{"id":6505,"date":"2011-12-13T00:05:27","date_gmt":"2011-12-13T08:05:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/13\/moyers-blasts-corporate-power\/"},"modified":"2011-12-13T00:05:27","modified_gmt":"2011-12-13T08:05:27","slug":"moyers-blasts-corporate-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/13\/moyers-blasts-corporate-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Moyers Blasts Corporate Power"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you miss Bill Moyers\u2019 show on PBS, you\u2019re 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\u2019s forward to <\/font>Corporations Are Not People: Why They Have More Rights Than You Do and What You Can Do About It<\/u>,  a new book<\/a> by Jeffrey Clements.<\/font><\/p>\n

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\"13Moyers\"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<\/strong>. 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.  <\/p>\n

The decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission giving \u201cartificial entities\u201d the same rights of \u201cfree speech\u201d as living, breathing human beings will likely prove as infamous as the Dred Scott ruling of 1857<\/strong> 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.<\/strong> Public institutions, laws, and regulations, as well as the ideas, norms, and beliefs that aimed to protect the common good and helped create America\u2019s iconic middle class, would become increasingly vulnerable. The Nobel Laureate economist Robert Solow succinctly summed up the results: \u201cThe redistribution of wealth in favor of the wealthy and of power in favor of the powerful.\u201d 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<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

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 \u2014 power to choke off opportunities for others to rise, power to subvert public purposes and deny public needs \u2014 is a proven danger to the \u201cgeneral welfare\u201d proclaimed in the Preamble to the Constitution as one of the justifications for America\u2019s existence<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

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\u2019s managerial class. Madison feared that the \u201cspirit of speculation\u201d would lead to \u201ca government operating by corrupt influence, substituting the motive of private interest in place of public duty<\/strong>.\u201d Jefferson hoped that \u201cwe 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.\u201d Radical ideas? Class warfare? The voters didn\u2019t 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<\/strong>\u2026 [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <AlterNet<\/a>><\/p>\n

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.<\/font><\/p>\n

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.<\/font><\/p>\n

Corporations are NOT people!  Money is NOT speech!<\/font><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you miss Bill Moyers\u2019 show on PBS, you\u2019re 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\u2019s forward to Corporations Are Not People: Why They Have More Rights Than […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6505\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}