I heard one new idea in last night’s State of the Union. In response to the Supreme Court deciding that multi-national corporations should have all the rights of individual breathing citizens — allowing them to spend whatever they want to influence elections (as reported here) — Obama suggested that all contacts between lobbyists and public servants be publicly documented. This includes the identity of the client corporations and amounts of money and time involved. The applause were uneven.
This morning a new FaceBook group appeared: ‘Our Corporate Congress’: Make NASCAR-type patches mandatory Congress-wear. I’m not much of a joiner, but I like this idea. Allow the Congressman from Exxon to proudly wear the oil patch right next to his Monsanto and Pfizer badges. Let the senator who filibusters public transit bills proudly show his AAA patch and Ford logo.
Good idea. I joined up. We do need effective graphics to pound this point home that Congress is largely for sale, and it's about to get a lot worse.
If we take the concept of a corporation as a polically legal entity that can contribute to campaigns, perhaps it is time to restrict campaign contributions from non-US citizens, and define the citizenship of coporations. The idea is to restrict corporate political activities to corporations that are subject to our laws.