Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
We Must Stop This Corporate Takeover of American Democracy
The corporate barbarians are through the gate of American democracy. Not satisfied with their all-pervasive influence on our culture, economy and legislative processes, they want more. They want it all.
David Koch and Charles G Koch: the US supreme court's Citizens United decision has enabled the industrialists to fund conservative groups to the tune of $200m already in this electoral cycle. (Photograph: Getty)
Two years ago, the United States supreme court betrayed our Constitution and those who fought to ensure that its protections are enjoyed equally by all persons regardless of religion, race or gender by engaging in an unabashed power-grab on behalf of corporate America. In its now infamous decision in the Citizens United case, five justices declared that corporations must be treated as if they are actual people under the Constitution when it comes to spending money to influence our elections, allowing them for the first time to draw on the corporate checkbook – in any amount and at any time – to run ads explicitly for or against specific candidates.
What's next … a corporate right to vote?
Don't laugh. Just this month, the Republican National Committee filed an amicus brief in a US appeals court contending that the natural extension of the Citizens United rationale is that the century-old ban on corporate contributions directly to candidates and political parties is similarly unconstitutional. They want corporations to be able to sponsor candidates and parties directly while claiming with a straight face this would not result in any sort of corruption. And while, this month, they take no issue with corporations being subject to the existing contribution limits, anyone paying attention knows that eliminating such caps will be corporate America's next prize in its brazen ambition for absolute control over our elections.
The US Constitution has served us very well, but when the supreme court says, for purposes of the first amendment, that corporations are people, that writing checks from the company's bank account is constitutionally-protected speech and that attempts by the federal government and states to impose reasonable restrictions on campaign ads are unconstitutional, our democracy is in grave danger.
I am a proud sponsor of a number of bills that would respond to Citizens United and begin to get a handle on the problem. But something more needs to be done – something more fundamental and indisputable, something that cannot be turned on its head by a rightwing supreme court.
That is why I have introduced a resolution in the Senate (introduced by Representative Ted Deutch in the House) calling for an amendment to the US Constitution that says simply and straightforwardly what everyone – except five members of the United States supreme court – understands: corporations are not people with constitutional rights equal to flesh-and-blood human beings. Corporations are subject to regulation by the people. Corporations may not make campaign contributions – the law of the land for the last century – or dump unlimited sums of money into our elections. And Congress and states have broad power to regulate all election spending.
I did not introduce this lightly. In fact, I have never sought to amend the Constitution before. The US Constitution is an extraordinary document that, in my view, should not be amended often. In light of the supreme court's Citizens United decision, however, I see no alternative. The ruling has radically changed the nature of our democracy. It has further tilted the balance of power toward the rich and the powerful at a time when the wealthiest people in this country have never had it so good.
At a time when corporations have more than $2tn in cash in their bank accounts, make record-breaking profits and swarm Washington with their lobbyists 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for the highest court in the land to suggest that there is just not enough corporate "speech" in our system defies the bounds of reason and sanity. The ruling already has led to plans, for example, by industrialist brothers David and Charles Koch to steer more than $200m – potentially much more – to conservative groups ahead of election day 2012. Karl Rove has similar designs.
Does anybody really believe that that is what American democracy is supposed to be about?
I believe that the Citizens United decision will go down as one of the worst in our country's history – and one that demands an amendment to our Constitution in order to restore sovereign power to the people, as our nation's founders intended.
If we do not reverse it and the culture of corporate dominance over our elections that it has exacerbated, there will be no end to the impact that corporate interests have on our campaigns and our democracy.
Comments
Note: Disqus 2012 is best viewed on an up to date browser. Click here for information. Instructions for how to sign up to comment can be viewed here. Our Comment Policy can be viewed here. Please follow the guidelines. Note to Readers: Spam Filter May Capture Legitimate Comments...
