Each step forward in the struggle for justice invariably
evokes a negative response from those who would deny others their rights -
those who would, in fact, seek to deny them their very personhood. This has, for example, historically been the
case with ethnic minorities, with women, and more recently with the LGBT
community. And so it is with the most
recent emergent group, the Corporate Americans.
The Supreme Court has, in its wisdom, taken a courageous
stand in affirming the personhood of Corporate Americans under its historic
Citizens United decision. It seems clear
that Citizens United has at last guaranteed Corporate Americans their sacred
first-amendment right of freedom of speech.
I, for one, can only stand in wonder at how fully even the largest of
these recently-enfranchised Corporate Americans have embraced their patriotic
duty to speak freely during the course of the recent election - selflessly
donating countless millions of their hard-earned dollars towards the cause of enlightening
a benighted and often unappreciative public.
But Corporate Americans are still denied many of the rights
that most of us take for granted. While
it has now been established that that Corporate Americans are indeed people, it
is shameful to note that they are still denied the most basic right of every
American citizen -- the right to vote.
That they are still disenfranchised must be particularly painful to
those Corporate Americans who spent so dearly to influence the election, only
to see their guidance ignored by a majority of the electorate.
Giving corporations the vote would, of course, require some
minor adjustment to the election laws. While it is clear that Corporate
Americans, like other citizens, would need to have been in existence for at
least eighteen years before they would become eligible to cast their vote,
there are thornier questions that would need to be resolved. While human beings manifest themselves in a
single body at a single location, for example, corporations can (and do)
manifest themselves in many forms and at many locations. A corporate giant such as General Motors
manifests itself worldwide in far more embodiments than simply its Michigan
headquarters. It is certainly arguable
that each of its manifestations should therefore be enfranchised. At a minimum, for example, this would mean
that General Motors should be allowed one vote for each of the manufacturing
facilities, distribution centers and finance agencies operating under each of
its brand names, as well as for any dealerships that it might own, either
wholly or in part. General Motors would
thus effectively have several thousand votes, distributed throughout the
country. (The franchise would, of
course, not be extended to any of GM's foreign operations, as the prospect of
Chinese-made Buicks casting their votes in an American election is clearly unthinkable.)
There is little doubt that Corporate Americans would prove
to be model citizens, with a voting rate far in excess of that of the general
populace. A major financial institution
such as the Bank of America, in gratitude for the $45 billion in TARP monies it
received during the bailout, would certainly insure that all of its 5,682
branches would cast their votes in every election -- as would all of the ATMs
associated with each of those branches.
Of course, there will be moral questions involved in taking
such a bold, if honorable, step. While
we do not ask our military personnel to risk their lives in foreign wars until
they are old enough to vote, we think nothing of asking a newly-formed
corporation to undertake a similar risk.
Is it fair to impose such an inequity on our Corporate Americans?
I myself have had the honor of being present at the
incorporation (really the birth) of corporations. I would be delighted to see my progeny at
last granted their full rights as people.
Perhaps a group such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which labored so
diligently if unsuccessfully to influence the past election, would be willing
to begin the process that will ultimately bring this question before the
Supreme Court -- or perhaps Citizens United will once again take action to
protect the rights of those people who have been discriminated against simply
because they are corporations.
Sincerely,
H. John Fisher
Plainfield,
Massachusetts
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