"Corporate Democracy: Potential Fallout from a Supreme Court decision on Citizens United"
Published November 02, 2009 @ 07:55PM PT
That's the name of a report from Common Cause, available as a PDF here.
They suggest that the overturning of precedent barring direct corporate contributions in federal elections is likely to come as a 5-4 vote, possibly as early as November 3rd.
The result of this:
"Corporations and unions already spend hundreds of millions per cycle through PACs and 527s to influence federal elections. Allowing corporations to directly tap their enormous profits for unlimited political spending will hasten the nation's descent into a new era of "corporate democracy," where entities whose sole purpose is to maximize profits are given free rein to dominate elections and drown out the voices of ordinary Americans."
The authors of the Common Cause report suggest that "the only short-term option available to 'change the game' is to create a new system of paying for political campaigns based on a blend of small donors and limited public funding that allows candidates to run highly competitive races without relying on wealthy special interests."
While this is true (and the report has more on the Fair Elections Now Act, which would help bring this about) it's also clear that corporations shouldn't be engaging in a political process intended for citizens. The Citizens United case offers the chance for broad discussion on why, exactly, corporations have rights to participate in our elections at all, and why the Supreme Court should be interested in expanding those rights even further.
As we continue to wait for the decision in this case, this is an excellent opportunity to engage those around you on the issue of corporate personhood and the damage it does to the basic structures of our democracy. Elections are only one place in which this damage occurs; this is why we know that, in the long term, we need more than just fair election laws. We need to end corporate personhood and corporate rights, so that our entire legal system is centered back on protecting and enriching the lives of human citizens, rather than protecting corporate profit and corporate power.
Comments
Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the ideas covered in the posts. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; that contain ad hominem attacks; or that are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion.
Author
-
Megan Wade Antieau
- Eureka, CA
A corporation is not a person! A corporation can't be aware of it's self, can't feal emotoins. It's the result of the power of corporations to use money, jobs, to get anything they want. It should be ended by a responsable progressive President. Wish we had one. I thought that is who I voted for in 2008. I guess it's more; meat the new boss, same as the old boss, we got fooled again! PS, Legalize Pot!
Posted by Arthur C. Moore on 11/05/2009 @ 03:30PM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
Arthur, I think part of what we have to realize is that corporate personhood is the type of issue that will never be solved by a president. It will only be solved by a mass movement of people - by you and I taking action. Anyone with the money to run for president, in the way that election is currently held, is going to necessarily be well-entrenched in corporate values and beholden to corporate donors, even if they have many other ideals that one would label "progressive." The pressure on this issue needs to come up from the roots. We need to act ourselves, rather than simply stand back and wait for others to do the work for us.
Posted by Megan Wade Antieau on 11/05/2009 @ 03:40PM PT
You must be signed in to report content.