Wed Jun 19 2013
Departments
National Issues

A Fraction of Democracy
by Greg Coleridge
September 20, 2005

Anyone who’s taken fractions in school knows that 5/3 is greater than 3/5. This is true in mathematics. It’s also true in democracy.

On Friday, September 9, the Camp Casey bus tour came to Cleveland, Ohio. The bus tour is an outgrowth of the encampment of Cindy Sheehan, mother of a killed US solider in the Iraq war, who attempted to meet personally with President George Bush at his ranch in Crawford, Texas in August.

Composed of family members of killed and current US troops in Iraq, among others, the Bring Them Home Now bus tour is making its way across the country calling attention to the human costs of the war and occupation. At every stop, they try to share their stories and perspectives with US Representatives or Senators. If they can’t, then with their aides. That was the case in Cleveland.

On September 9 a delegation of tour participants, along with local peace and anti-war activists, planned to meet with an aide to Ohio Senator George Voinovich. They would follow this visit with leaving material at the office (all aides were to be away for part of the afternoon) of Ohio Senator Mike DeWine.

Following a hour-long meeting in the Federal Building in downtown Cleveland with an aide to Senator Voinovich, the group of 12 tour participants, local activists and others marched to the office of Senator DeWine. His office, curiously, isn’t in the Federal Building. It’s in the 5/3rd Bank corporation building five blocks away

As the combined delegation of 10-12 tour participants and local citizens entered the 5/3rd Bank corporation building, we were immediately stopped by the 5/3rd Bank corporation security guards dressed in flashy red blazers with walkie-talkies. One asked where we were going. When we said to Senator DeWine’s office to deliver a packet of material, we were told, “You can’t go.”

“Why not?” I asked.

“Because you can’t.” After scanning the group, the guard asserted, “Only one of you can go up.”

I immediately blurted, “And who are you to tell citizens they can’t drop off information to a public official that they have elected? You have no authority!”

Silly me. I had forgotten for a moment where I was. We don’t live in a democracy or even a democratic republic. The 5/3rd Bank corporation, after all, has a whole bunch of constitutionally protected “personhood” rights that trump the rights of you and me: First Amendment rights of free speech, Fourth Amendment rights against search and seizure, Fifth Amendment rights against takings, Sixth and Seventh Amendment rights to a jury trial. These so-called corporate “rights” come from the Bill of Rights, originally included in the Constitution to protect We the People from government. Over the last century, these human rights (as well as the Fourteenth Amendment granting due process and equal protection rights to freed slaves) have been legally co-opted to protect corporations from citizens.

But it’s not just co-optation of good provisions of the Constitution that’s the problem. Original provisions of the Constitution anoint property with rights that prevent true self-governance. The Commerce clause (Article I, Section 8) says nothing shall interfere with trade between states. Some call this “Baby NAFTA” where local rules and laws defining worker rights or environmental protection were defined as trade barriers. The Contracts clause (Article I. Section 10) says nothing shall impair the obligation of contracts. Some believe this opened the Constitutional door to defining the corporate charter as a contract among equals rather than a democratic tool used by the people to dictate the conditions for corporate business.

Other provisions created a firewall between the public exercising “too much democracy” and the propertied few. The appointment of elite judges for life to the Supreme Court and the Electoral

College as the mechanism to elect the President are but two examples.

The current disparity of rights and powers between corporations and people, leading to a myriad of problems, abuses, scandals, and further take over of public policy, is not very different from the disparity between different groups of persons which existing the very moment the US Constitution was ratified. Remember them from school?

Men were bestowed with 100% of the rights and privileges spelled out in the Constitution – white, propertied men that is. Women couldn’t vote and lacked many other social and economic rights but were considered 100% persons for purposes of determining how many Representatives should be assigned to each state. The same was true for white indentured servants (people who were working to pay off their debts in exchange for travel from Europe). Slaves were considered 3/5ths of a person. Native people, Indians as they were called, who didn’t pay taxes (not part of the US economy) were total non-persons.

