[GPCA Updates] Green Candidate RICH WHITNEY’S RESPONSE TO RULING IN CITIZENS UNITED V. FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION

[Green Party of California Updates]

Rich Whitney for Governor 2010

www.whitneyforgov.org <http://www.whitneyforgov.org/>

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE- January 24, 2010


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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