control of the entire country.

“I can’t think of anything more devastating to the public interest.” Love him or loathe him, President Barack Obama was undeniably in line with public opinion when he derided the Supreme Court’s scandalous ruling in Citizens United v. FEC early this year that turned corporations into people, and afforded them the same First Amendment rights.

A multitude of polls have found people from both parties are overwhelmingly against the ruling, which opened the floodgates for corporations and special interests to saturate the political arena with unchecked campaign contributions.

One such poll conducted by ABC News and The Washington Post found 80 percent of Americans were opposed to the Jan. 21, 2010 ruling. With 76 percent of Republicans, 85 percent of Democrats and 81 percent of independents opposed, the concerns are not on one side of the aisle.

Similarly, a Survey USA poll found 77 percent of all voters, including 73 percent of independents and 70 percent of Republicans, see corporate election spending as an effort to bribe politicians, not as a First Amendment-protected expression of free speech.

During a period of historically caustic bipartisanship in politics, people and politicians of every rank and file noticed Citizens United for what it is: a debilitating blow to, if not the outright destruction of, democracy in America.

Unfortunately, money and power can induce potent amnesia, and with corporations and special interests making it rain all over the Republican Party, what was only a few months ago a non-partisan issue, has become anything but. Reaping the benefits of the single greatest affront to our governing system in the history of the country, Republicans are suddenly mum about campaign finance, unless pressed by Democrats.

Nonetheless, there is reason to believe most Republicans’ core beliefs about the recent failings of the Supreme Court on this issue have not changed, but have rather been swept beneath their campaign platforms.

We saw a delicious example of this in the U.S. Senate debate between Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and challenger Ron Johnson Monday night. Feingold, a notorious proponent of campaign finance reform, backed Johnson into a corner for not taking a hard line on third-party group’s donating to his own campaign. In a heated exchange in which Feingold repeatedly called on Johnson to demand such groups disclose the identity of their donors, Johnson finally muttered an exasperated “Disclose.”

Johnson, like everyone else in this country, knows the threat Citizens United poses to our country. But he, along with other Republicans, just can’t bring themselves to butcher the golden cash calf that is carrying them back to power.

Here is how it works. A nonprofit front group is created with a mundane sounding name like Americans for Prosperity or Crossroads GPS. Corporations and special interests are then able to funnel as much money into these campaign groups as they like without revealing their influence to the public. Recent information shows that foreign companies are also funding these groups.

So who is actually creating and directing these mystery campaigners? While details on many remain murky, a report published last month in the Wall Street Journal found the newly formed Crossroads GPS is being helmed by former Bush strategist Karl Rove, and is quietly bankrolled by goliath Republican donors. Along with its brother American Crossroads, the group has already raised $32 million en route to it’s goal of $50 million to run attack ads against Democrats in key elections all over the country.

Nationwide, third-party special interest and political party spending going to Republican campaigns outstrips that going to Democrats 7 to 1, according to a new analysis by the Washington Post.

Here in Wisconsin, we can see the direct effects of this lopsided Citizens United blowback firsthand. In addition to his private fortune, Johnson had received $1.1 million in special interest group donations as of Oct. 3, while Feingold had accepted no more than $135.

Similarly, as reported by the Cap Times, the Third Congressional District race has seen $574,000 of special-interest money, and every cent of it has gone to support Republican Senator Dan Kapanke.

Even more striking is the fact that gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker had nearly depleted his war chest even before the primary election. Thanks in large part to special interest donations, he has been able to replenish his piggy bank, and continue his run for governor.

And so the story goes throughout the entire state, and across the country. Corporations and special interests are paying hundreds of millions of dollars to their Republican allies, while Democrats are being steam-rolled, even in races they would normally fare well in.

Yes, there is a pervasive dissatisfaction with Democrats and government in general right now, and yes they probably deserve to lose some seats, and probably would have with or without Citizens United.

But the damning effects of that fateful ruling are clear, and if nothing is changed – which seems fairly likely should a newly empowered Republican majority find itself atop Capitol Hill – we can be sure as the sunrise that 2010 will forever be remembered as the year the sun set on democracy.

Kyle Mianulli ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in journalism, philosophy and political science.