91 Comments so far
Show AllThis from Thom Hartmann discussing the fact that fascism has very much taken root in the United States:
He [Vice President Henry Wallace in 1944 in the New York Times] said,
"The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact. Their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of disunity, every crack in the common front against fascism. They use every opportunity to impugn democracy".
And here’s the kicker... answering the question, 'do we have fascists in the United States?' [Wallace said]:
"They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection."
Sound familiar?
"The myth of fascist efficiency has deluded many people", he says.
"Democracy to crush fascism internally must ... develop the ability to keep people fully employed and at the same time balance the budget. It must put human beings first and dollars second. It must appeal to reason and decency and not to violence and deceit. We must not tolerate oppressive government or industrial oligarchy in the form of monopolies and cartels."
[W]hat Reagan started was the bankrupting of America, as David Stockman candidly pointed out back in 1980… what, 3?
That they wanted to run up a debt so big that the Democrats would not be able to spend money on social programs. That in fact the debt would be so big that the government would have to start turning things over to private industry. It would have to start selling off big chunks of the government.
This is fascism. And here it is. In America. Now.
My only complaint with the article, and others like it: Instead of talking about what corporations do, why not talk about what "people who run corporations" do?
And the message should also be out there that, via corporate law, people who run corporations are not held responsible for their decisions, especially financial ones which involve spending other people's money.
I absolutely agree. The people running the corporations hide behind the corporations. People feel like they can't go after an entire corporation. We should talk more about the actual people who, in their greed, are killing people and the environment in order to make money they don't even need. I think we should name names and make it personal.
The same with politicians. We should talk in terms of individual Senators and Congressmen--not the entire Congress or the Republicans as a group or Democrats as a group--and expose their greed, also.
Again from Thom Hartmann:
Tea Party and the Second Stage of Fascism. - Jul 28, 2011 ---
Fascist America: Are We There Yet?
"In the second stage, fascist movements take root, turn into real political parties, and seize their seat at the table of power. Interestingly, in every case Paxton cites, the political base came from the rural, less-educated parts of the country; and almost all of them came to power very specifically by offering themselves as informal goon squads organized to intimidate farmworkers on behalf of the large landowners.
"The KKK disenfranchised black sharecroppers and set itself up as the enforcement wing of Jim Crow. The Italian Squadristi and the German Brownshirts made their bones breaking up farmers' strikes. And these days, GOP-sanctioned anti-immigrant groups make life hell for Hispanic agricultural workers in the US. As violence against random Hispanics (citizens and otherwise) increases, the right-wing goon squads are getting basic training that, if the pattern holds, they may eventually use to intimidate the rest of us.
"Paxton wrote that succeeding at the second stage 'depends on certain relatively precise conditions: the weakness of a liberal state, whose inadequacies condemn the nation to disorder, decline, or humiliation; and political deadlock because the Right, the heir to power but unable to continue to wield it alone, refuses to accept a growing Left as a legitimate governing partner.'
"He further noted that Hitler and Mussolini both took power under these same circumstances: 'deadlock of constitutional government (produced in part by the polarization that the fascists abetted); conservative leaders who felt threatened by the loss of their capacity to keep the population under control at a moment of massive popular mobilization; an advancing Left; and conservative leaders who refused to work with that Left and who felt unable to continue to govern against the Left without further reinforcement.'
"And more ominously:
'The most important variables...are the conservative elites' willingness to work with the fascists (along with a reciprocal flexibility on the part of the fascist leaders) and the depth of the crisis that induces them to cooperate.'"
