Comments on: Congressman Rohrabacher: Almost All House Republicans Think Iraq War Illegal, Immoral

By: Andrew McCleese

Andrew McCleese — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 01:32:05 +0000

Corporations gained such powers through the manipulation of monopoly men with the collusion of government insiders. It was J.D. Rockefeller (famous for saying, “competition is a sin”) who help lobby to change the corporate laws as written by the founders. Corporations from an economic sense are, in principle, just a collection of people who pool risk. Excessive growth and monopolization of markets is of course to be fear by any free market, pro-liberty observer. The Founders were well aware of the consolidation of power in the hands of corporate entities so the restrictions of corporations were initially very strict. They could only be formed for a legitimate public good such as building a bridge, road, hospital, school… and they only held their charter for a 10 year period. Not only did the monopoliy men of the Gilded Age get these restrictions loosened, they also managed to get 14th Amendment protections for corporations through legal verdict. So in one sense I do very much agree with you Mark and seek a reformation of corporate laws, pre-1880, but I really don’t see the point or understand the swipe at Napolitano. He is not a corporatist, he is a strict constructionist and anytime he does speak of corporatism he only does so in the manner in which Jason says. He constantly talks about the integration of corporate and state powers as economic fascism and will lead to a further consolidation of power in the hands of the few. Certainly you can’t find fault with this message can you?

By: jason

jason — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 15:11:35 +0000

I am not sure why no mention of corporations makes Napolitano some sort of apologists for corporations. The fact is corporations are only able to grow to the size and influence that they currently do with the assistance of government. Corporate welfare is what creates the uneven playing field which favors come corporations over others.

What is not to be feared is the government, or the corporation but the fusion of government and corporations into one entity…fascism.

By: mark

mark — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 07:56:47 +0000

Consider how completely blind-in-one-eye ideologues are: || “There is a thirst out there for a focus on the government that has a bias in favor of human liberty and believes that the individual is greater than the state, that the individual has natural rights and an immortal soul and the government is just an artificial creation based on fear and force,” summarized Napolitano. || No mention of the application of this principle to the artificial creation of the corporation! As if the corporation is some God-given natural phenomenon with an immortal soul. More venal hockum from the corpo-libertarians. Sam Smith knew the problem was accumulation of unwarranted power and this unwarranted accumulation is not limited to government. As is inevitably the case, power corrupts whether it is public or privatized, and most always the two collude, exactly what Adam Smith warned us about. The corporation is as much to be feared as government.