Mr. Kenyatta, when you and I are not on the same train, we seem to run on parallel tracks. Alas, finding you mention ‘citizens united’ twice in the same article, was no surprise to me.
On September 3, 1783, corporations lost the Revolutionary War and have been fighting people ever since. Two hundred and forty-one years later, on November 5, 2024, corporations won their independence and declared victory.
Once again, the North American continent is ruled by corporations – not people.
While the founders led the revolutionaries, they had no intention of surrendering corporations that had given them status, wealth and power they could never have acquired on their own. And so, when forming the new government, the founders betrayed the colonists and left the door open for corporations to return.
While the founders believed they could invent a government with the power to control corporations, they soon learned they were wrong.
On June 21, 1788, the United States Constitution was ratified and immediately went into effect. As you note, Mr. Kenyatta, “The word “democracy” appears not-a-once in the Declaration of Independence.” And I hasten to add, that the word “corporation” does not appear in the United States Constitution, or the Bill of Rights either – not even once.
The writings of Thomas Jefferson, among others, tell the tale of the founders’ confrontation with their own arrogance, greed, and stupidity.
In 1789 Thomas Jefferson wrote… “I set out on this ground, which I suppose to be self evident, ‘that the earth belongs in usufruct to the living’: that the dead have neither powers nor rights over it. The portion occupied by any individual ceases to be his when himself ceases to be, and reverts to the society.”
In 1816, Thomas Jefferson wrote… “I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”
In 1819, Jefferson wrote… “To make a corporate charter sacrosanct would amount to a belief that “the earth belongs to the dead, and not to the living.”
In 1864, the nation was embroiled in civil war, when Abraham Lincoln wrote…. “It has indeed been a trying hour for the Republic; but 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 [civil] war, 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. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless.”
As Supreme Court Justice, Hugo Black, once noted, the original intent of the 14th amendment was the protection of freed blacks from repressive legislation. However, during the first fifty years after the 14th amendment was adopted, less than one-half of 1 percent of the cases in which it was invoked had to do with protection of African Americans, while 50 percent involved corporations unrelenting efforts to be treated as people in the American legal system.
IOW, the fourteenth amendment was used to free corporations – not keep freed men and women free.
The fact that corporations are not people is a self-evident truth, is liberating. Knowing that corporations exist only in the law, is empowering.
Corporations do not just control “The System” anymore. On November 5th, 2024 Corporations became “The System”. In turn, those of us, who are human, were set free from the constraints of conscience, to destroy this thing called corporations – once and for all.
PS sorry for the lengthy comment. I needed to exercise my mind. If you should think I am not on track, please tell me. :)
