CORPORATIONS HAVE NO BRAINS, THEY ARE NOT HUMAN BEINGS WITH A CONSCIENCE
The reality of our predicament is that with the Supreme Court Citizens United decision that corporations are considered human beings and therefore have the right to make unlimited, anonymous contributions to political campaigns have tilted the balance of the power of the vote. No longer does the voter have a legitimate role in a participatory democracy because there is no way that a group of voters or any organization for that matter can match the economic might of corporations.
We were already finding the political system terribly askew and favoring special interests with the great influence and power that lobbyists had on our elected officials. We saw this time and time again where the voter would elect a politician to represent them and once they got to Washington, even before his bags were unpacked and the movers had delivered the boxes he or she was already in the pockets of the lobbyists; representing their bosses and those special interest that very politician was sent to Washington to oppose.
Democracy or the concept of one I believe was already in trouble and I consider it to be but a fleeting illusion such as it is presently as the fat cats have obtained control of our political process.
The most dangerous aspect of the Supreme Court ruling is that it opens up avenues to foreign special interests including some of our adversaries that would want to effectively and adversely render changes that would hurt our country and benefit theirs.
It remains to be seen as more of these foreign donors are found out whether this is a wise practice to continue or if we, collectively should put the brakes on the whole procedure. Maybe even enact a law that would somehow either curtail or totally prohibit any funds coming from abroad to be donated to political campaigns. Transparency is also a solution although with the short attention span most voters have I am afraid that just knowing who is donating the money will not be sufficient.
My point is simply this: Corporations don’t have a conscience and their only reason for existing is to deliver profits to its stock holders. If you had a human being interfacing in the mix perhaps there would be some degree of applied ethics and it would no longer be whether it is good for the bottom line or if it is good for the country and humanity in general.
It is perfectly clear to me that sacrificing the environment for example or destroying the democratic process is not a desirable exchange for getting profits to the stockholders; or, for that matter to gain some favorable position to a foreign government. A lot of good it is going to do the stockholders to be immensely wealthy if there is no country and no safe place they can live.