Friday, October 15, 2010

You think the Constitution is wrong, Congressman? I think you don't know what's in it.



Okay, I'm just doing this for snark, because I'm not a constitution-worshiper myself and I don't even know who this guy is so his opinion is pretty much completely meaningless to me.

But Congressman, when you say "I don't think corporations should have the same equality as a regular voter in this district," a statement at least worth discussing, you're not anywhere near anything that's in the constitution, which does not mention corporations. Okay? Corporations are a legal fiction - formed by the government, which would be you - specifically for the purpose of creating immortal paper people. You may as well give them the vote.

When you say "I think the constitution is wrong," though, you admit to at least a willingness to violate that inconvenient oath thing. You know - the one you publicly took?
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.

He never seemed to catch the magnitude of his error in saying that in open debate. But based on the "applause" his audience didn't seem in any doubt. 8^)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

What would you put in place of a corporation? We didn't invent it because we were stting around one day and the video game wasn't working. It is essential to business and business is essential to us all living. So we do away with "corporation" and create "XYZ" that is essentially the same thing does it make you feel better? Or are you more of an anarchist and want to eliminate everything? Corporations are essential, I would argue far more essential then our federal government is.

CorbinKale said...

Domestic enemy spotted!

Tahn said...

Corporations are not evil in their essence. They are only a market mechanism for arranging contracts between willing individuals.

However, in our history, the government has given some of the powers of the citizens to corporations. The same government has then tried to control said corporations, resulting in a political/economic merger of the two. This is the evil.

We called it fascism. Mussolini called it corporatism.

Joel said...

Wow. Anonymous. Getting a little touchy there, guy. What did I say that was so negative on corporations?

Whether or not you think the existence of corporations is a good thing, corporations are not synonymous with business. I do business every single week - I think very highly of doing business - and I'm not a corporation.

Read the post again. It's not about corporations. It's about politicians' contempt for the constitution they pretend to preserve and protect.

Anonymous said...

Good. I accept your reply on it's face. Indeed governments have interferred with corporations and are at risk of Fascism as Tahn said. Our government intentionally passes regulations with the intent of hurting one business/corporation and/or helping another business/corporation. Its because of this intentional and criminal government meddling that corporations feel the need to lobby, i.e. in self defense. There is also large segments of private business that exist essentially to extract money from the government (corn to ethanol comes to mind). I don't really think any of this will ever get fixed, neither the Republicans nor Democrats have any guts to fix something that greases so many palms. But my point is that it was not the corporations that created this mess it was the politicians and it is not the corporations who can fix it either.