Say Buy Buy to American Democracy
Corporatist Rising
Not many people realize that we have a constitutionally limited, representative democracy in this country. It hasn’t worked perfectly, but it did work better than no democracy at all. I say DID because it is now dead. This post isn’t about the election Tuesday in Mass or the DLC infiltration of the of the Obama administration or any of those little problems. All of those little problems are swept away with today’s Supreme Court decision.
In a 5-4 decision written by the weak sister in the Opus Dei cabal, Justice Anthony Kennedy proclaimed that corporations are the same as “natural persons”, meaning that they have all of the same rights that we mere mortals have. Specifically, corporations have the right to free speech which means that laws to limit or regulate campaign contributions, like McCain Feingold, are now unconstitutional.
Previously, the idea that corporations were the same as “natural persons” existed in Supreme Court precedent because of the head note of a Supreme Court ruling during the previous Gilded Age in 1886 called Santa Clara County v Southern Pacific Railroad. That actual ruling did not grant personhood to corporations. In fact, the chief justice at the time, Morrison Waite, did not even address the issue anywhere in the decision. Nevertheless, this decision became the foundation for the whole corporate personhood theory because the court reporter, J.C. Bancroft Davis, stated the following in what is called the head note of the decision:
“The court does not wish to hear argument on the question whether the provision in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which forbids a State to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws, applies to these corporations. We are all of the opinion that it does.”
This head note has been used in a few other decisions as precedent for the idea of corporate personhood. You might be wondering how a “court reporter” could write something in a note that would become the bedrock for corporate personhood. Bancroft Davis, as he was known, was a powerful corporate lawyer and former President of the Newburgh and New York Railway Company. Supreme Court Court Reporters aren’t like the people you see behind the bullet proof glass at your local superior courthouse when you go to dispute your traffic ticket. It is a very prestigious position with a lot of power. But even still, this note should never have been given the weight of precedent, especially because the actual decision says nothing about that point. The power of corporations and their corporate lawyers, who are so well paid that they are willing to sell out democracy, is so great that the fact this decision says nothing regarding corporate personhood was simply overlooked through the years. It is worth noting that the whole idea of corporate personhood is based on the 14th Amendment. Corporations and their lawyers have used the amendment that freed the slaves to assert that corporations are persons and therefore entitled to all of the rights that you and I have. Can you say irony.
If all of that history and Supreme Court precedent sounds pretty thin, it’s because it is pretty thin. The entire thing is based on the head note of a former Railroad President who wasn’t even a justice. Well, today the Robert’s Court blew away all question with this 5-4 decision. It is arguably the worst decision since Dred Scott v Sanford or Bush v Gore. The Dred Scott decision held that African Americans brought into the country as slaves and their decedents were not and never could be citizens. This ruling today effectively makes us all slaves of a corporatist state because our rights will be drowned out by the vast resources of corporations. That is how bad this decision is for our country.
If you are still not getting it, this decision means that corporations can spend as much as they like to get candidates they want elected to any and all elected positions. They can buy airtime the night before the election on every station and run whatever content they like. The vast sums of money donated to Barak Obama in 2008 by individual citizens in small denominations can now be blotted out by one check from a corporation like Goldman Sachs. This ruling turns our democracy into a fascist state.
The only way to fix this is with a Constitutional Amendment. Several concerned citizens are trying to mount a move to amend to get a new Constitutional Amendment that will clarify the founders intent that only “NATURAL PERSONS” are citizens with the attendant rights of citizens. There are a number of amendment strategies that could be employed and I will be writing about those as they develop. My current favorite is an amendment to the 14th Amendment itself that changes the word “person” in the language to “natural person” everywhere it appears. Doing so would eliminate the whole argument and I like the elegance of the solution, but it may be that we will need write an entirely new Amendment to eliminate the corporatist threat. If you have read this far, go to this link and sign the online petition. Go on every social media platform you can find and tell people about this issue. Blog about it, comment about it, go out in the street and yell about it. We cannot allow this thing to stand.
For a long time we have been laboring under an artificial left-right paradigme where people who have everything in common decide that they are against each other because of minor, cultural issues used by the corporations to divide us. The new paradigm in this country is actually the same that the founders faced. This country was started with a Revolution against a royally chartered CORPORATION.
I have to agree I read the washington post on this earlier and was outraged. What are we doing here people? Why would a corporation have the rights as a human? Who do we hold responsible when corporation is liable for something, like the death of 1,000s? Oh yeah there is no corporate responsibility, just simply closes its doors, have a funeral, and the highbackers (top management) open the corporation under another name? THATS IT!
Our entire future is at risks here. It is time to take action! Follow the above link blog this out to everyone you know! Do not allow this to happen!
We have long had an incomplete democratic system, a representative democracy. Now that will be turned into a corporate representative democracy. What we need is a participatory democracy in which individuals have a chance to do more than simply vote from time to time and in which corporations are not given the status of persons. Among natural persons sociopaths who break laws can be brought to justice. Corporations, however, behave as sociopaths with impunity. The current populist movement must be turned toward true democracy, but for the moment it appears to be in the thrall of the far right wing. At a time of increasing global warming and ever higher levels of CO2 we are in grave danger of becoming a police state for with increased stress and hard times comes greater authoritarianism.
Nothing in the decision limits this right to US-based or US-owned corporations.
As of today, China, Inc., or EU’s Airbus, or Russia’s GAZPROM can now produce and run election ads in America, to try to determine US elections. See:
Next US President? China, Inc.
http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/next-us-president-china-inc/blog-242973/
Obama blasts Court decision on campaign finance:
By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer Mark Sherman, Associated Press Writer – Thu Jan 21, 1:41 pm ET
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is condemning a decision by the Supreme Court to roll back restrictions on campaign donations by corporations and unions.
In a written statement, Obama says the campaign finance ruling will lead to a “stampede of special interest money in our politics.” Obama declared that his administration will work with Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress to come up with a “forceful response” to the high court’s action.
The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that corporations may spend as freely as they like to support or oppose candidates for president and Congress.
Obama called it a big victory for big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies and other powerful interests.
Steve,
You’re right. Corporations can and often are owned by foreign citizens and even states. Under this decision those companies can now buy politicians legally.
Ben,
I agree completely. My hope is that we can now transcend the false right-left paradigm that has been promulgated by, well, capital for lack of a better word. The corporatists have been playing both sides off against the middle and keeping the public divided and preoccupied with minor, cultural issues. Now, this decision gives them carte blanche to simply buy the government outright. The corporatists ARE the enemy, not the teabaggers, not the latte drinking liberals.
Another interesting ramification involves a case in 2002 with NIKE and it’s right as a “person” to lie, Kasky v Nike. NIKE claimed the right of corporate personhood and further claimed that they could not be held responsible for false claims or lies because as “persons” they had the same right to free speech as you and I and therefore they had the right to lie. The California Supreme Court told them to basically fuck off. Nike appealed to the US Supremes and they declined to hear the case, probably because the right wing court (then run by the vile Rehnquist) didn’t want to address the corporate personhood issue under such a negative case like the right to lie to the public. Now with this decision today, any corporation can willfully lie in their advertisements and other claims without threat of lawsuit because they have the right of free speech.
The corporatists have been planning on enshrining corporate personhood in law for a very long time. The more I think about this decision, the more I realize that this case really is as bad or worse than Dred Scott.