To the editor:
The progressive destruction of our Democracy by "Corporate Personhood" has been a slow and insidious process here in America. Even though our Constitution itself does not mention corporations as endowed with the same rights as persons, corporate attorneys mainly have pursued legal precedent many times over for more that a century that has suggested that corporations are "persons" under the 14th Amendment. Now there are Supreme Court laws on the books that are giving corporations political and civil rights as if the corporation was a "person." Corporations along with the billionaires who run them are interested in what is best for the corporation and continuing to amass obscene amounts of wealth. Since Supreme Court driven case law identifies these corporations as "persons," they can contribute unlimited amounts of money to candidates in our election contests. Corporate money is now being used as "speech," which is another Supreme Court case law creation - our Constitution says nothing about this.
Now political parties choose candidates based on their ability to raise massive amounts of money, not because of their qualifications or dedication to wanting to serve the people. This is where many worthy men and women suffer in the running of a campaign if they don't fall into the corporate welfare line; it's hard for them to get their message out there ... their voices are drowned out.
We blame the government because they are not doing what we want them to do. We forget that this is our government. It is time we stopped waiting for government to change - it is time for us to demand the change that we all know needs to happen. Don't accept the "divide and conquer" propaganda.
We are all in this together and with our voices and with our votes we can force our government to once again serve the best interests of the American people.
Citizens of Monroe and surrounding areas in Green County have good things happening. Visit Wisconsin United To Amend.org or Green County United To Amend (webpage) or South Central Wisconsin United to Amend on Facebook. There will be a free public forum on Wednesday at the Monroe Public Library from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. sponsored by local United To Amend members to share and have open questions and answers on these pressing issues.
The progressive destruction of our Democracy by "Corporate Personhood" has been a slow and insidious process here in America. Even though our Constitution itself does not mention corporations as endowed with the same rights as persons, corporate attorneys mainly have pursued legal precedent many times over for more that a century that has suggested that corporations are "persons" under the 14th Amendment. Now there are Supreme Court laws on the books that are giving corporations political and civil rights as if the corporation was a "person." Corporations along with the billionaires who run them are interested in what is best for the corporation and continuing to amass obscene amounts of wealth. Since Supreme Court driven case law identifies these corporations as "persons," they can contribute unlimited amounts of money to candidates in our election contests. Corporate money is now being used as "speech," which is another Supreme Court case law creation - our Constitution says nothing about this.
Now political parties choose candidates based on their ability to raise massive amounts of money, not because of their qualifications or dedication to wanting to serve the people. This is where many worthy men and women suffer in the running of a campaign if they don't fall into the corporate welfare line; it's hard for them to get their message out there ... their voices are drowned out.
We blame the government because they are not doing what we want them to do. We forget that this is our government. It is time we stopped waiting for government to change - it is time for us to demand the change that we all know needs to happen. Don't accept the "divide and conquer" propaganda.
We are all in this together and with our voices and with our votes we can force our government to once again serve the best interests of the American people.
Citizens of Monroe and surrounding areas in Green County have good things happening. Visit Wisconsin United To Amend.org or Green County United To Amend (webpage) or South Central Wisconsin United to Amend on Facebook. There will be a free public forum on Wednesday at the Monroe Public Library from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. sponsored by local United To Amend members to share and have open questions and answers on these pressing issues.
