Re: [FairfieldLife] RFK Jr. 2004 op-ed on how Teddy Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Lincoln et al see corporate-run government as
This guy is in fantasyland if he thinks party affiliation makes any difference in who controls lawmaking. "Love will swallow you, eat you up completely, until there is no `you,' only love." - Amma --- On Thu, 1/28/10, Rick Archer wrote: From: Rick Archer Subject: [FairfieldLife] RFK Jr. 2004 op-ed on how Teddy Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Lincoln et al see corporate-run government asTo: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, politicall...@searchsummit.comDate: Thursday, January 28, 2010, 3:06 PM Opening comments from a friend: In case you wonder why President Obama, in last night's soulful State of the Union address, had to comment on the Supreme Court's recent 5-to-4 dangerous ruling giving giant corporations more control of our political process (guess which justices voted for it and which voted against it), and why progressives are so fired up about the GOP-appointed justices rulings --here's a brief, cogent and very pithy op-ed from Bobby Kennedy Jr. that a friend sent me. It's several years old, but now even more incisive and needed than ever! [Note: bold-face and italics added for emphasis and easier reading:] Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. New York City – May 2, 2004 What happens when you allow corporations to run our government? What you get is plunder. And I have to say this, the American people have to understand that there is a huge difference between free market capitalism, which is a good thing because it makes us more efficient, more prosperous, and more democratic, and the kind of corporate-crony capitalism which has been embraced by this (Bush) White House [and by the recent Jan. 2010 Supreme Court ruling]. The reason they shouldn’t be running our government is because corporations don’t want the same thing for America as Americans want. Corporations do not want free markets and they do not want democracy. They want profits and the best way for them to get the profits too often is to use our campaign financing system which is just a system of legalized bribery, to get their hooks into a public official, they use that public official to dismantle the market place, to give them monopoly control, and then to privatize the commons, to turn over our Treasury, our air, our water, our public lands, our wildlife, our fishery, the shared resource of our society that give context to our community, that connects us to our past, that are the source of our values and our virtues and our character as a people, and we are turning that over, for profit, to these corporations. We have to remember this, legally corporations cannot do good things. They cannot do true philanthropy, they can’t do things that are good for our country or for our community. When you see Wal-Mart bringing bottled water down to the Katrina victims, they’re not doing that to be good guys, they’re doing it because they think that over the long run the public view of them will be enhanced and that that will enhance their shareholder value and their dividend distribution. If they have another reason for doing it, any one of their shareholders can sue them and they will win that lawsuit. It is called wasting corporate assets. It is against the law in this country for a corporation to turn itself into a philanthropy. And if they’re caught doing it their board members will be punished and their shareholders can sue them. We want corporations to be this way, to focus narrowly. We don’t want them to turn into philanthropies because nobody would invest in them. We want them to focus narrowly on shareholder value. BUT, we would be nuts to let them anywhere near our government because we designed them to plunder and that’s what they’re going to do to us if we let them run our country. That’s what they’re doing now. That’s why from the beginning of our national history, our greatest political leaders, Republicans and Democrats, have been warning Americans against the domination of corporate power. Teddy Roosevelt, a Republican, said that America would never be destroyed by a foreign enemy, by an Osama bin Laden, but he warned that our Bill of Rights, our Constitution and our treasured democratic institutions would be subverted by malefactors of great wealth who would steal them from within. Dwight Eisenhower, a Republican, in his most famous speech ever warned Americans against a domination by the military industrial complex. Abraham Lincoln, the greatest Republican in history, said during the height of the Civil War in 1863, “I have the South in front of me and I have the bankers behind me and for my country I fear the bankers more.” [Note from T.Conway: Lincoln's many warnings against the corrupt power of corporations and bankers are more ample than most people know, and really prescient! He was, for instance, really angry at the corporations that badly cut corners in production: 1) The gun-manufacturers whose carelessly-built rifles blew up in the faces of Union troops; and 2) t
