What's the first STEP for citizens in stopping corporate control of government?

[defendandprotect]

Poll question: What's the first STEP for citizens in stopping corporate control of government?

[ashling]

1. Elect John Edwards President

[wintersoulja]

3. Come on

He's running for veep.

[defendandprotect]

5. No -- I think it might be EDWARDS/GORE . . . !!! !!! !!!

[wintersoulja]

24. hahahahaha

How does it go, lips that touch liquor will never touch mine?
I doubt Gore would let those lips switch butts.

[defendandprotect]

32. You mean Gore wouldn't want to give up Liebermann . . . ????

[MrSlayer]

2. Voting for someone who will do something about it.

Of course that is nearly impossible since the corporate owned media will not allow someone with that message to compete.

[wintersoulja]

4. first step

not voting for the ones they suggest/approve.

[ashling]

14. That someone would be JE

[The Inquisitive]

6. bringing this badboy out of storage

[Rosemary2205]

7. Yard sales and thrift stores.

[monktonman]

8. Give up your "Identity".

Watch it crumble.

[AntiFascist]

9. The answer should be obvious...

play them off against each other, organize boycotts, make competition meaningful, don't shop at WALMART, buy cars that don't use gas...

[defendandprotect]

You get it --- but, so many still don't. We talk about corporate-facism . . . but don't attack it.

[AntiFascist]

42. People forget that corporations are supposed to SERVE their customer base...

slowly, we are being brainwashed into believing that the people are supposed to serve the corporations. Even in customer service, the attitude is that the customer should feel privleged with the right of receiving the service...never mind that they are paying for it.

[Two Americas]

44. not quite

Corporations serve their shareholders, and only their shareholders. In other words, customers and producers are secondary - seen as obstacles, to be manipulated and exploited - and the public welfare ranks way down at the bottom and is mostly a matter of a public relations challenge for corporations.

Yes we have been brainwashed to see the needs and desires of investors as being more important than anything, including human life.

A corporation is merely a way to organize business that places the needs of the wealthy few - the investors - above all other needs, and that enables businesses to grow until they are more powerful than governments and can run the entire society and have free and unfettered access to all of the resources and labor. This means that the tail wags the dog - the many are placed into servitude to the few.

The myth of Republicanism is that by catering to the few and placing no restrictions on their lust for gain, that somehow this will "trickle down" to the rest of us. Clearly, the flow is upward and the trend is toward wealth and power concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, and ever-increasing suffering for the other 99% of the population.

This situation we have now, with Wall Street and big finance in the saddle as never before, is completely incompatible with democracy, with prosperity, with innovation, with human needs, and with the survival of human culture and communities.

[AntiFascist]

49. Unfortunately this has become the case since Reagonomics...

with more and more people investing their retirement funds into 401Ks these stockholders may not realize the multi-national agendas that they are investing into. With more big corporate takeovers, and less competition, companies have become less concerned with competing for their customers' favor and more concerned about growth, deregulation, and government handouts.

[stimbox]

10. Keep as much of your $$$ out of corporate coffers and disconnect cable.

Rely on other non-msm sources for news and info.

[Afje]

11. Demand publically financed elections.

This is the first step in taking government back for the people.

[LWolf]

12. No more votes for corporate candidates. Period. n/t

[countryjake]

13. Getting to know your neighbors...

talking issues without talking politics, get involved in the day-to-day matters and struggles that your own community faces in our down-to-earth fight against corporate control.

That would involve shutting down computers, first.

There are real people out there, fighting city hall, town councils, county organizations, state proposals, federal bills...if we want to throw the bums out, ya gotta start doing it where you live.

[EnviroBat]

16. Agreed 100%

I'm currently walking petitions around my neighborhood to fight our water company who is charging us $80.00/mo for water on average. Now these bastards are trying to up our rates 32%. People in the surrounding municipalities are being charged 1/3 of that amount. When I tell them what my water bill, (does not include trash pick-up) is, they are shocked. Now we have found out that our water company is part of a corporate energy interest based in Germany, (anyone remember Enron?). They are trying to sell off the water portion of their utilities interest and are using us to make the stock appear profitable. We are a blue-collar neighborhood where no-body is rich by any means. This is extortion, and I'm trying to get my community to take a stand against this crap.

[zorahopkins]

15. Buy Stock

I suggest that buying stock in corporations is one of the best ways to stop corporate control of government.

It is VERY difficult not to purchase products or services from corporations.

I, for instance, am connected to the internet through a connection provided by a corporation. I pay that corporation for them to provide me that connection.

But if I (and many others like me) buy stock, then I (and many others like me) would become part owners of the corporations. If unions and other progressive organizations were also to buy stock, then before long progressives would own the big corporations, and could use our power to change the way corporations operate. Instead of being motivated by profit, we could change corporations to be motivated by contributing to he betterment of the poor, hungry, and homeless.

[conspirator]

21. Yeah right. Enron was just the tip of the iceberg of the SCAM the stock exchange is n/t

[defendandprotect]

30. How many people still don't even question the Wall St "economy" --- ???

You know how many people still believe in capitalism and the stock market --- !!!

[librechik]

17. Get a Democratic Congress to regulate these lawlwss "persons"

America has been tricked into accepting a robber baron society.

[paparush]

47. Yeah! Get a Democratic Congress...oh..wait...

we HAVE a Democratic congress.

'Course, my Rep, Heath Shuler, is a Dem only in title. I will work for the next Dem's campaign to make sure Shuler only sits for a single term.

[librechik]

48. yep-- i meant real democrats

which we don't have, yet

[blindpig]

18. Socialism.

Can't patch a gunshot wound with a bandaid, don't bring a knife to a gunfight.

[Annces]

20. Agree

You have to change the system. There were always be people who want to buy cheap, and other people who want to live in huge mansions and sell cheap stuff.