I have been posting this article (NYT 1944, V.P. H. A. Wallace), and pieces of this article for a few years now, and it prompted me to look into just who (persons and companies) Wallace was referring to. I think this is he information that fills in the blanks.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar
Bernie Sanders, you are a voice crying out in the wilderness. And thank you for doing so. Years ago when I read Kortens "When Corporations Rule the World", I thought he was right but it didn't really hit until I saw our National Forest cut down to make Champion and then International paper loads of money. It then hit home. We fought for years to try and stop them. But the politicians were right with them all the way. That was then, and this is now. And what I mean by now is that they now own both sides of the isle. They own the Supreme Court and the corporate lawyers with huge amounts of cash behind them, just mow down any resistance of any kind. They now infiltrate all the Environmental Clubs to make sure nothing happens to stop their profits. I have not given up, but all the huge paper companies have to do is out
wait us. We had laws passed to stop them but they just out waited us. Our people got old and sick and their money and energy ran out.
Time and money are on their side. Besides, the longer they wait, the larger and better their crop. Their argument was that the forest is not JUST for people...they have a share in it too. But their 1% share took 95% of the forest and turned it into a pile of sick stumps....while the 99% walked amongst the rubble.
If this power and greed continues, there will be not a tree standing. Our water will be putrid and our air foul. The owners, they just move to where they want to. The thing I can not understand is that they have children. Do they not think past their nose.?
Casfoto, there were a couple of interesting articles in Bloomberg Business Week in the last few months, dealing with the corporate leader who is a sociopath/psychopath in business:
www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-03/did-psychopaths-take-over-wall-street-asylum-commentary-
In it Clive Boddy states that these CEO's create great wealth for themselves, and havoc for the rest of us. They “largely caused the crisis because their single-minded pursuit of their own self-enrichment and self-aggrandizement to the exclusion of all other considerations has led to an abandonment of the old-fashioned concept of noblesse oblige, equality, fairness, or of any real notion of corporate social responsibility.” He adds they lack a “conscience, have few emotions and display an inability to have any feelings, sympathy or empathy for other people,” and as a result, Boddy argues in a recent issue of the Journal of Business Ethics, such people are “extraordinarily cold, much more calculating and ruthless towards others than most people are and therefore a menace to the companies they work for and to society.”
This article came out to help explain how Wall Street executives could so blithely walk away from the havoc they have left, in their collective wake, on the world. I found it equally helpful to understand the mindlessness with which CEO's and board members of coal companies can pollute without concern, or Oil companies can frack what is left of our land into cesspools, all the while lying to us about how safe it all is. Finally, it has made more clear for me the state of our government today. After all, it has to be occupied with just as many conscienceless people, for them to be able to destroy a democracy, just to line their own pockets.
The Koch brothers have had $500,000,000 worth of fines over the past 10 years due to infringements on the law. But they are so wealthy that the fines are not enough to stop them. They must make huge profits to ignore the rules, pay the fines, and still go on.
Glad you brought up the Koch Brothers... because they are not a Corporation! You better demand a much better fix than Sanders suggests or the likes of Koch, Waltons, Mellon-Scaife and hundreds more will still own our system. Ending Cit U alone would just make it cheaper for them.
Think! it ain't illegal yet. Think!
It seems that the Progressive Left is just beginning to take seriously/become alarmed at the rapid emergence of totalitarian structures in America.
There are TWO things they have not yet realized. (Let's hope they do before it is far too late):
The reality is that Citizens United, the NDAA, the disappearance of Habeus Corpus all are just the tip of an immense iceberg.
[Of note: The Habeas Corpus Act was an English statute enacted in 1679 during the reign of King Charles II. It was subsequently amended and supple-mented by enactments of Parliament that permitted, in certain cases, a person to challenge the legality of his or her imprisonment before a court that ordered the person to appear before it at a designated time so that it could render its decision. The Habeas Corpus Act served as the precursor of Habeas Corpus provisions found in U.S. federal and state constitutions and statutes that safeguard the guarantee of personal liberty.}
glad you're still here, Amma21. i copied some "food for thought" from an informative comment you posted earlier on page 1.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Democracy to crush fascism internally must ... develop the ability to keep people fully employed and at the same time balance the budget. It must put human beings first and dollars second. It must appeal to reason and decency and not to violence and deceit. We must not tolerate oppressive government or industrial oligarchy in the form of monopolies and cartels."-- Vice President Henry Wallace in 1944 in the New York Times {posted by Amma21}
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
i agree with the intent behind the message but object to the phrasing which tends to anthropomorphize two theories of governance.