[FairfieldLife] RFK Jr. 2004 op-ed on how Teddy Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Lincoln et al see corporate-run government as
Opening comments from a friend: In case you wonder why President Obama, in last night's soulful State of the Union address, had to comment on the Supreme Court's recent 5-to-4 dangerous ruling giving giant corporations more control of our political process (guess which justices voted for it and which voted against it), and why progressives are so fired up about the GOP-appointed justices rulings --here's a brief, cogent and very pithy op-ed from Bobby Kennedy Jr. that a friend sent me. It's several years old, but now even more incisive and needed than ever! [Note: bold-face and italics added for emphasis and easier reading:] Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. New York City - May 2, 2004 What happens when you allow corporations to run our government? What you get is plunder. And I have to say this, the American people have to understand that there is a huge difference between free market capitalism, which is a good thing because it makes us more efficient, more prosperous, and more democratic, and the kind of corporate-crony capitalism which has been embraced by this (Bush) White House [and by the recent Jan. 2010 Supreme Court ruling]. The reason they shouldn't be running our government is because corporations don't want the same thing for America as Americans want. Corporations do not want free markets and they do not want democracy. They want profits and the best way for them to get the profits too often is to use our campaign financing system which is just a system of legalized bribery, to get their hooks into a public official, they use that public official to dismantle the market place, to give them monopoly control, and then to privatize the com-mons, to turn over our Treasury, our air, our water, our public lands, our wildlife, our fishery, the shared resource of our society that give context to our commun-ity, that connects us to our past, that are the source of our values and our virtues and our character as a people, and we are turning that over, for profit, to these corporations. We have to remember this, legally corporations cannot do good things. They cannot do true philanthropy, they can't do things that are good for our country or for our community. When you see Wal-Mart bringing bottled water down to the Katrina victims, they're not doing that to be good guys, they're doing it because they think that over the long run the public view of them will be enhanced and that that will enhance their shareholder value and their dividend distribution. If they have another reason for doing it, any one of their shareholders can sue them and they will win that lawsuit. It is called wasting corporate assets. It is against the law in this country for a corporation to turn itself into a philanthropy. And if they're caught doing it their board members will be punished and their shareholders can sue them. We want corporations to be this way, to focus narrowly. We don't want them to turn into philanthropies because nobody would invest in them. We want them to focus narrowly on shareholder value. BUT, we would be nuts to let them anywhere near our government because we designed them to plunder and that's what they're going to do to us if we let them run our country. That's what they're doing now. That's why from the beginning of our national history, our greatest political leaders, Republicans and Democrats, have been warning Americans against the domination of corporate power. Teddy Roosevelt, a Republican, said that America would never be destroyed by a foreign enemy, by an Osama bin Laden, but he warned that our Bill of Rights, our Constitution and our treasured democratic institutions would be subverted by malefactors of great wealth who would steal them from within. Dwight Eisenhower, a Republican, in his most famous speech ever warned Americans against a domination by the military industrial complex. Abraham Lincoln, the greatest Republican in history, said during the height of the Civil War in 1863, "I have the South in front of me and I have the bankers behind me and for my country I fear the bankers more." [Note from T.Conway: Lincoln's many warnings against the corrupt power of corporations and bankers are more ample than most people know, and really prescient! He was, for instance, really angry at the corporations that badly cut corners in production: 1) The gun-manufacturers whose carelessly-built rifles blew up in the faces of Union troops; and 2) the shoe-makers whose lousy work had soldiers' boots quickly developing gaping holes--meaning frostbite, infections and/or gangrene, with lost toes, feet, legs and lives for the hapless soldiers. Certain war-profiteering corporations are still at it in our era, e.g., supplying shoddy, inferior equipment for our troops in the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns. How's that for "supporting our troops"?!] Franklin Roosevelt, during World War II, said that the domination of government by corporate power is "the essence of Fascism."
