The Supremes Sing the Corporate Tune
by Mary Bell Lockhart on January 25, 2010 - 2:58pm
Economy in Crisis

The following article originally appeared on OpEdNews.com.

"Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people."- Theodore Roosevelt

I was busily writing an article regarding the destructive effects on our society of huge bonuses for corporate CEOs, when the January 20 news interrupted, such that I must comment. An astounding Supreme Court decision was handed down that effectively handed our democracy over to corporations, including multi-national, even foreign-controlled, corporations! The case was titled Citizens United v Federal Election Commission. The issue was whether or not corporations could pay for material that advocated for or against specific candidates for President, Senators, or U.S. Representatives. This ruling overturned a 20-year-old ruling that prohibited corporations from using money from their general treasuries to pay for campaign ads. It also reversed the McCain Feingold law that kept them from running ads within a certain date before elections.

Historically, corporations and unions have been prohibited from spending their own funds on broadcast ads or billboards urging election or defeat of a federal candidate. This restriction dated from 1907, when President Theodore Roosevelt asked Congress to prohibit corporations, railroads and national banks from using their money in federal election campaigns. At the end of World War II, Congress applied the restriction to labor unions.

Now the Court says that corporations have free-speech rights just like natural persons. They are free to use their billions to distort, exaggerate and lie, if they so choose; to support or oppose as they see fit. And it doesn't matter who runs the corporation, even non-Americans. They could be a Saudi oil company (ARAMCO) or a Chinese manufacturing company, or a corporation owned by anti-American extremists. Are you ready for the next President from Citibank?

Corporations and unions still can't give money directly to campaigns. But they won't need to, since they can run their own ads. And they do have to identify themselves in the ads, but not necessarily who their backers are.

I don't know about you, but I take deep offense at the idea that corporate entities are anywhere akin to human beings. The US Constitution begins, "We the people of the United States." Were they talking about anything other than human beings? Does anyone really believe the First Amendment to the Constitution refers to the speech of anyone other than natural persons?

The ruling passed 5-4. Those in favor were the conservative bloc on the court, ALL appointed by Republican Presidents. Here it is, folks, as if we needed any more evidence that the "Party of Lincoln" has been taken over completely by corporatists. Conservatives railed against "activist" judges who "legislate from the bench," yet this ruling from their anointed Court is EXTREME activist legislation from the bench. In this ruling, the Court ignored its long-standing rule of stare decisis ("Maintain what has been decided").

However, in a 90-page dissent from the opinion, Justice John Paul Stevens said that the framers of the Constitution "had little trouble distinguishing corporations from human beings, and when they constitutionalized the right to free speech in the First Amendment, it was the free speech of individual Americans that they had in mind." Good for him and good for the other dissenters, Justices Sotomayor, Ginsburg and Breyer. Those who rail against liberal justices should take note that THEY are the ones who stood for YOUR rights in this case.

Aside from Republicans and Libertarians, too many Democrats are cozy with corporations as well. As we've recently seen in health insurance reform debates, a few Democrats and one Independent have carried water for their corporate insurance backers, trying to give them everything they want, including the mandate that everyone buy insurance from for-profit corporations. I've come to believe that the battle of this century will be between the populists and the corporatists. The Democrats should step up to be the party of the people, because Republicans and Libertarians have already sealed their deal with the corporations.

Like many Americans, I've created a corporation. It's as easy as 1-2-3, and there are plenty of websites that will throw one together for you on the spot. But corporations are the creation of the government which authorizes their existence. Does it not seem sickly circular that they should now be able to directly manipulate election of candidates to positions that set their taxes and operational standards?

If you think this decision doesn't affect us here in West Texas, think again. Texas politics is already controlled to a great extent by the energy industries and by insurance companies. With this ruling, there is nothing to stop them now from taking more of our money, then spending it to buy politicians who will let them take even more of our money. Long gone will be legislation that benefits ordinary Americans or protects the environment and wider will be the gap between the rich and the rest of us which is eroding our society. And we'll be drowned by more lies from corporate-backed entities such as Freedomworks, Americans for Prosperity and Fox News.

To those who claim President Obama is trying to establish fascism in this country, take note: This is the REAL fascism wedding the corporation to the government. Government of, by and for the corporation, brought to you, not by Obama, progressives and Democrats, but by conservatives who put these people on the Supreme Court.

In 1857, the US Supreme Court ruled, in the infamous Dred Scott decision, that people of African descent and their descendants were not persons and could never be US citizens. They were deemed property, not people. This decision so outraged the people that they enacted the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. A similar outrage should consume us now. We need to amend the Constitution to state once and for all that corporations are NOT persons and are not entitled to the rights of natural persons. Corporations are things, not people. Think of it as the battle of Man vs Machine. I know which side I'm on; do you?

Want to take action? See:

Move to Amend https://www.movetoamend.org/

LINK
https://www.economyincrisis.org/content/supremes-sing-corporate-tune