If you miss Bill Moyers’ show on PBS, you’re not alone. He was one of the few commentators that was honest, unbiased, and not afraid to expose propaganda for what it is, putting Republicans at a disadvantage. The following excerpt comes from Bill’s forward to Corporations Are Not People: Why They Have More Rights Than You Do and What You Can Do About It, a new book by Jeffrey Clements.
Rarely have so few imposed such damage on so many. When five conservative members of the Supreme Court handed for-profit corporations the right to secretly flood political campaigns with tidal waves of cash on the eve of an election, they moved America closer to outright plutocracy, where political power derived from wealth is devoted to the protection of wealth. It is now official: Just as they have adorned our athletic stadiums and multiple places of public assembly with their logos, corporations can officially put their brand on the government of the United States as well as the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the fifty states.
The decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission giving “artificial entities” the same rights of “free speech” as living, breathing human beings will likely prove as infamous as the Dred Scott ruling of 1857 that opened the unsettled territories of the United States to slavery whether future inhabitants wanted it or not. It took a civil war and another hundred years of enforced segregation and deprivation before the effects of that ruling were finally exorcised from our laws. God spare us civil strife over the pernicious consequences of Citizens United, but unless citizens stand their ground, America will divide even more swiftly into winners and losers with little pity for the latter. Citizens United is but the latest battle in the class war waged for thirty years from the top down by the corporate and political right. Instead of creating a fair and level playing field for all, government would become the agent of the powerful and privileged. Public institutions, laws, and regulations, as well as the ideas, norms, and beliefs that aimed to protect the common good and helped create America’s iconic middle class, would become increasingly vulnerable. The Nobel Laureate economist Robert Solow succinctly summed up the results: “The redistribution of wealth in favor of the wealthy and of power in favor of the powerful.” In the wake of Citizens United, popular resistance is all that can prevent the richest economic interests in the country from buying the democratic process lock, stock, and barrel.
America has a long record of conflict with corporations. Wealth acquired under capitalism is in and of itself no enemy to democracy, but wealth armed with political power — power to choke off opportunities for others to rise, power to subvert public purposes and deny public needs — is a proven danger to the “general welfare” proclaimed in the Preamble to the Constitution as one of the justifications for America’s existence.
In its founding era, Alexander Hamilton created a financial system for our infant republic that mixed subsidies, tariffs, and a central bank to establish a viable economy and sound public credit. James Madison and Thomas Jefferson warned Americans to beware of the political ambitions of that system’s managerial class. Madison feared that the “spirit of speculation” would lead to “a government operating by corrupt influence, substituting the motive of private interest in place of public duty.” Jefferson hoped that “we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and [to] bid defiance to the laws of our country.” Radical ideas? Class warfare? The voters didn’t think so. In 1800, they made Jefferson the third president and then reelected him, and in 1808 they put Madison in the White House for the next eight years… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <AlterNet>
Moyers continues to develop this into a compelling demonstration of the injustice of corporate personhood. I strongly encourage you to click through to read the rest.
The thing that struck me most is the similarities of Madison and Jefferson to the modern day occupy movement, demonstrating that the occupy movement is more foundational than radical.
Corporations are NOT people! Money is NOT speech!
10 Responses to “Moyers Blasts Corporate Power”
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If you want to fight it…stop consuming more than you NEED. Quit putting money into their stocks and goods and services that they turn around and use against you. But Americans and probably all the others in the developed and developing economies are too lustily greedy for bling to live simply by choice. Test yourself and turn you furnace thermostat to 60 and wear extra clothes to compensate. Believe it, you can adapt to having less, owning less and letting them sit on their inventory until they come around and support Sanders constitutional amendment. You are not saving any American jobs bynot spending money and saving it instead in a local bank or Credit Union.
Moyers is incredible – at what point is plutocracy – fascism? The words seem nearly interchangeable, however in the US today I see more fascism than plutocracy – this is the result of our supreme court – let’s not mince words!
Lee, I agree with you 100%. Great comment.
Corporations are NOT people! Money is NOT speech!