With the Constitution set up to favor white, male, property owners (100% persons), it’s no wonder they benefited the most from its laws and rules. Slaves, 3/5ths persons, didn’t have a chance. It took a social movement to drive the rights of African-Americans into the Constitution. Even then, it took another Civil Rights movement. The rights of women to vote didn’t happen until a women’s movement lasting 70 years finally resulted in the 19th Amendment.

Today, the rights of people to govern themselves are further threatened like never before. More public information is being hidden, more public realms are deemed “private” (i.e. corporate) beyond public reach, more ultimate decisions are shifted from legislative and executive bodies to the courts that have supreme authority.

Attempts to address corporate harms are funneled through or shielded by regulatory agencies that fundamentally change nothing, even if people “win” in the short term. Politicians often use regulatory agencies as their own shield to divert angry and/or organized constituents. “It’s out of my hands. You need to contact the Federal ____ Agency,” they say.

On September 9, it was the 5/3rd Bank corporation that was doing the shielding of the public official named Senator Mike DeWine. We the People couldn’t simply walk up the steps or take the elevator to his office since we were on private property. We had to first receive permission from the 5/3rd corporate “person.” Sort of like the 3/5ths slave “person” asking his master for a cup of water. Aren’t we today little more than slaves to corporations and those few people of privilege who rule? No real voice? No real choice? No real self-governing power?

With fewer rights (who knows what exact fraction it is: 3/5ths, 1/4th, 2/7ths or something else) than those of corporations and those of immense property, how can we realistically expect to be successful educating or organizing against wars, toxic dumps, and genetically modified foods or for higher minimum wages, universal health care, or sustainable energy? The ground rules are stacked against us and, therefore, must be changed.

Back in Cleveland, another 5/3rd Bank corporation security guard, sensing conflict, went upstairs to notify an aide to DeWine’s office (who was there afterall) that we were downstairs. Before long, she appeared, deemed that we were OK to talk to, and took the group upstairs for a chat.

I couldn’t go. I wouldn’t go. It seemed futile.

We can meet all the aides we want, even all the Representatives or Senators we want, but to what avail? Until we the people once more create a grassroots movement, this time for the fundamental right to self-governance, and remove the legal and constitutional barriers along the way, we will never have anything approaching a real democracy. A small fraction of a democracy but little more.

Why? Because a 5/3rds person does not equal a 3/5ths person. Not in mathematics. Not in democracy.

Contact: AFSC, 513 W. Exchange St., Akron, OH 44302. 330-253-7151. AFSCole@aol.com




Recent National Issues Articles

Rumsfeld admits to "ghosting" detainee
  December 30, 2005
  David Swanson

A man without a country
  December 28, 2005
  David Swanson

Impeach the Liar-in-Chief
  December 26, 2005
  Stephen Crockett and Al Lawrence

Bush wiretaps threaten national security
  December 25, 2005
  Stephen Crockett

Which Christmas is the 'War Against Christmas' against?
  December 25, 2005
  Robert Lockwood Mills

Rainbow PUSH Wall Street Project plans economic summit in New York City
  December 22, 2005
  Rainbow PUSH

Fear of the devil
  December 22, 2005
  Robert C. Koehler, Tribune Media Services

It's time to impeach Bush for these blatant violations of the law
  December 22, 2005
  Andy Ostroy

December 3 in the USA: a partial report
  December 22, 2005
  Ted Glick

Bush spews more irresponsible rhetoric as senate Extends Patriot Act for Six Months
  December 22, 2005
  Andy Ostroy

The Constitution in Crisis report
  December 22, 2005
  Edward Chu

Privatize Me...Corporatize Me.... Blackwaterize Me...
  December 20, 2005
  Jason Miller

USA Patriot Act defeated: Libertarians celebrate victory
  December 19, 2005
  Libertarian Party of Ohio

