The Supreme Court Rules That Corporations Have the Rights of People But Not the Responsibilities. They Must be Stopped.
Move to Amend, The Project to Legalize Democracy
If you feel that the dice are loaded against democracy by big money interests, they are.
Most recently, this became clear in January when the Supreme Court decided that corporations had the same rights as people in financing elections, moving them one step closer to overt ownership of elected officials. (Of course, the Supreme Court -- the 5 partisan Republican hacks, that is -- never rule that corporations have the same responsiblities of people under the law, just the same rights. Ain't that curious?)
An advocacy group composed of citizen action organizations (and endorsed by BuzzFlash) wants to put people first and corporations in their place when it comes to governing. They are called the "Move to Amend [the Constitution], The Project to Legalize Democracy." Their key goal is to "firmly establish that money is not speech, and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights." Sounds like what the people who founded America intended, instead of corporate rule through campaign contributions and lobbyists.
The irony is that the 5-4 GOP partisan majority on the Supreme Court gives corporations the rights of people, but does not hold them accountable for their legal responsibilities, as illustrated in a recent article that asked the question: "What if BP Were a Human Being?" In it, the question is asked, "How long will it be before we revoke the lawless privileges of corporations, before we limit their immunity, curtail their immortality, and rein in their immorality?"
Good question indeed, and this week BuzzFlash honors the "Move to Amend" movement for attempting to rectify this grave injustice to democracy.
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Consttutional Convention
We're way overdue for a Constitutional overhaul.
It needs to be updated to:
Eliminate the hopelessly corrupt Electoral College
End the lifetime appointments of Supreme Court justices, and provide a way for their removal via the popular vote
End corporate personhood
Provide for and ENFORCE public financing of election campaigns
Enact a Balanced Budget amendment
Define health care as a RIGHT of all Americans and end for-profit medicine once and for all
Enact Universal Education through college for all qualified citizens
In otherwords, follow the examples of Scandinavia, and the rest of Europe in a Social Democracy. Socialism is NOT a bad thing, especially when it co-exists with a thriving democracy.
What you said!!!!!
willymack, you nailed it perfectly. Thank and very needed, epsecially ending corporate "personhood" now defended
as having the "rights" of a "person" but NOT the responsibility???? That is out and out BULLSH-T !!!!!!!
We'll be living for generations for what BP has done......... No Responsibility?? !!! ??? My BS meter just shattered!!!!
Chuck38
What is this?
Do we have a corporate plutocracy or a plutocratic corporatocracy?
It seems to have drifted from the concept of a democratic republic.
hmmmmm?!
law and order without justice is fascist....now if they are people i think i could reconsider lethal injection for white collar crime...i smell rico investigations waiting to happen....
p.s.
tony whos it and all the bp execs should be shoved into the thick oil ozz in the gulf and if they don't want to clean it up then leave them there
Enablers
So don't vote for the two corporate-funded parties. If you do, you're part of the problem.
There are non-corporate alternatives like the Green Party and the socialists. Change often comes slowly, and by supporting the growth of these parties, you contribute to positive change.
System Enablers
Please explain how a members of the Green (who?) Party or Socialist (HA!) Party won't break their promises the day they are sworn into Congress and accept bribes from the K Street lobbyists.
Don't bother because you can't. People are people no matter which party they belong to. So please stop implying that Green (who?) Party candidates can walk on water.
It's not the people who need changing, we try that every two years, but most of the new batch of representatives are quickly corrupted by the billions of dollars just waiting for them in the offices of the K Street lobbyists.
It's the system itself that allows legalized bribery and wholesale disenfranchisement of the people in favor of the upper 1% plutocracy.
To end the sale of democracy to the highest corporate bidders, we need to end corporate personhood, end private campaign contributions, and end the careers of all corporate lobbyists.
But most of all, WE THE PEOPLE need to start holding our employees in our government immediately accountable when they sell out to the plutocracy, and not wait until the next election.
Demons let loose upon the earth
Is there a better poetic description for corporate "persons" who can do what "they" want without any consequences -- particularly when profit so often tops the good of the people and country? We really should give Rove credit due for infiltrating the churches of America and brainwashing them into thinking unbridled capitalism is somehow good and Christ-like.
k street?!
maybe a few surplus predator drones or stealth bombers could start carpet bombing k street...let one smart bomb get c street...well it is a start....if al queda did as much damage to our democracy we would have started long ago
Rights Only
If the Supreme Court has ruled that corporations have the rights of people, then that ruling alone leads to a contradiction and it would be interesting for the court to directly address that contradiction. Let me explain.
People in this country have the right not to be slaves. It says so in the forteenth amendment, the very same amendment cited as leading to the claim that corporations have the rights of natural persons.
So what is slavery? When a person is owned by one or more other persons then that person is a slave. Who owns a corporation? Why one or more other persons. So it must be that every corporation is a slave; that is in the very nature of a corporation.
But that is a contradiction because the Supreme Court has ruled that corporations have the rights of people and surely people in this country have the right not to be slaves.
14th Amendemnt
Actually, you are correct, but it's the other way around. No one has the right to enslave people. The contradiction you present is interesting, though.
Tom
13th Amendment
The first clause of the 14th amendment says:
1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
This seems to imply that no state can pass laws that cause a person to be enslaved and the court rulings would seem to say this applies to corporations as persons. In this context, it should be noted that corporations are creations of states and not of the federal government.
In addition, the 13th amendment says:
Amendment 13 - Slavery Abolished. Ratified 12/6/1865.
1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Clause 1 seems to rule out any right to enslave, but it also seems to grant the right not to be a slave.
A Step Further
Let's reform campaign finance by making it illegal for anyone but registered voters to contribute financially to candidates. Argue from the point of view that anyone who is not a voter does not have a vested interest in the election. No matter how bad the SCOTUS RATS+1 get, I think it would be a stretch even for them to grant corporations the right to vote.
Americans need to understand
Americans are puppets that are controlled by the elite and corporatists. They allow us to think we have choice between D or R and liberal or conservative but that is hog wash.
Our problems in the USA have a root cause that originates from corporate and elitist power grabbing, and that transcends both political Parties. Both Parties are corrupted at this point. They are both in the bag to lobbies and the most powerful of which represents outside USA interests and other countries.
Perhaps some day Americans will miraculously turn off the "BS" light of our media and become convinced that the real problem lies not with conservatives versus liberals, and Rs versus Ds, and or with the "other" Party, but instead understand the real problem is that both Parties do not represent the US people.