There are consequences when our culture becomes more conservative. I suspect the majority of Americans are not worried about this situation, but they should be. A movement in the streets does not equal a showing at the ballot box. To bad liberals have not been showing up at the ballot box consistently, for decades. Winners get to decide the future of the direction of the law and the power. Presidents appoint Supreme Court Justices. In 30 years before Obama, Republicans held the White House for 21 of those 30 years. No surprise that we have a conservative court. Our President is more conservative than most Democratic Presidents and his liberal selection s for the Court are more conservative than most liberal justices.
Most folk ignore this and what is going on , believing it will not affect them—so therefore they do not worry– It’s a form of denial I think , when and only when the results of all this hits people in the face , will they wake up– I only hope that will not be too late , we are already far down the road to being a full-fledged totalitarian state : Look at this decision , all of it– it is totally illogical to declare a corporation to be an individual with all the rights and privileges of an individual .. We are at this crossroads for a lot of reasons- let me suggest that the failure of so many to use the basic right to vote may be one of the reasons—Many folk scream , complain , weep and moan about what is going on– But how many of these use the right to Vote ; a hard won right for which lives were given—Now we are again fighting for that right– I just hope the apathy that has been present for so long can be discarded and people wake up—-We have another election coming up– VOTE!! — and yes I have voted in every election since I was old enough to do so— I practice what I preach ! ( here anyway )
What an excellent piece! such that I want to read the book. Even though I am a Canuck, I think there is wisdom in the foreward that transcends borders.
Andrew Jackson, summer 1832 — “… It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes.”
Has anything really changed in 179 years?
Bill Moyers — “. . . In 1886, a conservative Supreme Court conferred the divine gift of life on the Southern Pacific Railroad and by extension to all other corporations. The railroad was declared to be a “person,” . . .”
Has anything changed in the last 125 years?
Being a citizen is a privilege and comes with responsibilities. Ask any immigrant who came to these shores why they came and what their expectations were. They would probably say they came for a better life where they could have a say in government. ” …Corporations were endowed with the rights of “personhood” but exempted from the responsibilities of citizenship. …” If corporations want to be persons, then they cannot be exempted from any of the reponsibilities of citizenship.
Personally, corporations are not sentient beings, demonstrate no self awareness and therefore cannot be persons. They do not love, they do not cry, they are not capable of individual thought. Although you may think me nuts for this next statement, please think about it. If corporations are people, then should not cats and dogs be given personhood status too?
But in the face of such discouragement, embattled citizens refused to give up. . . . journalist William Allen White, “had come a sense that their civilization needed recasting, that the government had fallen into the hands of self-seekers, that a new relationship should be established between the haves and the have-nots.” . . . everyday citizens researched the issues, organized public events to educate their neighbors, held rallies, made speeches, petitioned and canvassed, marched and exhorted. They would elect the twentieth-century governments that restored “the general welfare” as a pillar of American democracy, . . .
Jim Hightower — “. . .today’s proponents of corporate plutocracy “have simply elevated money itself above votes, establishing cold, hard cash as the real coin of political power. The more you spend on politics, the bigger your voice is in government, making the vast vaults of billionaires and corporations far superior to the voices of mere voters.”
Theodore Roosevelt, a Republican, who a century ago stood up to the mighty combines of wealth and power that were buying up our government and called on Americans of all persuasions to join him in opposing the “naked robbery” of the public’s trust: It is not a partisan issue; it is more than a political issue; it is a great moral issue. If we condone political theft, if we do not resent the kinds of wrong and injustice that injuriously affect the whole nation, not merely our democratic form of government but our civilization itself cannot endure.
Just in reading Moyer’s few words, it is apparent that the US has been doomed to repeat history in this “personhood” debate. When will Americans learn that their country needs them, at the ballot box and active in governance. The great quote from John F Kennedy comes to mind:
“Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”
Why is this only now coming to the fore? It’s been going on for years, and finally legitimized. I don’t think the average Joe has missed this, but simply feels powerless. Democracy? Hardly.
I’ve known several dogs, two or three horses, and a dozen or more deer of three species: mule, whitetail, and elk. They were all better people than any corporation. Have you ever seen a corporation do this?
No, but I have seen them do this.
I’ve had that experience too, from birds and corporations both. It was less toxic when the birds did it.