[Peace-discuss] Green Party on Citizens United v. Fed. Elec. Comm

[C. G. Estabrook]

[Rich Whitney seems to me to be easily a better choice for governor than any of 
the Republican or Democrat candidates - e.g., he's the only candidate of all of 
those who considers the war illegal and immoral, and who's pledged to try to 
prevent the Illinois National Guard from fighting in the Mideast.  Here he takes 
on corporate reform. --CGE]

-------- Original Message --------

	Rich Whitney for Governor 2010
	www.whitneyforgov.org
	FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE- January 24, 2010
	Contact: Brandon Punke, Communications Director, 618-434-0046

	RICH WHITNEY’S RESPONSE TO RULING
	IN CITIZENS UNITED V. FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION

Carbondale, IL--Green Party candidate for Governor Rich Whitney issued
the following statement Friday in response to the recent Supreme Court
ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission:

In a transparently political decision, a majority of the U.S. Supreme
Court overturned its own recent precedent yesterday and paid tribute
to the giant corporate interests that already wield tremendous power
over our political process and political speech. Drawing upon a much
older precedent – the legal fiction of corporate “personhood” that it
created in 1886 – the Court determined that these contrived “rights”
trump the public interest in having genuinely representative
government.

The limitations on corporate influence currently in place were already
inadequate to prevent corporate and banking interests from dominating
government at both the federal and state levels. These forces have
already undermined the democratic process to the point where our
government has become a plutocracy – rule by the wealthy – rather than
something that could still be called a democratic republic.
Increasingly, it has also become a “kleptocracy,” as these same
interests have used their control over government to privatize public
functions and raid the public treasury.

Corporate and bank campaign contributions already direct the actions
of the Democratic and Republican parties, their candidates and
officeholders. An army of highly paid corporate-and-bank-sponsored
lobbyists reinforce the message, peddling their influence through the
power to give or take away campaign cash. As Will Rogers used to say,
“We have the best politicians money can buy.” The American people
recently witnessed a crystal clear example of how the system “works” –
works to ensure that corporate interests are served, that is – in the
recent fiasco known as health-care reform.

On top of all that, five corporate conglomerates control the vast
majority of what most Americans consume as “news.” But yesterday the
Supreme Court declared that that wasn’t enough. Now it has reopened
the floodgates for corporations to promote their policy agenda and
their chosen candidates – and to trash any candidate that crosses them
– with no holds barred.

But with every problem comes an opportunity. In the face of this
devastating threat to what remains of democratic process in our
country, I, along with my fellow Green Party candidates, now present
an even clearer choice to voters. We remain the Party that stands on
principle, the Party that does not accept, and whose candidates do not
accept, corporate money. We are the Party that is serious about
establishing government of, by and for the people.

Our commitment to this goal goes beyond our commitment to swearing off
corporate money, however. We stand for a direct challenge to corporate
domination of not only our political system, but our economic system.
As the Illinois Green Party platform states:
    By definition, a "corporation" is a legal fiction – a business
entity or organization that . . . has been given “rights” comparable
to human beings, yet does not have the same legal responsibilities as
human beings. . . .

    While originally subject to strict regulation under state charter,
corporations over the years have eroded these social controls and now
exert much more control over governments than governments exert
control over them. Even in his day, Abraham Lincoln warned:

    I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and
causes me to tremble for the safety of my country . . . . corporations
have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will
follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong
its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all
wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.
        Letter to William Elkin, Nov. 21, 1864

But just as the corporation was a creation of human beings, acting
through their government, human beings, acting through government, can
rein in the power of corporations – or even abolish them if they so
choose. And herein lies the answer to the challenge posed yesterday by
the Supreme Court. The Court has spoken: Corporations have First
Amendment rights, and for the time being, we the people are stuck with
the consequences of that decision. But we the people always have the
power to decide whether a corporation is chartered or licensed in the
first place, and under what conditions. We also retain the power to
decide which corporations are allowed to do business in our state, and
under what conditions.

Again quoting our platform, the Green Party not only favors
“alternatives to the corporate model,” such as worker-owned
enterprises and workers’ cooperatives. It also favors reinvigorating
our corporate chartering laws, such that corporations will be
permitted to operate “only if they minimize or eliminate their
environmental harm, engage in no socially destructive behavior, pay a
living wage to their employees, do not abandon communities that have
benefitted them, and [meet] other publicly beneficial criteria.”

To this we can add a new requirement: that corporations shall not be
chartered, nor foreign corporations allowed to do business in
Illinois, unless they agree not to engage in speech aimed at
influencing its officeholders or candidates, or provide monetary
support to any organization that aims to influence officeholders or
candidates.

The Supreme Court trumped the public interest by declaring that
corporations have rights of free speech. But through the Green Party,
the people can trump the Supreme Court, by declaring that no
corporation has the right to exist in the first place unless it agrees
not to use its First Amendment rights to influence elections and
political decision-making.

If elected Governor of Illinois, I will do everything in my power to
completely bar corporate and banking influence over government.

###


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