bring on the lovingoverthrow

"I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations which dare already to challenge our government in a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country."  Thomas Jefferson

We thought we had won the battle for the separation of church and state.  What is clear now is that victory won't be secure until we also secure the next one - the separation of corporations and state. 

Our founders were well aware of the dangers of church/state enmeshment but the dangers of corporate/state enmeshment were not fully distinguished and could not be fully distinguished until the undue influence of an established church had been eliminated.   With the church elite out of the way, the money elite set about taking control of the state and made such large and immediate gains toward accomplishing their mission that Thomas Jefferson was able to recognize and decry the danger even in his lifetime.

What I want to know is this.  If it is not okay for the state to impose religious doctrine, why is it okay for it to impose economic doctrine?  If democratic government needs protection from the corruptions of religious influence, how much more does it need protection from a the corruptions of corporate influence?  Especially since all those no longer believe in God still very much believe in money?  Why should we, at this point in history, be less concerned about the influence of the institution whose job it is to ruthlessly pursue the private good of a tiny few than our ancestors were about the influence of the institution whose job was to pursue the common good?   

It is the extremely degraded condiditon of our laws and government, brought on by the influence of corporations that  has people so desperate and so little educated that they are willing to tear down the separation of church and state and let the critical functions of government be operated for the private profit of the moneyed few.

The only thing short of a new revolution that can save democracy now is the elimination of the abominable fiction of corporate personhood and a reinvigoration of the understanding that corporations exist, first and foremost, to serve the public good and only secondarily, if at all, to create private wealth.

An entity that can not starve or thirst or sicken from exposure to toxic waste or die from lack of adequate medical care is not a person!

 
(The church and state cartoon is by Barry Blitt and was published in the NYTimes.)