The solution we aren't considering
  December 19, 2005
  David Swanson

Panic attack
  December 15, 2005
  Robert C. Koehler, Tribune Media Services

Eugene McCarthy, prophet with honor
  December 12, 2005
  Robert Lockwood Mills

The iron fist of Jesus
  December 12, 2005
  Jason Miller

Progressive primary challenge to Hilary aunched
  December 6, 2005
  David Swanson

An invitation to a tea party
  December 6, 2005
  Lucinda Marshall

Precarious lives
  December 3, 2005
  Paul Rogat Loeb

Criminal trial related to California energy crisis may start soon
  December 3, 2005
  Jason Leopold

Hey board members, leave our kids alone!
  December 3, 2005
  Jason Miller

A Congressman for impeachment
  November 30, 2005
  David Swanson

Friday night Congress: what was that?
  November 23, 2005
  David Swanson

Teach our children well
  November 20, 2005
  Todd Huffman, M.D.

Greenhouse School secures major art donation
  November 18, 2005
  Dan Welch

Parental guidance suggested
  November 16, 2005
  Mike Ferner

Our mothers (and Thomas Paine) warned us about people like the disciples of Strauss
  November 13, 2005
  Jason Miller

Despite his demeanor, Rove's still a Target
  November 13, 2005
  Jason Leopold

Armistice Day 2005
  November 11, 2005
  Stephen Edward Seadler

The Bush-Cheney ethics refresher course
  November 7, 2005
  David Swanson

Vice President lied as White House sought to defuse leak inquiry
  November 7, 2005
  Jason Leopold

53% of Americans support impeachment; ImpeachPAC announced!
  November 5, 2005
  David Swanson

I can't wait
  November 3, 2005
  David Swanson

Nothing to Lose
  November 2, 2005
  Daniel Patrick Welch

The real Rosa Parks
  October 31, 2005
  Paul Rogat Loeb

How has it come to this?
  October 30, 2005
  Jim Oberg

Bush's wheels falling off
  October 30, 2005
  Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.

Miers, White House surrender to ultraconservatives
  October 27, 2005
  Josh Glasstetter

Prosecutor secures indictment in CIA outing case, lawyers say
  October 27, 2005
  Jason Leopold

Hard conversations about the big easy
  October 24, 2005
  Paul Rogat Loeb

Coalition of 75 groups demand end to Pentagon's youth database
  October 19, 2005
  Mike Ferner

Vice President's role in outing of CIA agent under examination, sources close to prosecutor say
  October 19, 2005
  Jason Leopold

Hard questions about the big easy
  October 19, 2005
  Paul Rogat Loeb

Times reporter entangled in leak case had unusual relationship with military, Iraqi group
  October 19, 2005
  Jason Leopold

Try and catch the wind
  October 17, 2005
  Daniel Patrick Welch

More from the stormfront gulf central
  October 16, 2005
  David Lewis

A deep look at corruption culture
  October 16, 2005
  Stephen Crockett and Al  Lawrence

Dems Go After Bennett, Salem Radio Network, FCC
  October 9, 2005
  David Swanson

Bill Bennett’s comments emerge from an ideology that is classic white supremacy, Rev. Jesse Jackson says
  October 5, 2005
  Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.

Why the nomination of Harriet has to be looked at below the radar
  October 5, 2005
  Cynthia L. Butler, an Attorney licensed in PA, NJ, DC, CA

In support of weakness on national security
  October 3, 2005
  David Swanson

Bill Frist, The Former 2008 Presidential Candidate
  September 27, 2005
  Jason Leopold

Winds of change blow through DC, Bush flees
  September 26, 2005
  Bob Fitrakis

More New Orleans stories
  September 25, 2005
  David Lewis

From the stormfront: experiencing Rita in New Orleans
  September 25, 2005
  David Lewis

The GOP’s fiscal policies turned a natural disaster into a man-made catastrophe
  September 23, 2005
  Jason Leopold

