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Loading...OWS Protester Challenges Romney’s Claim That “Corporations Are People”
Back in August, 2011, Presidential candidate Mitt Romney made headlines while trying to explain to Iowa State Fair goers why it would be better to raise retirement ages for Medicare and Social Security than raise taxes on corporations.
During his response to a member of the crowd who disagreed this idea, Romney uttered the now-famous line, “Corporations are people, my friend,” referencing the Supreme Court’s controversial Citizens United ruling. (In case you don’t recall this incident, you can watch a video of it here).
It’s little surprise then that the Occupy Wall Street movement, born just one month later, has used the rejection of ‘corporate personhood‘ as a rallying cry during its protests. As OWS has grown, politicians who opposed Citizens United back in 2010 have renewed their fight against the ruling, even introducing a Constitutional Amendment that would restore restrictions on corporate contributions to political campaigns.
Most recently, an OWS protester attended a Romney rally in New Hampshire, openly challenging the candidate’s former statement and asking for a retraction. Watch the video below to see what happened:
Related Reading:
Vermont Introduces Resolution To Ban Corporate Personhood
LA City Council Agrees With OWS: Corporations Are Not People
Image taken from above video by Democracy Now!
Read more: 2012 election, citizens united, corporate personhood, gop, mitt romney, new hampshire, occupy wall street, ows, politics, primary
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Recent Comments from Causes
go away BP
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Sick SOB's.
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76 comments
+ add your ownIn the face of what I believe; that a peoples covenant must be signed (class action suit)...that protects the various elements in nature for future generations... (ie; water).. the comment by
romney is very revealing.... I believe a showdown is immenant ... the sleeping gas of corporatism is already being released.. most People are either asleep or being sent there by the fatuous politic of burgerville...wake up.
No kid your eyes are good...you just got the spit of a cobra in them.
Or maybe its' like you have this deja vu thing where you move forward in life a bit ...go to the definition of insanity Oz like hotel casino and ..sure enough.. you wake up next day ...naked , bleeding bruised in the cheapest version of hotel california.
What was the name of that hotel?.... Peoples??... was that it? ......somehow these political pig feed answers just don't quite do it anymore.....sooooeeee!
rember that disney cartoon character used to shake its' head in incredulity ..slobber fying, lips,ears flopping side to side ,eyes bugged out?
This is one of the spells cast generation by generation to put us back to sleep....
You know that somethins happening hear; but you don't know what it is...do you ..Mr. Jones.
Heard this on Democracy Now. It was even more meaningful having a lengthy conversation explaining and putting everything into context.
A corporation is a deal made in agreement, signed on paper. The corporations are run by people, and hire people. But the corporations themselves are NOT people. Just promises on paper.
The KKK and Nazis were people too. What's the point?
There is a logical way to look at this.
First of all, a corporation cannot be a person. It is a lot of people doing separate jobs in order to produce a product/service for the people of this country. These people range from the rich overseers in the corporate offices to the paid peons on the floor of the business.
Secondly, every person in this business has the right to donate to any and all causes--charitable or political--he or she chooses. That is the right of every citizen of the USA.
Thirdly, the corporation does not have the right to collect donations from its employees and donate them as a person to a political entity. The corporation is not a person. The workers are people. I have deliberately left out the charitable donations in this because many charities survive on the donations of the employees and customers of individual corporations.
(@Fern D.) Actually SCOTUS did not in "citizens united" vs. FEC declare corporations to be people but rather declared that a particular aspect of an FEC regulation was overly vague in trying to regulate PACs.
The point being ruled upon may actually have been a valid point of constitutional law, but that did indeed leave us having to rely on elected officials in congress ( benefiting from the broken system) to pull the heroin needle from their own arm.
The FEC could try to craft a replacement regulation , which they have yet to do.
I suspect that whatever regulation they attempt that with corporate resources far in excess of the FEC's entire operating budget , it would be a David and Goliath feat , but without benefit of a sling shot.
This coming election will be probably the final tipping point
Let's take back our money that the corporations stole from us!!!!
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