The Left vs. Free Speech
Townhall.com's Shawn Mitchell has an interesting perspective on Barack Obama's hostility to free speech, and specifically the Citizens United case:

...In the harsh light of the IRS scandal, and news other agencies targeted conservatives, it's impossible to doubt the administration saw an even more useful tool in [Federal Election Commission] prosecutions aimed to silence inconvenient companies. The IRS had to wait like a web-bound spider for self-selected organizing groups to seek non-profit status. In contrast, enforcing a ban on political speech, however that term might be creatively construed, against corporate America, offered the FEC a wide and happy hunting ground. No need to wait for a rag tag bunch to present itself seeking your blessing. Instead, Obama enforcers in the mold of Lois Lerner could scan the landscape for scalps, or, for the occasional "crucifixion" as the loose-lipped EPA administrator was caught boasting.

Targeted prosecutions could have spread quite a pall and chill across business big and small as word spread: "Stay away from politics. Who needs the brain damage?"

In 2010 and 11, the political landscape was a hostile place for team Obama. Americans had just repudiated his entire case for governing and Congress was running scared. Shrewd minds like Axelrod and Jarrett looked for new and potent ways to bleed force from the massing movement. They found them. But Citizens United denied them a formidable switchblade indeed, and may have saved untold blood.

Of course, if it was necessary for Obama to steal the 2012 election, the abuse of the IRS and other agencies was sufficient to achieve that goal. Still, Mitchell's analysis has the ring of truth. Central to the left's political strategy are efforts to impose social costs on dissenters--to make opposition not worth the effort. It reminds us of our vacation last year in Beijing, where the locals are not obviously oppressed, but hardly anyone discusses politics....