This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

The authors of America may or may not have had religion — there were a lot of Deists and atheists among our sainted Founders — but they did have faith.

Faith that their posterity would be smart enough not to be consumed by the freedoms of expression they left us.

And, hey, what good is faith if it isn't sorely tested from time to time?

Utah, like most states, is about to be inundated with a spew of political radio and TV ads, many of which will be paid for by shadowy donors or created by "dark money" organizations that will bombard us with lies, damned lies and statistics to the point that many of us may feel the need to enter the voting booth in a hazmat suit.

The stench of the campaign is worse — in degree, not type — because of the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling that allows unlimited amounts of money to be spent by corporations and others to promote or denigrate the candidates of their choice.

As dangerous as that all is — and it is dangerous — one can imagine folks like Ben Franklin and James Madison echoing the late and much-mourned pathfinding comedian Joan Rivers: "Oh, grow up!"

Of course a lot of those campaign ads are lies. Of course they are paid for by people you'd hate if you ever found out who they were. Of course big-time campaign donors don't give a hoot in hell about good government. Of course they only give all that money to candidates to guarantee access and to have a few favors to call in. Of course it's really difficult for candidates without such corporate support to be heard over the din of attack ads and truth-bending push polls.

Free speech and democracy will not work unless the voters — at least a majority of them — know that, see through that, apply their brains and actively dig through all the horse poop to find the pony that's gotta be in there somewhere.

Oh, and read The Salt Lake Tribune every day.

That will still be true even if Congress passes, and the states ratify, what's called the "Democracy for All Amendment" to U.S. Constitution. That's the proposal, which the U.S. Senate is set to vote on Monday, that would overturn the Citizens United ruling by writing into our highest law that money is not speech are corporations are not people.

It's a good idea. But, as they say in the debate over illegal immigration, building a 10-foot wall only creates a demand for 11-foot ladders.

People who already have money will seek power. People who already have power will seek more power. No amount of amendments, laws, rulings or elections will ever remove the need for citizens to actively think for themselves and to approach every candidate, every campaign ad, every Internet meme and talk radio phantasm with a healthy dose of skepticism.

The basic problem is not that we have political candidates and big-money backers who lie to us. The basic problem is that we have voters who fall for the lies.

The same theory applies to those good folks who, it was reported last week, want us to boycott the Carl's Jr. stroke-burger chain for airing ads where skinny women in leather bikinis sensuously scarf down triple-bacon cheeseburgers that weigh more than they do.

The problem isn't the ads. It's the fact that some people might be dim enough to confuse such overt silliness for nutritional advice or body-image standards.

Burger ads and campaign ads aren't that different. Both purport to tell us how to live. For the benefit of someone else. Both need to be unfettered if we are to have a free society. Both need to be disbelieved if we are to keep one.

George Pyle, a Tribune editorial writer, was born in Missouri, where they are so proud of their tradition of political skepticism that it's called "The Show-Me State."