"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Ceator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of happiness."
Let me begin by saying that I may offend some in this community, because I will bring a spiritual perspective to a political discussion (particular apologies to Atheists). In fact some may see it as a very primitive sort of a spiritual perspective...one associated with tents on hot summer nights and snake handling. But I will leave the tent preaching aside for a moment.
Join me below the fold for a discussion of the most important issue currently facing our nation, a little snake handling, a little Constitutional theory, a little preaching, and the proposed ultimate solution.
The most important issue facing our nation is before the Supreme Court as you read this. It is the case Citizen's United v. Federal Election Comission, which if the Court rules as expected will radically expand the right of corporations to spend money on political speech. It has been fairly extensively diaried here:
A Corporate Emancipation Proclamation
The Supreme Court Is Undoing Our Work
John Roberts and his fellow-travelers are idiots. Or evil. OK, evil.
SCOTUS Set To Overturn All Restrictions On Corporate Political Speech
Will the Corporate Supremes Now Dance on Democracy's Corpse?
I have long held that both the left and the right err in their view of the appropriate place of spiritual thought in American politics. The left contends we are purely secular, the right that we are purely Christian (sorry about that Native Americans!). I believe both are wrong and contend that what makes The United States unique is that we are simultaneously secular and spiritual.
Two legal documents founded our nation: The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution. I suppose some legal scholars would argue that the Declaration of Independence is not actually a legal document since it was pre-Constitutional, but I would contend that a rationally argued document that justifies the overthrow of an established government is certainly a legal document, and must be considered when interpreting The Constitution.
God is present in the Declaration, and absent in the Constitution. I believe this is a direct result of the long and very violent and evil history of organized religion in Europe. The early colonists desperately sought a place to freely worship God as they chose, and not as government or the church sanctioned. The ONLY way to ensure that freedom for all was by establishing a secular government. And by having that freedom we would enhance and magnify the spiritual engagement of human beings.
God’s presence in The Declaration is the seed and the justification from which grew every branch of the great tree of American Democracy: "that our Creator has endowed us with certain unalienable rights."
Our Creator. Has endowed us.
Our Creator did not also create corporations. Human beings created corporations. Yet within our legal system, they are endowed with many of the same God granted rights as We the People. Because somewhere in our complex legal history, it was decided that they should possess qualities of personhood. But it was not decided by the vote of The People, it was not decided by an act of Congress, it was not decided by a Constitutional Amendment, nor by a Supreme Court decision, or at least not by an authentic one. If you have not already read it, I strongly encourage you to read Thom Hartmann’s book UNEQUAL PROTECTION, which describes the history and the methods used by corporations to acquire rights of personhood.
We all know that corporations wield virtually unstoppable influence in Washington. It is a common thread that unites the majority of political struggles. I call it the grand unifying theory of American Politics: that at the core of all substantive issues is the struggle against the influence of for-profit corporations. Consider all of the issues that are impacted.
- Health Care
- Military spending and war decisions
- Tax policy
- Financial Regulation
- Trade policy
- Environmental regulation
- Labor rights
- Natural Resource management
- Energy policy
Not to mention that corporations deeply affect the intellectual and moral development of our children through aggressive and relentless marketing and advertising, something that should be of concern to the so-called values voters of the right.
Of course there are some things that are not affected by corporate interests, or which do not have a consistent corporate agenda, such as gay marriage, abortion rights, and immigration policy. That is why we spend so much time debating these sorts of social issues. The issues that actually have to do with the distribution of wealth and power are poorly debated between the two parties, because both are beholden to corporate interests.
Now my friends, grab a snake, come into my tent and hear me preach:
I believe American Democracy, when correctly practiced, is God’s great gift to
mankind. It is the material world’s manifestation of the idea that we are all equal
in our Creator’s eyes. It is the embodiment of the idea that some things are more
precious than wealth and power. If what I believe is true, if American Democracy
is God’s gift to mankind, wouldn’t the forces of evil seek to destroy it? Isn’t that
in the natural course of the struggle between good and evil?
So how would evil attack America?
Consider this: A business leader. A business leader that is a human being is mortal and has a soul, and ultimately is accountable to their Creator. If a person happens to possess great wealth and power, they may abuse it and abuse their fellow citizens. But they are mortal and they have some conscience that can be appealed to. They have children and families, they have friends. There is some hope for their reform, and if reform fails, their fellow citizens can place limits on their abuse through law. And if both fail, death will ultimately wipe the slate clean.
Consider the corporation: It is not created by God, but created by man. It has no
Soul and is not accountable to its Creator. It rarely dies. It lives only to feed
itself, with no other purpose, which is the definition of greed and gluttony. It has
no conscience. It destroys traditional values through marketing to create new
commercial values. No individual conscience governs it, but rather an amorphous
ill-defined collective conscience. Corporations are the perfect shelter for amoral
behavior to hide behind, masking as moral behavior, as director’s and officers
claim that their actions serve shareholder interests. Yet shareholders typically are
far removed from corporate governance in walled gardens of mutual funds,
pension funds and complex governance processes. And to finalize the
disfunction, Corporate governance is completely un-Democratic: rather than one
person-one vote, it is one share-one vote, giving greater power to the wealthiest.
What better tool for a force of evil than a corporation? And what better tool to
attack and destroy American Democracy than that of corporations? Corporations
have already taken possession of and control American government through
massive media campaigns and corporate lobbying efforts. So by default, America
has come to serve greed and gluttony.
My brothers and sisters listen to me! Consider the current health care debate. If
you are Christian, consider the ministry of Christ. The first demonstration of his
ministry and the most abundant demonstration was healing the sick. Not for
profit, but from compassion. His one act of violence against humans was taking
up a whip and chasing the money lenders from the Temple. The Temple was the
center of Jewish law and politics. But now, here in America, our whole nation
debates how we should treat the sick and suffering. Yet there is no talk of
compassion, but only a discussion of costs and profits, and the debate is shaped by
massive press campaigns funded by insurance companies and drug companies and
other for profit companies. While The People suffer.
It is time we took up whips and chased the money lenders from the temple of
American Democracy.
I have sat in intimate luncheons and dinners with politicians from progressives like Russ Feingold and John Edwards, to blue dogs like Jim Cooper, Phil Bredesen and Harold Ford, to Republicans like Bill Frist and Rick Perry. I have brought the issue of corporate influence up consistently, and never has one ever addressed the issue as having any legitimacy. Not even the so-called progressives. It is clear to me that we will never restrain corporations by statute if even the most progressive politicians that create the statutes are beholden to the corporate system. Even if we could, would those statutes withstand the ruling of a corrupt Supreme Court?
The Only path. The only way I can see is a Constitutional Amendment movement to clearly define corporate rights and restrict them to a very limited set of property rights. I believe this is an idea that can be embraced by left and right. I live in a very conservative region of the country, and I assure you that religious conservatives can understand and embrace this fight. That is the other reason I call it the grand unifying theory of American Politics.
The right has successfully used Constitutional Amendment movements to focus attention on issues. The issues they pursue are generally ones more appropriately dealt with through statute and do not impact the architecture of government. This issue is fundamental to the architecture of government.
It is also the soft spot in the belly of the dragon. You know the story of the dragon: it scales are so hard and impenetrable that the most powerful warriors cannot defeat it? Time and time again they are consumed in the dragon’s flames. But one day a brave young girl runs under and finds the one soft spot in the dragon’s belly and sticks her knife in, piercing the heart of the dragon. That is what we must do. And the knife is a Constitutional Amendment.