The Devil in the Details: Carter-Baker, California, and the Integrity of American Elections
  September 22, 2005
  Warren Stewart, Director of Legislative Issues and Policy, VoteTrustUSA

Hurricane Katrina-Our Experiences
  September 21, 2005
  Larry Bradshaw, Lorrie Beth Slonsky

A Fraction of Democracy
  September 20, 2005
  Greg Coleridge

Bring back New Orleans: the politics of disaster
  September 20, 2005
  David Lewis, Photos by Aaron Geiser

Rev. Jackson Recommends a 21st Century Marshall Plan That Reinvests in the Gulf Coast
  September 20, 2005
  Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.

Division of funeral corp. charged with desecrating corpses hired to collect deceased victims of hurricane Katrina
  September 19, 2005
  Jason Leopold

FEMA Chief Brown paid millions in false claims to help Bush win Fla. votes
  September 15, 2005
  Jason Leopold

Indefinite Detention
  September 9, 2005
  Daniel Sturm

Seems like more people died than prospered under Pres Bush’s leadership
  September 8, 2005
  Jason Leopold

Politics, timing and the so-called terrorist Nuradin Abdi: the mall bomber who wasn't
  September 7, 2005
  Bob Fitrakis

Paul Allen's other yacht
  September 4, 2005
  Paul Rogat Loeb

Katrina: A tragedy made worse
  September 4, 2005
  Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.

The President’s priorities: state of marriage took precedence over state of Louisiana
  September 3, 2005
  Jason Leopold

Notes from inside New Orleans
  September 3, 2005
  Jordan Flaherty

Rev. Jackson Makes Second Rescue Mission into New Orleans
  September 2, 2005
  Rainbow/PUSH Coalition

Bush Strafes New Orleans, Where's Huey Long?
  September 2, 2005
  Greg Palast

911 in New Orleans
  September 2, 2005
  Paul Rogat Loeb

Global Warming and Widespread Blackouts Are Just as Deadly as Terrorism
  September 1, 2005
  Jason Leopold

The mothers are coming!
  August 30, 2005
  Sheila Samples

Update from Leonard Peltier
  August 16, 2005
  Leonard Peltier

Leonard has been transferred to USP Lewisburg
  August 16, 2005
  Michael Eckhardt

Against Discouragement
  August 15, 2005
  Howard Zinn

Open Letter to Cindy Sheehan, Crawford, Texas
  August 11, 2005
  Ralph Nader

Regarding the 40th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965
  August 4, 2005
  Sabrina Williams

Lawyers, guns and money: Just put down that lawsuit, pardner, and no one gets hurt
  August 1, 2005
  Greg Palast

Forgotten Victims of America’s Plutocracy
  August 1, 2005
  Jason Miller

Spine, spine everywhere a spine
  July 29, 2005
  Rady Ananda

Speaking truth to Roberts
  July 28, 2005
  Paul Rogat Loeb

Business as usual with Judge Roberts; straight corporate, with Pepto-Bismol chaser
  July 21, 2005
  Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St Clair

The Record of Judge John Roberts
  July 20, 2005
  Gene C. Gerard

The Enemy of Our Enemy May Still Be the Enemy of Democracy
  July 13, 2005
  Paul Rogat Loeb

Mr. Rove and the Access of Evil: Tell Us Your "Source," Judy
  July 13, 2005
  Greg Palast

The Economy Turned the Corner and Is Headed in the Wrong Direction
  July 8, 2005
  Gene C. Gerard

July 4th Declaration of Impeachment
  July 4, 2005
  Mike Ferner, Veterans for Peace

They Died for Their Country
  July 1, 2005
  Paul Rogat Loeb

Energy adviser who solicited Enron to help write national energy policy to be named Chair of FERC
  July 1, 2005
  Jason Leopold

Big Food Strikes Back; Ag industry aims to strip local control of food supplies
  June 26, 2005
  Britt Bailey and Brian Tokar

