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NormanSPremium,MVM
join:2001-02-14
San Jose, CA
kudos:4 Reviews:
 ·SONIC.NET
·Pacific Bell - SBC
| reply to Romney2012
Re: Why? I already knew that. I was hoping somebody would comment on the nature of our government, though: "Of the corporations, by the corporations, for the corporations."
We have been downgraded from, "people", to "corporate chattel".
--
Norman
~Oh Lord, why have you come
~To Konnyu, with the Lion and the Drum | |
Reviews:
 ·magicjack.com
2 edits | said by NormanS:We have been downgraded from, "people", to "corporate chattel". I don't see that improving without amending the 14th amendment.
That amendment was ratified 1866 and was a hasty measure to extend the BoR to state and private infringement; to give the feds authority to enforce the BoR as states and localities attempted to reinstitute slavery through laws which stripped freed slaves of rights.
After the Civil War, courts upheld the long-standing tradition that the BoR only barred Congress from infringing rights. States were free to do what they wanted; victims had to look for relief there.
The Feds had no jurisdiction because citizens were citizens of states (not the federal government). They had nothing to enforce even if they had jurisdiction (the BoR was a bar against Congress, not state legislatures). They passed the 1866 Civil Rights Act. But, the courts ruled it was a Dead Letter.
Anyway, the clause of the 14th causing so many modern problems says:
quote:
"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."
This was intended to give the Feds jurisdiction. (A subsequent clause intended to extend BoR protections to state actions.).
However, as the industrial revolution began 2-3 decades later, with corporations gaining power, the Court ruled that corporations are citizens due to the fact that they are legally (although fictionally) "persons" created by legislative fiat. They are "born" legislatively and treated by the law as real "persons." They enjoy the rights of naturally born persons.
They have the same freedom of speech as you or I. The same protection against search and seizure.
The other problem with that clause is that it makes us unique in the world regarding foreign visitors. If a child is born here, he is instantly a citizen. Most countries have a defined process where the citizenship of a child is based upon the citizenship of the parents, and a child may elect to become a citizen of the country after so many years.
So, that clause contributes greatly to our illegal immigration (and, unintended naturalization of the product of both legal and illegal immigrants).
But, it still gets back to how the public is content. These things which are a problem to a few are accepted as the status quo by the vast majority of Americans who are busy working as day laborers to corporations in "at will" states; going home enjoying whatever their consumer-Soma is (video games, reality shows, MP3 downloads).
These laws (or lack thereof) achieve legitimacy due to the consent of the governed. To you and I it looks like a problem. But, nothing will ever change unless there is a serious, even-handed movement to amend the 14th Amendment. Not a bunch of pitchforking Lyndon LaRouche followers, who sound like Charlie Manson. ("Acid's goovey; kill the pigs.").
Mark | |
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