Stephen Colbert Fights For Primary Naming Rights And Corporate Personhood Question In South Carolina
Submitted by Ben Glaser on December 23, 2011 – 3:30 pmOne Comment
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Stephen Colbert has publicly been fighting for a “non-binding referendum question” on the South Carolina primary ballot, but this week he stepped up his efforts, writing an editorial in a South Carolina paper to show just what lengths the state’s Republican Party would go to for Colbert’s large cash donation.
In the middle of a dispute over who would pay for the state’s influential presidential primary (the taxpayers or the political parties themselves), the satirical TV pundit offered to cover the Republican Party’s obligations to the counties with funds from his Super PAC, in exchange for naming rights to the primary. Colbert also asked that a non-binding, advisory issue be placed on the ballot concerning a recent Supreme Court case and Mitt Romney‘s infamous statement that “corporations are people.” The referendum would read:
In order to address the issue of Corporate Personhood, the enfranchised People of the Sovereign State of South Carolina declare that:( ) Corporations are people.( ) Only people are people.
But the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled that such non-binding questions must not appear on any ballot, and also declared that the counties must pay for the primary.
In a guest editorial in South Carolina’s The State newspaper, Colbert writes what happened next:
The S.C. Republican Party no longer needed my $400,000, but being Southern gentlemen, they graciously offered to still want it. They would sell me the naming rights, if instead of giving my cash to the counties, I handed it directly to the party. I asked in return that they petition the court to get the referendum back on the ballot. They said no. I offered less money, $200,000, since I was getting only half of our original agreement. They said no.
Only after Colbert made a similar offer to the state Democratic party did the Republicans withdraw their consideration, saying they were “concerned about the sanctity of the primary”.
Colbert commented, “If nothing else good comes from this, we have at least narrowed down the exact value of sanctity — somewhere between $200,000 and $400,000.”
[via The State]
Corporations are not People. Please sign our petition and help put them in their proper place.
http://signon.org/sign/corporations-are-not-3?source=s.fwd&r_by=166820
To effect the changes needed to reclaim our democracy we need to defeat Corporate America’s attack on our freedoms, and the best place to start is by making sure corporations do not enjoy the rights of “natural people”; it is the key to all of the others. This is not a Conservative, Liberal, Libertarian, or Independent question; it is about preserving the America our forefathers fought so hard to create, and the legacy we have been entrusted to pass on to our kids.
Put simply, if a few corporate power brokers including unions and other institutions own our politicians, and anonymous dollars are more powerful than votes, the great masses of Americans, including you and I, lose their right to “Government by and for the People”.
To effect change, we all have to focus on this core issue. The unbelievable power and influence of big banks and other large corporations, their ownership of the majority of our news outlets, and the massive abuses some engage in, is that core. Together, we can counteract this financial power base with the power of our voices, and return control of our government to “real people”. Rather than continuing to allow both isles of Congress and the Supreme Court to legitimize the “power of the dollar”, together we can force them to re-focus on our rights as “natural people”. With this single step, everything else we need in order to regain the American dream becomes possible, and it all begins by passing a Constitutional Amendment that simply says “Corporations are not People”.
So I created a petition to our House of Representatives & Senate, as well as President Obama, which says:
“It is my belief that Corporations are not People, and that a Constitutional Amendment making that simple statement should be enacted.”
Please step up and help protect our freedoms by signing the petition, and forwarding it to as many of your friends as you can. With your help we can all win!
Please click here to add your name:
http://signon.org/sign/corporations-are-not-3?source=s.fwd&r_by=166820