The fantastical world of Studley McMuffin
  June 25, 2005
  Sheila Samples

Counter-Recruitment: Preventing the Military from Getting More Youth for their Wars: An Interview with Counter-Recruitment Activist Clint Coppernoll
  June 25, 2005
  Kevin Zeese

A matter of education...
  June 23, 2005
  Sheila Samples

Violations of Civil Liberties are an American Tradition
  June 17, 2005
  Gene C. Gerard

Rumsfeld: Beyond the Point of No Return
  June 13, 2005
  Gerald Rellick

Peltier hearing to address Lakota Nation soverignty
  June 11, 2005
  Russ Redner and Barry Bachrach

Extraordinarily rancid justices
  June 10, 2005
  Paul Rogat Loeb

Former Army Sec, Enron VP, Thomas White Wants Gov't Funding For New Energy Project
  June 8, 2005
  Jason Leopold

Imposing minority views
  June 8, 2005
  Stephen Crockett

When is Someone Going to Toss Rumsfeld into a Cage?
  June 8, 2005
  Jason Leopold

Republicans: The Anti-Christian, Christian Party
  June 8, 2005
  Stephen Crockett

Watergate Proves That Even Presidents Will Break Laws To Achieve Goals
  June 1, 2005
  Jason Leopold

Oral Histories of the 1970 Kent State Shootings
  May 22, 2005
  Candi Clevenger, Communications Manager, OhioLINK

Blurb: End the filibuster -- in 2015
  May 20, 2005
  Paul Loeb

The Beginning Of The End Of The Age Of Reason
  May 16, 2005
  Todd Huffman, M.D.

Nuking Democracy
  May 14, 2005
  Paul Loeb

Conscientious Objection on Trial: The Court Martial of Keith Benderman
  May 10, 2005
  Kevin B. Zeese

Barnum on Steroids
  May 9, 2005
  Jason Miller

Mother’s Day Without Mom
  May 7, 2005
  Phil Tajitsu Nash

An Open Letter to Howard Dean
  May 5, 2005
  Dennis J. Kucinich

Appeals Court Nominee Janice Rogers Brown Merits the Filibuster
  May 3, 2005
  Gene C. Gerard

Activists Spur Historic Call to Exit Iraq
  April 24, 2005
  William Rivers Pitt

John Bolton & the Battle for Reality
  April 24, 2005
  Robert Parry

Videos expose false arrests at 2004 Republican Convention protests in New York
  April 24, 2005
  Peter Daniels

Wal-Mart's Free Market Fallacy
  April 24, 2005
  Jonathan Tasini

Howard Dean Becomes Leader of the Other Pro-War Party; Dean on Iraq: “We're There and We Can't Get Out”
  April 24, 2005
  Kevin Zeese

You have to pick your team
  April 20, 2005
  Sonya Vetra Tinsley, as told to Paul Rogat Loeb

What They Should Fight For
  April 20, 2005
  David Swanson

Vigilante Republicans
  April 13, 2005
  Steven Rosenfeld

Congresswoman Cynthia Mckinney Urges Reform of Voting Process at Historic Conference
  April 12, 2005
  Anna Thompson

Abortion and Schiavo -- The stories we tell
  April 5, 2005
  Paul Rogat Loeb

How and Why We're Working to Block the Bankruptcy Bill
  April 1, 2005
  David Swanson

Statement on the Passing of Terri Schiavo
  March 31, 2005
  Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.

