C'mon folks, give us a break! About a year ago, on the advice of my accountant, I became a Corporate entity, and so I write these words as an "Inc." There, I said it. I am out of the closet and ready to champion the great new civil rights movement of our era--liberty and justice for all Corporations!
It is time for us Corporations to throw off our yokes. Time to declare that no longer will we tolerate the bigoted insults of those who see us as less than human. Time to assert that no more will we be treated as second-class citizens in the country we own.
There are those who say the U.S. $upreme Court erred when this week it officially recognized our free speech rights in a ruling that lets us spend as we wish in political campaigns. President Obama today said that the ruling "strikes at democracy." Oh really? Democracy takes a hit because we are now able to exercise our God-given right to freely buy the politicians of our choice? I don't think so. We have been unshackled. No more will we being unjustly constrained--able only to window shop outside the political department store but forbidden from partaking in its cornucopia. "Look but don't touch, and certainly don't buy," was the humiliating burden of the anti-Corporate tyranny that ruled us for too long.
"[T]he Government may not suppress political speech on the basis of the speaker's corporate identity," wrote Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy in his brilliant opinion. The dark cloud of censorship has been lifted. Speech and purchase power are now one. It's as if we Corporations have been allowed to move to the front of the bus or sit at the restaurant counter. However, our work is not yet over. Yes, we can now put our money where our Corporate mouths are, and we will, but we cannot yet rest.
Mindful of our right to marry, we have taken full advantage of the privilege of holy matrimony. . Mergers and acquisitions are running at record numbers. But it is time to assert our full rights, lest we be considered three-fifths human or less. Endowed by our creators with certain unalienable rights, we Corporations now need to move beyond the First Amendment. In keeping with the ideals of equal protection granted in the 14th amendment of the great constitution of the United States, we now stand ready to claim the right that has been so long overdue--the right to vote. What use is free speech if we are denied the freedom to act? In that, we look for inspiration to the words of President Lyndon B. Johnson who said, in proposing the Voting Rights Act: "There is no Constitutional issue here. The command of the Constitution is plain. There is no moral issue. It is wrong--deadly wrong--to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country." Right on, brother!
And, so my fellow Americans--Corporate and non-Corporate--please join me in the next noble cause. Extend true universal suffrage to the weakest among us--America's Corporations. We make the ballot boxes, and now we need to fill them. "One Corporation, one vote" will be our starting point. But justice demands more. Corporate citizens deserve proportional democracy. Today, we take up the cause of "one share, one vote." Yes, I know there will be objections. People will point out that under that system, Bill Gates will have 680,970,258 votes. But, let me ask you this? Does liberty have a limit? Will Big Government dare to set the price/earnings ratio of Democracy?
Our time has come! Our cause is just! The dividends will be ours!