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A call to reclaim democracy
If you wonder why and when giant corporations got the power to reign supreme over us, here's the story. A look at Thom Hartmann's important new book, Unequal Protection
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by William Hare

HEN MANY OF US TACKLE THE SUBJECT of Corporations as law students we were left with a feeling of helpless bewilderment as well as a rancid taste over corporate status as a fictitious person. This legal fiction was compounded into soaring advantages for corporate status, which rankled those of us concerned about fairness in the overall legal picture.

Thom Hartmann's groundbreaking work "Unequal Protection" explains how corporations came to achieve their current hugely advantageous status in a society where President George W. Bush is referred to as "America's CEO." Hartmann begins his study with the American Revolution and its roots as a tax revolt against the inequality rendered against the native population by England. Much of this injustice was manifested by the international British monopoly, the East India Company, which destroyed indigenous competition within America in the important tea-making industry. Usurious tax rates were levied on American companies, while the East India Company prevailed. Two forces emerged in the American economic picture after freedom was achieved, that of the pro-competition, corporate-limiting element led by Thomas Jefferson and the Federalist, corporate protectionists spearheaded by John Adams.


fas-cism (fâsh'iz'em) n. A system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with belligerent nationalism.

-- The American Heritage Dictionary


While the corporate side was thwarted by the popular grassroots movement of Andrew Jackson, who ended the monopolistic United States Bank, the monopolists struck back in the era of the Robber Barons of the nineteenth century. A little known decision with strong future implications was handed down in the landmark 1886 U.S. Supreme Court case of Santa Clara County vs. Union Pacific Railroad. While never a part of the court's holding, the concept of the corporation as a person was insidiously worked into the headnotes of the opinion. From that point corporate lawyers seeking advantage treated the concept as revered doctrine.

The fundamental irony arising from the Santa Clara County case was that the Fourteenth Amendment of equal protection, presented to provide former slaves with freedom under the Constitution, was perversely twisted to provide corporate America with advantages over the common citizenry. Time and again courts would rule against the interests of taxpayers while providing corporations with huge advantages. We are currently seeing the results of such inequities as the gap being the richest and poorest elements of society widens, with the middle class squeezed in between.

Hartmann calls for effective grass roots action, encouraging citizens to begin at the local level to evoke a needed change in corporate status. Ordinance changes will hopefully initiate a ripple effect whereby a constitutional amendment will be adopted thereby ending the destructive controversy once and for all and eliminating the advantages achieved by corporations masquerading as persons. The due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment was written and intended for the protection of citizens, not expansive corporations wielding gigantic economic claws.

Buy the book







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For more information on this issue, visit ReclaimDemocracy.org, a proactive movement dedicated to restoring democratic authority over corporations, reviving grassroots democracy, and revoking the power of money and corporations to control government and civic society.

Presidents on corporations

"There is an evil which ought to be guarded against in the indefinite accumulation of property from the capacity of holding it in perpetuity by corporations. The power of all corporations ought to be limited in this respect. The growing wealth acquired by them never fails to be a source of abuses."

-- James Madison

"I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations which dare already to challenge our government in a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country."

-- Thomas Jefferson

"In this point of the case the question is distinctly presented whether the people of the United States are to govern through representatives chosen by their unbiased suffrages or whether the money and power of a great corporation are to be secretly exerted to influence their judgment and control their decisions."

-- Andrew Jackson

"I am more than ever convinced of the dangers to which the free and unbiased exercise of political opinion - the only sure foundation and safeguard of republican government - would be exposed by any further increase of the already overgrown influence of corporate authorities."

-- Martin Van Buren

"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavour 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. I feel at this moment more anxiety than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless."

-- Abraham Lincoln

"As we view the achievements of aggregated capital, we discover the existence of trusts, combinations, and monopolies, while the citizen is struggling far in the rear or is trampled to death beneath an iron heel. Corporations, which should be the carefully restrained creatures of the law and the servants of the people, are fast becoming the people's masters."

-- Grover Cleveland

"I again recommend a law prohibiting all corporations from contributing to the campaign expenses of any party. Let individuals contribute as they desire; but let us prohibit in effective fashion all corporations from making contributions for any political purpose, directly or indirectly."

-- Theodore Roosevelt

"Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day."

-- Theodore Roosevelt

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes."

-- Dwight D. Eisenhower