The Paula Gordon Show |
Corpocracy... | |||
Treating corporations
as legal “persons” puts democracy at risk and threatens a
return to feudalism, where the few own what the many need, according to
Thom Hartmann. Ironically, Mr. Hartmann has discovered, the corporate
claims to “personhood” which allow abuses to which he objects
are based on a Supreme Court decision that never happened.
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Conversation 1 Thom Hartmann summarizes for Paula Gordon and Bill Russell the 1886 Supreme Court case which -- wrongly -- is cited to justify corporations being treated as people. He recalls when American law and society constrained corporations. |
Conversation 2 Corporations’ claims to the right of free speech have profound implications, says Mr. Hartmann, offering examples. He describes the first 100 years in the United States when it was illegal for a corporation to participate in politics, its “books” had to be open, only one kind of business allowed at a time, with a lifespan not to exceed 30 years. Citing Thomas Jefferson’s call for a ban on corporate monopolies, Mr. Hartmann retraces how his discovered that the crucial “Santa Clara” case did NOT “make corporations persons.” He tells how an apparently corrupt official in the infamous Grant Administration deliberately misled lawyers and the public. |
Conversation 3 Mr. Hartmann lays out the central role of the British East India Company in colonizing North America (“The Mayflower” carried a lot more than Puritans.) He elaborates, from the first days of British settlement to today. He offers a dramatically different view of the Boston Tea Party, citing a first person account, then characterizes the American Revolution as a rebellion against a huge multinational corporation coming in and wiping out local businesses. He describes the three historical oppressors opposed by America’s Founding Fathers, links multinationals across centuries and shows how the U.S. Constitution intended that local people control corporations. |
Conversation 4 Jamestown’s commercial foundation is described. Thomas Jefferson is celebrated for his democratic ideals and his opposition to what he called pseudo-aristocrats in the form of commercial monopolies. Reiterating the importance of the ideal of democracy with current examples, Mr. Hartmann articulates a common obligation to hold, respect, maintain, understand and rebuild democracy. He calls for resistance to a new feudalism he sees taking shape, where the new feudal lords are corporations not answerable to the people. He expands on the importance of elective governments being responsive to people instead of to corporations driven solely by profit motives. |
Conversation 5 Democracy is at risk, Mr. Hartmann believes, a result of a long-dead court clerk misrepresenting a Supreme Court decision. He wants people to take back the powers the Founding Fathers specifically intended for human beings, not for corporations. Mr. Hartmann says corporations’ political contributions -- strictly forbidden by state laws until the end of the 19th century -- buy them access to politicians, allowing them to exploit Constitutional protections intended for individuals. Mr. Hartmann recalls Mussolini’s definition of “fascist” -- combining the power of industry with the power of government -- then describes a growing movement to abolish corporate personhood. |
Conversation 6 The entrepreneurial Mr. Hartmann insists he is not anti-corporate, then summarizes his objection to a handful of corporations who use the First Amendment to lie and hide crimes, manipulate politicians and control legislation. He describes the small enterprise boom he thinks will follow removing corporations’ “personhood” protection. |
Acknowledgements We applaud Thom Hartmann’s efforts in shining
a light on some very dark places in UnEqual Protection. We
also appreciate that this goes beyond description to point to actions
we all might take in righting the wrongs that have resulted from corporate
greed and misconduct. |
Related Links:
You can find more from Mr. Hartmann at his website and more about issues raised in Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights at the website devoted to this subject.
In Corpocracy: How CEOs and the Business Roundtable Hijacked the World's Greatest Wealth Machine -- And How to Get It Back, Robert Monks shows the damage both to democracy and to capitalism of unsupervised executive power and points to the role of former Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell in establishing corporate "personhood." In Democracy Matters Cornel West shows how we can build on the Greek, Jewish and African traditions to create an inclusive democracy. The full program will be here beginning Saturday, October 29. Susan Jacoby tells America’s history from the secular perspective. Government of, by and for the People isn’t how it works today. It’s the “crony capitalist” who’re in charge according to Kevin Phillips. An empire runs on its soldiers. In a very personal memoir, Alexandra
Fuller shows
how a soldier’s trauma is his nation’s trauma. |