Emily, you can rant day and night with these long winded posts of yours but it doesn't change the fact that no corporations vote. it's YOUR fault and MY fault... WE are the ones who vote!
1. Speak for yourself,
Boss.
I have been contesting the vote for ACA that was split in both Congress and Courts. I explain over and over it is unconstitutional by violating beliefs and discriminating by creed.
If a person objects to being raped, but is raped anyway,
are you saying they are responsible for being raped because
that person didn't stop it?
a. even if they were raped by someone they voted for?
b. even if they married the person who raped them?
So the minute we do anything that approves this person having authority, then even if they rob or rape us against our will,
then we are responsible because we voted?
2. Corporations don't have to vote in Congress to have more influence than people individually.
You brought up BP as a foreign and not US corporation.
How many foreign individuals woudl be allowed to do what BP did?
if a loose group of foreign individuals negotiated with the Feds on capping the damages they paid, do you think they'd get what BP did
3. Now
Boss It seems you and I would agree that the INDIVIDUALS
in Congress are INDIVIDUALLY responsible for how they voted.
But if these INDIVIDUALS make decisions that financially and politically favor large group interests and not INDIVIDUAL CITIZENS, where it takes years of going through Courts, legislative process and more elections, to challenge and fix it:
What about the damage done in the meantime that favors large interests
and takes away rights and income from individual citizens?
The damage done in the meantime already makes this unfair.
Boss what would be fair:
if a contested decision like the 51/49 vote in Congress over ACA
were to be PUT ON HOLD and not enforced until the dispute is SETTLED
then the interests on both sides would be treated EQUALLY.
UNTIL there is agreement, neither side is going to have Congress vote their way.
Then no matter how much these corporate entities pooled their resources together
to pressure Congress and work the Courts with their federal level lawyers that only large corporations can afford, the individual citizens dissent would still count in the equation. But that's not what happens.
In environmental cases, an environmental legal researcher told me that to win a case takes being 100% accurate on all the figures or the defense throws the case. The corporate defense can afford to spend money on lawyers to research and find flaws and contest the findings over any flaw that can be used to defeat the argument. So how many individuals are going to be able to afford legal help against larger corporations that can hire large law firms and with huge legal research depts?
If you don't think that influences City govt, you need to come look into this, and you'd see how weak people really are who won't stand up as you and I would do.
When a COLLECTIVE entity does something wrong, they can just shuffle the deck, replace people with others, or change names and keep going on.
COLLECTIVE groups of any type, whether religious or governmental, business or nonprofit, are going to be harder to check,
Boss. That's why we have the Bill of Rights for govt because collective authority is bound to get abused by the nature of humans in larger groups of concentrated power.
Again I'm glad you are so self-determined and not one to give in to peer pressure.
In this case, your virtue and strength may be weakness if you cannot recognize how this becomes a weakness in others. If you can understand it, you might not be so angry at why people act the way they do, but could have more insight into what it's going to take to dismantle the mob mentality that makes people go along with the crowd and not take responsibility fully.
We all need to grow up and take responsibility, but people pass the buck.
If they can blame it on a large group putting pressure on them, they will give in.
And let someone else deal with it. Sorry but I've seen it over and over.
As much as I have yelled and lectured my own City council members for giving in to this pressure saying things like "there wasn't enough support to do otherwise" I said NO, that's even more reason to stand up for Constitutional rights, and tell these bullies it is wrong and the duty of govt is to defend equal protection of the laws instead of giving in.
Only recently did the citizens of Houston finally start electing city council people who did say NO and did the pastors organize lobbies to defeat an unconstitutional ordinance; but it took Corporate level organizing of resources to do it. Individuals did not stand a chance, because there were so many other violations where individuals protested but could not get the oppression to be recognized or stopped.
So
Boss it takes Corporate level lobbying to stand up to Corporate level lobbying.
Maybe YOU could stand up to Corporate groups and take them one by one and hold each person accountable. Most people don't have the time or resources to do that. so in Houston
it took an ongoing effort to unify church pastors across the city, to collect petitions, then sue to defend those petitions in court before the City would follow its own policies.
That's a collective entity for you. Even though the citizens voted on these council people,
it took a longrunning legal battle, very expensive including ad campaigns on both sides,
to stop the violations. Individuals could not do this on their own, or it wouldn't have happened. Individuals can be stopped individually. When you get a collective mob going, it takes a collective force of equal and opposite power to stop it.
Best wishes
Boss. I believe as you do in holding people to answer individually so we CAN have accountability. but in the meantime I recognize that once a large group gets momentum going, they can bulldoze right over individuals.
Maybe not you, so given the way you think, I hope you do head a group that lobbies for Constitutional enforcement by each individual in Govt.
Maybe people would listen to you without you having to sue in federal court
like everyone else has to in order to say NO to Congress and the ACA, for example.
If Congress would have listened to NO from the beginning, we wouldn't have these
problems. We'd all mediate until the vote is YES across the board.
I believe in consensus, by taking each person's consent into account, and making responsible decisions that reflect everyone, not just the biggest bully or loudest brat.
Boss if you and I agree that Congress members are INDIVIDUALLY responsible for how THEY vote INDIVIDUALLY, then I am happy to join with you in a petition, just us two,
telling EACH member of Congress and EACH member of the Supreme Court they are individually responsible for paying the cost of the contested ACA and any damages or expenses contested by taxpayers who didn't consent to how the bill was passed or enforced.
If you and I agree to hold INDIVIDUALS responsible for that vote, I'm with you on that!
Thanks
Boss