Veterans for peace call for Congressional action to impeach George W. Bush and Richard Cheney
  March 30, 2005
  Veterans For Peace

Zealot and Proud of It
  March 27, 2005
  Jason Miller

Non Volunteers, Non-Recruiters, And A Non War
  March 19, 2005
  Eric Straatsma

Meet Your New FCC Chairman: Kevin Martin
  March 17, 2005
  David Bailey

E.P.A. Nominee Supports Testing of Chemicals on Human Subjects
  March 11, 2005
  Gene C. Gerard

A luncheon break with Michael Jackson
  March 11, 2005
  Robert Lockwood Mills

Gannongate and Asian Pacific America
  March 9, 2005
  Phil Tajitsu Nash

I'd rather not say good-bye, Dan
  March 9, 2005
  Greg Palast

Free Trade and Frivolous Lawsuits
  March 7, 2005
  Cyril Mychalejko

Experiencing Hunter, Experiencing Death: A Eulogy
  February 28, 2005
  Tom Luffman

The inevitability trap
  February 18, 2005
  K.C. Golden

Bush’s Judicial Nominations are Hardly Mainstream
  February 17, 2005
  Gene C. Gerard

Senators Clinton and Boxer, Representative Tubbs Jones and others unveil major election reform bill
  February 17, 2005
  Offices of Sen. Clinton and Rep. Tubb Jones

The difference between bi-partisanship and non-partisanship
  February 15, 2005
  Robert Lockwood Mills

Bush & the Rise of 'Managed-Democracy'
  February 13, 2005
  Robert Parry

Yesterday's Gallup Poll Showing Bush Approval At 57% Had 9% More Republicans Than Democrats
  February 12, 2005
  Steve Soto

J20 Through my eyes
  February 11, 2005
  Ryan Mishler

Bush's Budget: The War on Working People Continues
  February 11, 2005
  International Action Center staff

Bush’s Budget is at Odds With His Rhetoric
  February 11, 2005
  Gene C. Gerard

Direct Action For Peace?
  February 7, 2005
  Bill Scheurer

State of the Union speech falls short, says Rev. Jesse Jackson
  February 3, 2005
  Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition

The Black Perspective
  February 3, 2005
  Judith Powell

Save American Democracy: Curb Corporate Power
  January 29, 2005
  Stephen Crockett

Who's Paying for all this Freedom?
  January 29, 2005
  Darryl Cramer

Yes, there is a crisis in Social Security
  January 29, 2005
  Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.

Agitation Time
  January 25, 2005
  Ted Glick

The 10 Worst Corporations of 2004
  January 25, 2005
  Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

They Doth Protest Too Little
  January 24, 2005
  Chris Colin

Thousands take to the streets to oppose the inauguration of George W. Bush
  January 24, 2005
  troopsoutnow.org

A Warm Oasis in a Snow Storm; The Progressive Democrat Summit in Washington
  January 24, 2005
  Cynthia L. Butler, Esq.

The Politics of SpongeBob
  January 23, 2005
  Gene C. Gerard

Mis-Defining Terrorism
  January 20, 2005
  John Janney

Marines stretching movement
  January 19, 2005
  Mike Ferner

Bush’s Mythical Mandate and Social Security Piratization
  January 19, 2005
   Stephen Crockett and Al Lawrence

Happy Birthday Martin Luther King, Jr.
  January 16, 2005
  Chuck Zlatkin

Bush’s Choice for Energy Secretary Was One of Texas’ Top Five Worst Polluters
  January 16, 2005
  Jason Leopold

Bush, God, Fox, and the International Criminal Court
  January 13, 2005
  David Swanson

The real reason Bush wants to privatize Social Security
  January 12, 2005
  Robert Lockwood Mills

CBS' cowardice and conflicts behind purge
  January 11, 2005
  Greg Palast

Bring them home -- Sooner rather than later
  January 1, 2005
  Sheila Samples




Read National Issues Articles by Year:
2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000



FREE PRESS EMAIL UPDATE


Donate to the Free Press Election Protection Fund to help us investigate and monitor election fraud in this year's election.


Donate to The Free Press The Free Press Store

FOLLOW US ON
twitter
facebook


SEARCH THE FREEPRESS




1021 E. Broad St. Columbus, OH 43205 | 614.253.2571 | truth@freepress.org
All content © 1970-2012 The Columbus Free Press
Disclaimer