In the old monarchies of Europe, the resident populace were known as
subjects. Here in the New World, where mankind started over, we're
citizens, a word that pulses with self-governing power.
This is pretty scary, and there's plenty of pressure on us not to take
this role literally. Democracy is dangerous, after all. It's always a
threat to those in power. This is why its expansion over the last 230
years - through abolitionism, trade unionism, women's suffrage, the
civil rights movement - has never come without struggle and
controversy. But where democracy is healthy, this is what citizens do:
expand the terrain.
Welcome to Humboldt County, Calif., a largely rural county 250 miles
north of San Francisco where democracy is healthy indeed, and where,
thanks to a citizens' initiative called Measure T, which passed at the
beginning of the month with 55 percent of the vote, local governance
has asserted itself in the face of the threat of Big Money disguised
as just another neighbor exercising his right to free speech.
Measure T took on the weird concept known as "corporate personhood," a
legal fiction bequeathed to us from the robber-baron era of the late
19th century, in which corporations managed to gain legal standing as
"persons," with inherent rights that can't be abridged by law, just as
human beings have, rather than mere court-granted privileges.
This abomination is democracy's equivalent of "Attack of the Killer
Robots." When business conglomerates (unlike any other organized
group) have constitutionally guaranteed rights and protections, their
interests will swamp ours. For instance, of the first 150 cases heard
by the Supreme Court involving the 14th Amendment, which requires
states to provide equal protection under the law to all persons within
their jurisdiction, and for which the Civil War was fought, only 15
cases concerned former slaves; the other 135 were about the rights of
business entities.
As Thom Hartmann has noted, "Unlike you and me, when large
corporations 'speak' they can use a billion-dollar bullhorn."
This is the sort of deafening noise that began raining down on
Humboldt County recently. Twice in the last seven years, large,
out-of-state corporations attempted to trample local rule by throwing
money around and posing as "players" in local politics.
In 1999, Wal-Mart poured $250,000 into an effort to change the city of
Eureka's zoning laws so it could plunk down one of its giant retail
boxes on 30 acres of waterfront. Then in 2004, MAXXAM Inc., a
Texas-based forest products company, launched a recall campaign
against local District Attorney Paul Gallegos, who had the temerity to
try to enforce environmental regulations on the company's operations
in the county. MAXXAM spent $300,000 to get him out of office.
Both assaults on local rule were unsuccessful, but residents were
appalled that the shenanigans were possible at all. And on June 6,
following a heated campaign spearheaded by an organization
appropriately called Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County, with the
enthusiastic participation of the local Green and Democratic parties
as well as area labor unions, voters across the political spectrum
passed Measure T, which prohibits non-local corporations from spending
so much as a penny to influence a local election.
The penalties on companies that play unwarranted politics range from
fines (10 times the amount of money inappropriately contributed, to be
paid to Humboldt County) to revocation of their charter to do business
in California.
"This is bigger than a legal challenge - it's broader and deeper,"
said David Cobb of Democracy Unlimited (who was also the Green Party
presidential candidate in 2004). "We're talking about a culture shift.
We're challenging people to ask who rules this country - unaccountable
corporations or we the people?"
Now that's patriotism - of the proud, defiant, "don't tread on me"
variety. And where citizen involvement is noisy and vibrant, elections
will be about issues of substance and consequence, not about, as it so
often seems, as little as possible.
Measure T reads in part (under "Findings and General Purpose"): "In a
Democratic Republic all legitimate political power is held by the
people, and government exercises just power only with the consent of
the governed. The people create their government for their protection
and benefit, and retain their right to alter their government whenever
they deem the public good requires it.
"Only natural persons (human beings, in other words) possess civil and
political rights."
Cobb told me he thinks Measure T is only the third U.S. law that has
ever challenged corporate personhood, and the first to deal with
campaign financing and to result from a citizens' initiative. So far,
he said, organizers have heard from about a dozen communities since
the election, wanting to know how they stood up to Big Money. He is
hopeful there will be more. (The organization can be reached via
www.duhc.org.)
The influence of corporate money is so pervasive, most of us are
probably surprised it can be challenged at all. Well, it can be. And
Measure T may be a beachhead in a long campaign to bring corporate
power down to its appropriate political size.
---
Robert Koehler, an award-winning, Chicago-based journalist, is an
editor at Tribune Media Services and nationally syndicated writer. You
can respond to this column at
bkoehler@tribune.com or visit his Web
site at commonwonders.com.
© 2006 Tribune Media Services, Inc.
