Reply #17: Corp. entities could care less who their stockholder are. I should not have phrased. . .

[pat_k]

. . .that way.

Corps are entities that people created to serve a purpose they believe to be necessary within the structure of their economy. If Corporate entities are to continue to serve us, citizens must be the only force capable of controlling their own creation -- and to do so by influencing the actions of their Gov't. To permit a Corporation to participate as a force in and of itself for itself is akin to permitting entities like foreign governments to play a direct role in exerting pressures within our political process.

If factions of people within the United States get together to lobby for something that is in the interest of a foreign Gov't, great (e.g., folks who lobby to protect Israel's interests). When citizens have an interest in Gov't action that benefits another Gov't, they should be out there lobbying for it. Whether or not that interest gets served depends on how the thing the citizens are lobbying for fits in with all the other competing interests of the other factions -- interests that are balanced through the system of Gov't and the actions of officials charged with particular duties within that system.

Similarly, stockholders could band together to lobby for something that is in the interest of a particular Corporation or for Corporate entities in general. If they do, great. (This doesn't typically happen because stockholders are not a homogeneous group with interests that serves Corporate entities. Corporations are shaped by far more diverse factional forces -- which currently includes the extremely perverting influence of Corp. entities themselves.)