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November 19, 2006 at 08:32:09

Some Rights Just Have to be Surrendered

by Michael Bonanno     Page 1 of 2 page(s)

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"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." – Benjamin Franklin

Well, maybe.



I'm as liberal, progressive, socialist, leftist, pinko, commie as they come.

However, I'm saying that we need to give up some freedoms to protect our basic freedoms. I know, I know, you've never read anything so Orwellian in your life.

Let me try to explain.

When the wealthiest people are the only people who can afford to run for important national office, you get a bunch of bored people in leadership positions. What could people who have everything possibly want?

More. Yep, that's the only thing that they could possibly want. More power, even more money.

Sure, they can be giving and philanthropic at times. Sometimes they share their excess more with their wealthy friends. It gives them a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. As Bush once implied, not only will the "haves" be helped, but the "have mores" won't be left out.

But, as long as wealthy people are the only people who can afford to run for office, the "barely haves" and the "have nots" will continue to be left out.

So, unfortunately, here are some freedoms that need to be surrendered.

  1. Corporations have to surrender their personhood. After all, if you look at them, you can clearly see that they're not people. I mean, where are the ears, the eyes, the heart? They're definitely missing a heart.

    Consequently, stopping them from "contributing" millions of dollars to their favorite political candidates will no longer be a violation of their first amendment rights because they'll no longer have first amendment rights.

  2. People have to surrender their right to announce their candidacy any sooner than six months before an election.

    If someone does so or, underhandedly, lets his or her intention "leak out" any sooner than six months before an election, that person will just have to wait for the next election to run for office.

  3. The Electoral College electors will have to surrender their rights to jockey the real numbers around when they report them to Congress because there won't be any Electoral College.

  4. Candidates have to surrender their right to spend an obscene amount of money to support their candidacies.

    What's an "obscene" amount of money?

     1  |  2

     

    Song sample for September, 2008 Let The Sun Shine Down from the cd Flameland.

    Michael Bonanno is a published poet, essayist and musician who lives in the San Francisco Bay AreaSome of his poetry can be found at The Poetry Corner at OpEdNews.He is an associate editor for OpEdNews. 

    Bonanno is a political progressive, not a Democratic Party apologist. He believes it's government's job to help the needy and that leaving the people's well being to the so called "private sector" is social suicide.His CDs may be purchased at CD Baby.

     

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    4 comments

    My name it means nothing, my age it means less. My deeds of activism are mine to enjoy and share as I feel necesary, not as some clown in a small forum's administration thinks I must..This place gets worse each and every visit.
    Member banned on June 3, 2008 for repeated abuse of editors.

    ardee D.My name it means nothing, my age it means less. My deeds of activism are mine to enjoy and share as I feel necesary, not as some clown in a small forum's administration thinks I must..This place gets worse each and every visit.
    Member banned on June 3, 2008 for repeated abuse of editors.

    OK Michael turn in your membership card

    you are being drummmed out of the leftist club! ;-]

    I am in full agreement with those changes you call surrendering rights, though understand fully that we all actually become more free as a result of the changes wrought. The problem , as I se it, is that we are asking those who benefit most from the status quo to make those changes....an unlikely occurrence to be certain.

    Why, I wonder, can we not understand that the elction process is the very bedrock of a free society and encumbering that process with the need to spend tens of millions, and then to immediately begin to reacquire that money after a successful campaign in order to win again in two, four,or six years leads to what we now have, a democracy of the corporation and not so much for us.

    "What we have in this country is socialism for the rich and free enterprise for the poor."
    Gore Vidal

    The real question we should all be asking ourselves is how can we expect the club members to disband the exclusivity of the club? Anyone, anyone, Bueller?........

    by ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2388 comments) on Sunday, November 19, 2006 at 10:06:35 AM
     


    Art is publisher and lead reviewer of www.projectorreviews.com He has over 30 years of experience in the Audio and Visual fields, including launching Presenting Solutions (an INC 500 company) who's website was the first online site for projector information and sales back in early 1995. He sold that company in 2001, and launched www.ProjectorReviews.com shortly thereafter.
    Art FeiermanArt is publisher and lead reviewer of www.projectorreviews.com He has over 30 years of experience in the Audio and Visual fields, including launching Presenting Solutions (an INC 500 company) who's website was the first online site for projector information and sales back in early 1995. He sold that company in 2001, and launched www.ProjectorReviews.com shortly thereafter.

    Partially right (or left)

    Just two points - it's not just corporations, it's all organized special interests - be they corporations, unions (lets be fair here, unions do not represent all of their members, but rather spend their money on their agenda, and for the minority of members who disagree - tough luck), or any other groups, pro-life, but also pro-choice, pro-biz, pro-environment. Only individual donations with a spending limit.

    Next, the 6 month candidacy only makes matters worse. Between political gerrymandaring, and a 6 month candidacy, do you really think we'd ever have incumbents actually lose elections?

    by Art Feierman (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 9 comments) on Monday, November 20, 2006 at 3:32:31 AM
     

     

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