"Democracy must [...] develop the ability to keep people fully employed and at the same time balance the budget. It must appeal to reason and decency and not to violence and deceit."
our ears have grown so accustomed to presumptive language like "the government said..." the pentagon responded..." "b.p. denied..." that we too often self-identify with the institutions, political parties, churches, whatever; allowing these to define and confine the individual person who desperately wants to fit in. i contend that the "theory of democracy" has no responsibility to provide employment, but rather we have the responsibility to comprehend the philosophy and put it into action in our daily lives. WE must put people (as in the common good) first! when we hear such nonsense as spreading "democracy at gunpoint" we adherents of reason, must conclude that "the might makes right" crowd uses a different dictionary. in my opinion living in a democracy each of us has the right to develop his/her unique attributes with respect to other to do likewise.
Why Senator Sanders makes the assertion we are a democracy really makes me wonder about him. We are a republic... the word "democracy" is nowhere to be found in our constitution.
And unless we Amend with equal language/determination to end all bribe/pay to play angles we will remain divided and mired in arguments a varying degrees of no to little integrity.
Take the first three parts of Sanders proposed amendment language, combine it with all of Kucinich amendment language and get back to me. That might be worth protesting in the streets, taking police brutality and all the certain trimmings. Just ending corporate personhood is not worth it, imo.... because bribes will still define us.
Leaving gaping loopholes for unions, nonprofits or individual wealthy folk is beyond stupid... it's asking people to work for an impossible end... overwhelming consensus could not be gained, nor should it be.
EUREKA!
during the late eighties to mid-nineties i represented numerous factories by selling all sorts of tourist attractions, jewelry, tee-shirts, incence, collectibles, toys and such.
eureka springs became my favortest place of all!!!!
Death to Corporate Personhood - that is our only chance.
Concise and true.
(con't)
There are TWO things Progressives have not yet realized....
The FIRST is that things are MUCH WORSE - qualitatively as well as quantitatively - than anything that has appeared on Common Dreams or virtually any other Progressive website. And this MUCH WORSE is gathering speed as we speak.
The SECOND is that one of the most important tools for stopping (or at least slowing) this juggernaut is for Progressives to research AND ACT EFFECTIVELY re- exposing the realities behind 9/11.
Yes, it's just that simple.
See also: When Democracy Failed: The Warnings of History
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0316-08.htm
What depresses me more than the Supreme Court decision is the dominating theme of nearly all the comments so far: We should simply forget about trying to actually DO anything; after all, nothing will work anyway. Wow. This is a truly dangerous kind of laziness.
"What cannot be imagined, cannot happen."
Well put. Even though the prospects are bleak, we all must endure. So why not make it interesting? Why not be someone who makes a difference? Defeatist people make me sick.
That said, I don't see much hope for our country without the abolition of Corporate Personhood. We should all focus on that goal. And I think more folks are starting to see that. It could snowball. Make it so.
It's easy to sit back and snipe at others. It's infinitely more worthwhile to at least propose some solution.
Congrats! Senator Sanders! I'll be writing to my reps in Congress to urge them all to get behind your effort! Can you imagine the looks on those smug Koch Bros. faces when we smash their evil machination??!! Imagine the puff of confusion in little Karl Rove's cowardly brain when he smells defeat. Think of the many pink slips that will have to be dusted around K St. and the "mighty" U.S. Chamber of Horrors, eh, Commerce! And joy of all joys, think of the millions of shareholders (owners) whose dividend money will no longer be spent by corporate management on political corruption!
