The Voice of the Corporations!

     In our bipartisanship style government, little is agreed upon, especially on Capitol Hill. However, one things is agreed upon on both sides (Republican and Democrat), Corporations are huge and powerful entities that influence politics and the flow of money within the United States on many levels! With knowing about the huge conglomerates and how much they influence political processes, “we the people” must ask how these corporations became so huge. How do they influence politics within our great Republic? Do the corporations have a bigger voice than the citizens? And one really interesting question that many politicians are asking, are corporations people?

     Well in respect to the first question “How did the corporations get so big”, we the people are somewhat to blame. In referencing Chapter 22 of Navigating America, “we as citizens grant [the] corporate giants their charter, and thus their right to exist”; we are responsible to giving these corporations the very powers that we as Americans sometimes suffer from. Corporations are comprised of people. Therefore, we the people support the money and political giants by investing in their stocks as stockholders, we support by working at corporations as employees and we also help corporations grow by buying and consuming their products. The combination of these consuming activities allows corporations to grow and flourish even in hard economic times.

     With a basic understanding of how we the people are essentially catalysts for the rapid and incredible growth of these elite corporations, we now can dissect the notion to whether corporations are actually people. In the United States Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision argued that the government is not allowed to put limitations on the amount of money corporations, unions labors, etc. are allowed to put into political campaigns; thus allowing the emergence of Super PACs. This recent controversial decision basically states, depending on your interpretation, is that corporations are people because the SCOTUS is protecting corporations right to abundantly supply money to political campaigns as “free speech”, a first amendment guarantee. These political powers granted to these wealthy corporations are the corporations “free reign” to control politics, which they are doing a mighty fine job doing. In America, money equals power, and a political figure without money is almost nonexistent.  The same goes for corporations.

     In our democracy that we live in today, corporations controls America and our freedoms. Its voice speaks louder than the individual citizens, but as stated in this blog, we give the corporations its powers and voice. Corporations are a great example of how money and politics are both fused together as one powerful entity in our American society.

                                                           Works Cited

"Are Corporations People?" Video Clip. 7 May,2012. YouTube. 16 October 2012.

Levs, Josh, and Bill Mears. "Supreme Court Refuses to Reconsider Campaign Finance Controversy." CNN Politics 26 June 2012, n. pag. Web. 16 Oct. 2012. <http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/25/politics/scotus-campaign-finance/index.html>.