What should be CORE Democratic Messaging? On Corporate Frankensteins:

[eniwetok]

The Dems should to be clear that the agenda is for real persons, not artificial entities called corporations. Just as intellectual property monopolies such as patents and copyrights exist for ONE purpose alone... and it's right there in the Constitution...

The Congress shall have Power.... To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;


and this implicitly states these protection should NOT go beyond unjust enrichment or patents designed only to trap consumers in vendor lock.... Democrats must stress that corporations must be seen ONLY as social creations, economic tools, designed to benefit real persons. Corporate needs beyond that purpose are not socially valid. To go there only furthers the threat that our creations become our Frankensteins that will mold people, society, and government to suit ITS needs. Clearly this has already happened.

The GOP will never make this argument... and Dems FAIL to make this argument at their... and society's peril.

[caroldansen]

1. Very good point. And also remember that republicans

have often gotten their way because they screamed the loudest and complained the most. They are NOT polite like democrats. Same thing when Jesus and the thief Barrabas were hanging on the cross and the governors could free one prisoner that day so that one would live and the other prisoners die. The governors said the only reason Barrabas was chosen to go free is because his followers YELLED THE LOUDEST.

[eniwetok]

2. The Far Right knows it has a minority agenda

The GOP has had periods of semi-moderation, but the far right that's taken over the GOP knows it has a minority agenda of

Protecting wealth and
Advancing corporate power largely through nuking regulations and expanding corporate personhood,

They can not accomplish the above without duping single issue people into joining their coalition...

The Far Right KNOWS it has to play dirty. But then it's success is largely due to the failure of the Dems to expose their agenda. I've NEVER heard any Democrat, not even Bernie Sanders, make the argument I did in the original post.

[cos dem]

3. We need a constitutional ammendment

Says 2 things:
1. Money is not speech
2. Corporations are not people

[eniwetok]

4. sure... but that's a narrow approach to a bigger problem

Sure, I fully approve of the Move To Amend amendment though I worry about how some wording is not precise enough. The amendment needs more of a preface such as in that quote from Justice Stevens

". . . corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires. Corporations help structure and facilitate the activities of human beings, to be sure, and their 'personhood' often serves as a useful legal fiction. But they are not themselves members of “We the People” by whom and for whom our Constitution was established."



But we had plenty of problems with the corporate form LONG before that 2010 decision in large part because corporations largely exist because of state law not federal law. And it must include provisions to deal with regulatory capture... perhaps that any and all communication between corporations and public officials MUST be done in a public forum.