Oh, and Bernie, when you debate this on the floor, try to include a little thing about publicly funding elections too, and one last thing which will be karmic in its application, - force the MSM (including print) to carry a certain amount of free advertising for our state and local candidates each election cycle. Instead of stuffing themselves every four years with hundreds of millions of dollars from political ad revenue. Make the fat cat media earn their keep instead!
America is at a crucial bifurcation point in it's political evolution. Our Democratic Republic is once again under attack by a predatory fascist/corporatist/theocratic ideology. Although this fascist ideology, out of political expedience, has migrated from party to party throughout our history, it has consistently represented corporate power and sought to withhold or destroy justice for average Americans.
We had to fight them for the right to vote for white men without property, for women, for minorities, and to elect our Senators. We had to fight them for The New Deal, for civil rights, for workers rights, for consumer protection, and to regulate the market against monopoly and abuse.
In the 30's and 40's, the American Corporatist helped to fund the Nazi Party and it's war machine. Some of the actual progeny of the American Fascist from the 30's and 40's continue to be the proponents of this ideology today. In a New York Times article entitled ''The Danger of American Fascism'' dated April 9, 1944, Vice President Henry A. Wallace exposed these fascist and warned Americans about the dangers of this ideology.
''They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection.'' Vice President Henry A. Wallace
You can read the full article here - http://newdeal.feri.org/wallace/haw23.htm
It is especially interesting when you read it in conjunction with the article below. In the Guardian UK article some of the corporatist players and companies from the 30's and 40's are actually named, and their devious family histories are exposed.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar
The takeover of democracy by the wealthy 1% happened a long time ago. Did anyone see "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington"?
More recently wealthy owners are now controlling democracy from behind their corporations, their K-street think tanks (U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Heritage Foundation, PNAC, CFR etc) and using their mainstream media propaganda echo chamber.
Once in a while some rich guys come out from behind these curtains like the Koch brothers pictured in this article or Warren Buffett in other cases.
Over time the public is realizing the MSM lied to them about wars, the true effect of laws passed, the true positions of candidates for office, the economy, vote rigging and the stability and effectiveness of the banking system.
Now sometimes money can't buy an election, e.g. Jerry Brown vs Meg Whitman in California '08 by outspending him 14-1! The betrayal of Obama has been exposed and now it is going to be harder to bring a virtual unknown into office. The surge of Ron Paul is scaring the establishment.
Out of desperation, once again these mega corporations brought out their big guns (the Supreme Court) and got Citizens United passed which allows pre-tax secretive corporate funding of their crony candidates.
Ending citizenship for corporations will bring back gigantic donations by individuals which would be easier to track but it will still be the "best democracy money can buy" and will not "STOP" the corporate takeover which happened a while back.
What's misleading about Mr. Sanders position is that it fits into a script that has already been written. The Democrats will pretend to support the weakest of his bills and the Republicans will veto it. The public will be drawn a false line in the sand designed to make Obama look good. Don't fall for it.
Since the airwaves are owned by the public, the public should demand that every week for 2 months prior to the election the stations grant equal and substantial airtime for each candidate polling greater than 5%. Fundraising for campaign ads would be a thing of the past.
"Since the airwaves are owned by the public, the public should demand that every week for 2 months prior to the election the stations grant equal and substantial airtime for each candidate polling greater than 5%."
I do believe that there was a requirement very similar to this sometime ago, called The Fairness Doctrine, that held sway when there were just a few big networks controlling content on the airwaves. When cable came along, the argument, I think, was that there would be enough diversity and competition on the airwaves that such a requirement was no longer necessary - this expanded "market place of ideas" would provide room for all. Yuk, Yuk, Yuk ....
