Fwd: [ cacklinggrackle] proposition T

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Ramsey Wiggins <ramseywig

Jun 25, 2006 10:01 PM

[cacklinggrackle] proposition T

cacklinggrackle <cacklinggrackle >

 

 

Robert C. Koehler, Common Wonders

 

In the old monarchies of Europe, the resident populace were known as

subjects. Here in the New World, where mankind started over, we're

citizens, a word that pulses with self-governing power.

 

This is pretty scary, and there's plenty of pressure on us not to take

this role literally. Democracy is dangerous, after all. It's always a

threat to those in power. This is why its expansion over the last 230

years — through abolitionism, trade unionism, women's suffrage, the

civil rights movement — has never come without struggle and

controversy. But where democracy is healthy, this is what citizens do:

expand the terrain.

 

Welcome to Humboldt County, Calif., a largely rural county 250 miles

north of San Francisco where democracy is healthy indeed, and where,

thanks to a citizens' initiative called Measure T, which passed at the

beginning of the month with 55 percent of the vote, local governance

has asserted itself in the face of the threat of Big Money disguised

as just another neighbor exercising his right to free speech.

 

Measure T took on the weird concept known as " corporate personhood, " a

legal fiction bequeathed to us from the robber-baron era of the late

19th century, in which corporations managed to gain legal standing as

" persons, " with inherent rights that can't be abridged by law, just as

human beings have, rather than mere court-granted privileges.

 

 

 

This abomination is democracy's equivalent of " Attack of the Killer

Robots. " When business conglomerates (unlike any other organized

group) have constitutionally guaranteed rights and protections, their

interests will swamp ours. For instance, of the first 150 cases heard

by the Supreme Court involving the 14th Amendment, which requires

states to provide equal protection under the law to all persons within

their jurisdiction, and for which the Civil War was fought, only 15

cases concerned former slaves; the other 135 were about the rights of

business entities.

 

As Thom Hartmann has noted, " Unlike you and me, when large

corporations 'speak' they can use a billion-dollar bullhorn. "

 

This is the sort of deafening noise that began raining down on

Humboldt County recently. Twice in the last seven years, large,

out-of-state corporations attempted to trample local rule by throwing

money around and posing as " players " in local politics.

 

In 1999, Wal-Mart poured $250,000 into an effort to change the city of

Eureka's zoning laws so it could plunk down one of its giant retail

boxes on 30 acres of waterfront. Then in 2004, MAXXAM Inc., a

Texas-based forest products company, launched a recall campaign

against local District Attorney Paul Gallegos, who had the temerity to

try to enforce environmental regulations on the company's operations

in the county. MAXXAM spent $300,000 to get him out of office.

 

Both assaults on local rule were unsuccessful, but residents were

appalled that the shenanigans were possible at all. And on June 6,

following a heated campaign spearheaded by an organization

appropriately called Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County, with the

enthusiastic participation of the local Green and Democratic parties

as well as area labor unions, voters across the political spectrum

passed Measure T, which prohibits nonlocal corporations from spending

so much as a penny to influence a local election.

 

The penalties on companies that play unwarranted politics range from

fines (10 times the amount of money inappropriately contributed, to be

paid to Humboldt County) to revocation of their charter to do business

in California.

 

" This is bigger than a legal challenge — it's broader and deeper, "

said David Cobb of Democracy Unlimited (who was also the Green Party

presidential candidate in 2004). " We're talking about a culture shift.

We're challenging people to ask who rules this country — unaccountable

corporations or we the people? "

 

Now that's patriotism — of the proud, defiant, " don't tread on me "

variety. And where citizen involvement is noisy and vibrant, elections

will be about issues of substance and consequence, not about, as it so

often seems, as little as possible.

 

Measure T reads in part (under " Findings and General Purpose " ): " In a

Democratic Republic all legitimate political power is held by the

people, and government exercises just power only with the consent of

the governed. The people create their government for their protection

and benefit, and retain their right to alter their government whenever

they deem the public good requires it.

 

" Only natural persons (human beings, in other words) possess civil and

political rights. "

 

Cobb told me he thinks Measure T is only the third U.S. law that has

ever challenged corporate personhood, and the first to deal with

campaign financing and to result from a citizens' initiative. So far,

he said, organizers have heard from about a dozen communities since

the election, wanting to know how they stood up to Big Money. He is

hopeful there will be more. (The organization can be reached via

www.duhc.org.)

 

The influence of corporate money is so pervasive, most of us are

probably surprised it can be challenged at all. Well, it can be. And

Measure T may be a beachhead in a long campaign to bring corporate

power down to its appropriate political size.

 

© Robert C. Koehler