[Selatius]

25. The last prominent socialist in America was Martin Luther King, Jr. He was shot for a reason.

You can't talk about solving the economic problem of the Negro without talking about billions of dollars. You can't talk about ending the slums without first saying profit must be taken out of slums. You're really tampering and getting on dangerous ground because you are messing with folk then. You are messing with captains of industry… Now this means that we are treading in difficult water, because it really means that we are saying that something is wrong… with capitalism… There must be a better distribution of wealth and maybe America must move toward a democratic socialism.

-- Martin Luther King, Jr., Frogmore, South Carolina, November 14, 1966. Speech in front of his staff

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr#Opposition_to_the_Vietnam_War.2C_1967

[mmonk]

19. Too late.

[conspirator]

22. Grow your own food. Exchange goods for goods. Abolish monopoly money n/t

[defendandprotect]

27. What a lovely thought: uninvent the dollar bill---!!!

Let's get back to something that everyone has plenty of ---
seashells, grains of salt, grains of sand?

All the world in a grain of sand ....

[warren pease]

23. Time to get serious about the corporate death penalty...

In addition to some of the previous suggestions -- becoming a stock holder, spending every dollar with political awareness, sponsor boycotts -- I'm really starting to like the idea of corporate charter revocation. If they consistently act like felons and their business practices routinely include befouling local ecosystems, clear-cutting, releasing toxic chemicals into the water, air or ground, screwing the community out of legitimate taxes, stressing the infrastructure and not paying for improvements, laying off half their workforce and replacing them with H-1b visa holders, moving some or all of their operations overseas and so on... If they're going to claim the privileges of "personhood," then they should damn well be subject to the same legal sanctions and criminal penalties any other person would incur for such outrageous behavior.

I think it's long past time for people to begin harassing these unaccountable fiefdoms and either dissolve them entirely or cripple their ability to operate in secret and outside the laws and ethical constraints the rest of us are subject to. In fact, when I get a few spare hours, I'm going to work this stuff up into an OpEdNews or Online Journal article and see if I can draw a bit of attention to the issue.

Here's some background material. Unfortunately, successful revocation hasn't happened for decades, so there are no contemporary "how-to" case studies. But several of these links outline circumstances that could result charter revocation, along with citing precedents and legal arguments. Others contain the processes and templates needed to create the proper paperwork and get it into the hands of the right (i.e., more sympathetic) government officials. Fortunately, it's not as boring as it sounds.

Multinational Monitor

Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County

Third World Traveler

Corp Watch

Common Dreams

Reclaim Democracy

Corporate Crime Reporter

http://www.corporations.org/afd-paradigm-shift.html">Challenging Corporate Authority

Huffington Post

Findlaw


Happy hunting,


wp

[Echo In Light]

26. INFO! First step is in getting people to understand the dilemma

Mainline media lies/propaganda still reaches and shapes/disinforms a majority of us, so the first step is to NOT downplay or trivialize the one one one, step by step efforts of reaching people with the message. The internet has played a significant role in this, but it still pales next to the all indoctrinating Boob Tube.

[defendandprotect]

28. Many steps are necessary: I've just asked here, how can we best deal with corporate-media ---

Yes -- electing John Edwards would help --

Having IRV voting would help --

Third parties would help --

Getting rid of computer voting would help --

Campaign finance reform would help --

BUT . . . how can we RESPOND to corporate-media directly until those things happen ---

if ever.

[ThomWV]

29. First you have to stop them from taking further control. Then you have to amass power

greater than theirs to start taking back their control.

The question really isn't in what to do. Strategically that is easy enough. The question you have to ask is where will the battle be fought and what form will power take? Remember, at the basic level they have the power to control what and when we hear and see whatever they choose. We have the power of the purse.

[defendandprotect]

34. Shouldn't we let corporate-media KNOW that we understand what is happening---????

How many people here responding still refuse to turn off their TVs . .. ???

Or to consider a boycott of networks ---

Or to consider a limited -- all together now -- approach to turning off our TVs... ???

[NashVegas]

31. Run for Office

..

[defendandprotect]

35. You will find that you can't do that --- and that includes as a Democratic ---

unless you have piles of money or access to people with piles of money ---

You can run with a third party --- they offer tremendous opportunity --- but you will face total injustice there because the two political parties will block you, essentially.

[dysfunctional press]

33. armed revolution.

it's the only step that's ever going to work.

[Indenturedebtor]

36. First step is campaign finance reform

If we can get the parasites out of govt it's a start. These viruses are part of our DNA as much as they are in every country in the world. What we have to do is get a government that will keep them relatively in check.

[defendandprotect]

37. Teddy Roosevelt pointed that out in .... 1815 . . . ????

He said we must "totally bar corporations from any participation in our elections."

OK -- so we all know that --- and we haven't been able to work it out.

Now . . . how do we let corporate-media know "we won't stand for it any longer" --- ????

[dorkulon]

46. Yes! /nt

[defendandprotect]

38. Why do so few people here want to turn off the TV --- ????? ????

Especially at pre-designated times for a specific period of time --- ???

[Kansas Wyatt]

39. Well if it wasn't so important to a lot of people in this country struggling...

A rally of millions on the capital to BURN those tax rebate checks, which is only targeted to bail Corporate America out of it's slump, since nobody can afford to buy anything.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

40. Realization.

[pleah]

41. If everyone stayed home for 1 day it would grind this country to a halt.

And I mean EVERYONE. No cars on the road, no people in restaurants or shops. It would send the message.

[shadowknows69]

43. Truck full of weapons and about a hundred guys?

Oh that wasn't one of the answers was it?

Other.

[dorkulon]

45. Public financing of elections, period.

That is the first and most vital step.