What is the cost of this mind-boggling corruption anyway? If we just ignore it, will it really affect us much? We can only get away with ignoring it because of our energy gluttony. As long as we keep plundering the earth, and underclass labor, at four times the global rate, a whole lot of elite corruption and inefficiency can pass unnoticed. It's a devious ploy. Elites get the people hooked on plunder, so they will give the elites a free pass. We ultimately come to realize that cleaning up the corruption and eliminating the plunder should go hand in hand. This is why a holistic approach is good. This is why Occupy Wall-Struck, for example, is taking the holistic approach, rejecting the incremental approach of the pretender-left. The plunder is more monstrous than one may realize. I just learned that street lighting adds 15 to 25% to residential electric bills. This is significant, yet unknown. How many more unknowns are out there? Ideas that are not yours, but that your pay for anyway?
Who did you think paid for street lighting?
Most of us assume it's paid for by municipalities from their annual revenues (as in a budget line item), not added onto residential bills. Just what are our taxes being used to pay for?
I'm behind you all the way, Bernie! You are one of the most respected people in Washington today and I believe in the truth of what you are saying. I just hope that you still have enough backers to do this, for you're running out of time. God Speed!
Whenever Congress has made a move to take corporate money out of politics the Supreme Court has stepped in to undo what Congress has done - often making matters even worse than they were originally.
My prediction is that if we pass a Constitutional Amendment to overturn Citizens United and to make it clear that only real people have the protections of the Constitution then the Supreme Court will invent yet another loop-hole and undo that effort.
The basic problem is the Supreme Court itself. It lacks the democratic oversight that it needs.
In each non-presidential election the voters need the chance to remove three Justices from the court through a vote of confidence. In twelve years, the voters could totally remake the Court if necessary, though this is unlikely. Generally we could expect Justices to serve until a normal retirement age or more, but only on reasonably good behavior.
It is high time that our civilization recognized itself to be a "culture" in the biological sense, and took some pains to "cultivate" itself to best advantage, given the limitation and opportunities this Earth and time provide.
The ideas of Marxism, Socialism, Capitalism, and all their hybrids are outmoded concepts belonging to a 19th Century awareness.
But if we look at the works of people such as James Miller, in his book, The General Theory of Living Systems, we would see the collective human race much like the human body, with basic function which need to operate with ever grater efficiency and ease in performing their tasks. There are only 12 basic functions which are essential. Forming a democratic process to address and enhance these functions for their general welfare should not be so difficult. The real value of a theory is that it brings order out of chaos, and this is exactly what is needed today.
You're doing what you can and congrats. It's tough being made to feel like one out of 100 in the Senate that's known to be a millionaire's club and that's before we talk about corporations having this "personhood" thingy.
Posted by GwNorth
Jan 20 2012 - 10:20pm
Corporations write laws the world over even in Jurisdictions where Corporate personhood is not recognized.
They do this because under the theory of Capitalism and property law the private individual or Corporations controls the "means of production". They can shut down economies at will and use this fact to dictate policy.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
thanks, a couple of days ago curiosity led me on a hunt to discover how the legality of property rights began. from our "common law" heritage a man who occupied and improved a plot of land as a place to live and grow food gained title. okay, but earlier yet i'd guess land "ownership" began when the reptile climbed out of the ocean in order to establish a secure territory for her family. most likely she dined on delicious amphibian eggs left unguarded on dry land. in her wee reptilian brain she grokked onto the idea that other hungry predators such as she threatened preservation, so she stayed on land to protect her nest. we might conclude that as the historical point when animals became terra-fied. she delineiated a small area which she guarded fiercely until the eggs hatched. however, should either an aggressor or a spell of nasty weather destroy her improved site, she simply walked away abandoning her temporal claim.
"under the theory of Capitalism and property law the private individual or Corporations controls the "means of production". back in the mid 70s my husband and i began a small partnership corporation to sell and deliver office supplies and furniture. in no time we needed help taking care of walk-ins, billing, sales and delivery. you know, i guess i didn't grasp the theory you explain so well. we didn't "create" the jobs. we hired qualified talent capable of getting jobs anywhere. in other words, we needed and appreciated their skills.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
.Posted by GwNorth
Jan 20 2012 -a few minutes later
If money is free speech can i exercise my right to free speech by bribing a cop when I get a traffic ticket?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
guess that depends, offering a couple of washingtons would land our ass behind bars for attempted bibery. "you gotta speak up, man! i can't hear you!"--say, a couple of franklins?
