Wednesday, June 01, 2011
Exxon for President?
I have a silly idea that someone with the talent of Mark Twain, Theodore Seuss Geisel, or Sholem Aleichem could make into a great story. In a previous blog I mused about Supreme Court decisions regarding the rights of corporations. In each important decision the Court asserted that the 14th Amendment grants corporations certain rights at law that are generally reserved for persons. In effect, a corporation is a person.
My silly idea was to extrapolate these decisions. If a court is a person, it is entitled to all the rights granted to persons in our constitutions, including the right to participate in elections. (The Court already has allowed a corporation to make unlimited contributions to political candidates under the First Amendment.) Corporations should also have the right to vote as persons and as registered voters and even run for office.
In my story line some corporations test this theory. At first it is an obscure small corporation, such as a law firm, that decides to run for a seat on the Los Angeles City Council. The law firm is elected and chooses a representative to sit on the council. Other corporations quickly notice this development. Soon the Gallo Corporation and Union Oil are competing for the office of Governor of California. A mining corporation becomes Governor of Montana. General Motors barely loses in Michigan to a Farmers' Cooperative. Morgan Chase becomes the Mayor of New York. And so it goes.
It's a silly and juicy idea. I wish I had the talent to make it into a hilariously funny and sarcastic novel.
My silly idea was to extrapolate these decisions. If a court is a person, it is entitled to all the rights granted to persons in our constitutions, including the right to participate in elections. (The Court already has allowed a corporation to make unlimited contributions to political candidates under the First Amendment.) Corporations should also have the right to vote as persons and as registered voters and even run for office.
In my story line some corporations test this theory. At first it is an obscure small corporation, such as a law firm, that decides to run for a seat on the Los Angeles City Council. The law firm is elected and chooses a representative to sit on the council. Other corporations quickly notice this development. Soon the Gallo Corporation and Union Oil are competing for the office of Governor of California. A mining corporation becomes Governor of Montana. General Motors barely loses in Michigan to a Farmers' Cooperative. Morgan Chase becomes the Mayor of New York. And so it goes.
It's a silly and juicy idea. I wish I had the talent to make it into a hilariously funny and sarcastic novel.
Labels: Dr. Seuss, Gallo, General Motors, Mark Twain, Sholem Aleichem, Union Oil