Let me speak for the average U.S. citizen and voice what I think are his true concerns. There is nothing inherently wrong with a corporate takeover of our government if: I can still watch American Idol, NFL football, go to church on Sunday and congratulate myself on being a Christian, beat the crap out of some third world nation to show how exceptional we truly are. Wait a minute-- all this is already true. Has the corporate takeover already happpened? Somebody tell me-I, the average American citizen could care less about politics.
Corporate influence is global in nature. Many are established outside the US or influenced by non US investors. If corporations do business in any way shape or form outside this nation then their motivations for profit by definition, outweigh any national/constitutional obligations. Thus, while a corporation may be made up of people who do have rights, those people who make up corporations may not have our nation's interest front and center.
This factor alone, should be grounds for the complete separation of corporation and state regarding politics and the election process.
Thanks for this thoughtful comment.
"...whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of [the people's] unalienable rights to [Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness], it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish [that government] and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to [the people] shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness..."
-- Declaration of American Independence
You just keep on voting more funds for more war, Bernie, and everything will be okay.
I think we all agree that the US congress is utterly corrupt (with a few exceptions like Senator Sanders) and here in Europe it may not be so bad (corporations here are not treated as persons but they still wield enormous power in the EU) but we are catching up with the American version of “liberty” (freedom of US capital to endlessly proliferate at the expense of the real freedoms (human rights) and with no ethical or moral restraints allowed to stand in the way …so with the help of the greatest military machine on earth "God's own country became "the Great Satan" for the victims of its aggression ...
I believe that the real, crucial issue here is economic and social policies that promote massive INEQUALITY (that is why the mere mention of the world “socialism” (here standing for social democracy) causes apoplexy in US right-wing circles), which means the 99% are working for the benefit of a small “elite”
The huge income and wealth disparities in the US (I am talking about the top 1-10%) are not the natural result of some folks working so much harder, or being so much brighter than the majority, but of course the consequence of a class war (only it is fought by the rich, not by the workers as Marx expected …) that began with Ronald Reagan in the US, Thatcher in Britain and, with enormous help form “financial globalisation” has now engulfed the whole globe: the neoliberal economic cult, the one "true" economic faith, (currently devastating Africa ...)
The gap between rich and poor is forever widening and this economic polarization is not only unjust but slowly suffocating democratic processes and institutions.
Aristotle (perhaps one of the wisest people who ever lived …) advocated, that no one should earn more than 4-5 times the median income, because huge income disparities would inevitably lead to wealth concentration at the top and since economic power translates into political power, democracy cannot function in a state which does not seek to redistribute wealth (from the top to the bottom, i.e. with progressive income tax, etc.)
So from this perspective, one does not have to be “on the left” to understand, that the central capitalist principle (the state must support unlimited growth of private property and considers its protection as sacrosanct) is incompatible with a real democracy (and of course with ecological imperatives)
Aristotle also understood (a stunning example of foresight) that while production for need (the real meaning of “economy”) has natural limits, production for “markets” does not, as the dominant and even fanatic motive for production is gain (the catastrophic social and ecological results of the “global market” the neoliberals have forced upon us (whether for money, labour or goods) are obvious and need no further elaboration here).
“Freedom” is the most abused word in the English language, especially in the political arena of the US, because in the neoliberal world it is the perfect semantic disguise for increasing economic tyranny and stealthy dispossession … (the poor financing the rich ….through unjust tax distribution, interest rates and predatory lending, corrupt legislation, etc.)
Hey, isn’t it about time to “go to the mattresses”? (they are going to destroy the economic system, our freedom and democracy otherwise..)
(I am not advocating physical violence, of course but let us be clear: the current form of economic, systemic violence could be a case for "self-defense" ...
(More interesting thoughts on http://davidharvey.org)
It is naive to think that the ruling or "owning" classes will blithely agree to let the "Occupy" or any other movement to carry the day.
And equally naive to think that immature monster-boys at the top of the social-economic pyramid do not have long-term projections, contingency plans, and concrete actions to take regarding how to "manage and rule" the future.
(As a side note - 9/11 was one such action).
And, as we have seen: one-by-one the pillars of democracy - such as the Bill of Rights, Habeas Corpus, safeguards against undue internet and telecom surveillance - all have systematically been dismantled since then. Or, we can say that 9/11 was a key pivot point; since that date the pace of decimating democracy has quickened.
Why now? Why, as Robert Callaghan's has suggested on another thread, are we now facing the emergence of a corporate-run, contemporary brand of fascism? He said:
"In 20 years, you won't recognize the earth, our home. World shortages will ensure that we live a highly militarized police state. Like we do now, but much worse."
~~~
And corporations are perfect (being both persons and "not-persons" at the same time) for bringing about a new tyranny. They are not bound by such things as civil rights, constitutional concerns, or (in many instances) accountability --- yet they can determine what politicians do and the decisions they make. Perfect.
The bottom line is that The People (the rabble) will need to be managed and ruled - particularly as things get worse.
~~~
In fact Duane Elgin has sketched out the powerful, contemporary negative trends that are already in evidence.
These include global climate change, the rapid extinction of species, the depletion of critical natural resources, the continuing increase in world population, and the rapidly growing gap between the rich and the poor. These trends are converging into a whole-systems crisis, creating the possibility of a massive societal disintegration within one generation, if large portions of humanity do not quickly recognize the necessity of finding new, sustainable ways of living
The reality is that, in addition to the venality and mendacity common to all elites, a portion of those at the very top of the economic/power pyramid have some awareness of predictable trends expected to unfold over the next 20+ years.
~~~~~~~
In 1992, over 1600 senior scientists, including a majority of the living Nobel laureates in the sciences, signed and released a documented entitled Warning to Humanity. In it, they powerfully demonstrated the need for fresh approaches to thinking and living. They declared that "human beings and the natural world are on a collision course . . . one that may so alter the living world, it will be unable to sustain life in the manner that we know." They concluded by giving the following, simple warning to the human family:
"We, the undersigned senior members of the world's scientific community, hereby warn all humanity of what lies ahead. A great change in our stewardship of the earth and the life on it is required, if vast human misery is to be avoided and our global home on this planet is not to be irretrievably mutilated."
~~~~~~~
In response, some form of totalitarianism is a very real danger. We are already witnessing the fast-track merging of state and corporate power. Sure enough, conditions in the U.S. and elsewhere are increasingly aligning with Mussolini's famous statement that - "Fascism should more appropriately be referred to as corporatism."
The expansion and legitimization of various forms of warrant-less surveillance, Citizen's United, pervasive elite immunity, the establishment of a worldwide torture regime during the last U.S. administration, and most recently, the legitimization of indefinite military detention - without trial - all show that we are make swift progress in reaching this long sought-after goal.
The fact that "Citizens United" has not yet been overthrown by Congress is proof positive where our Congress stands with regards to allowing the wealthy to rule our country. They are absolutely in charge!!!
We need to IMMEDIATELY CEASE THE CHARADE OF CALLING AMERICA A DEMOCRACY AND CALL IT WHAT IT IS - A PLUTOCRACY! The very fact that Congress allows this outrageous theft to continue unabated indicates the side Congress is on.
COME ON, FOLKS, LET'S THROW THE THIEVES OUT!!!!!!!!!! THANKS, BERNIE, FOR YOUR UNQUESTIONABLE DEVOTION TO THE MIDDLE CLASS!!!