It's time to CRUSH these giant corporations before it's too late - and here's how to do it

[Hugabear]

I do believe that we're at a crossroads regarding American democracy. Much like with climate change, if we don't take decisive action right now, then later on it might be too late. What we need to do is to get away from these giant monolithic corporations, and focus on a more regional level. Here's how Congress can effectively crush these giant corporations using the power granted to them in the Constitution's Commerce Clause.

1. Pass the Employee Free Choice Act
2. Repeal NAFTA and all other "free-trade" agreements that reward companies for outsourcing
(these are the two "easy" steps. the rest of these would require some serious congressional willpower)

3. Nationalize the following industries: banking, finance, energy production, public utilities, telecom, medical and health insurance (there may be others, but can't think of them off the top of my head)
4. Break up large corporations by passing a law that restricts companies to operating within states bordering the state they're headquartered in.


I truly believe that if we were to do this, we could break up the power of these giant corporations. We would return control to the regional level, and create more jobs in the process.

[NeeDeep]

1. Dude - run for president - you got my vote n/t

[timeforpeace]

3. The know the saying that goes, you get the government you deserve?

[Binka]

20. Hey Latte Birkenstock Volvo

Your slip is showing.

[timeforpeace]

2. It's already too late.

[JanMichael]

4. If we did that then crazy Marxists like myself would be...

...mostly nullified and bored because most of our issues would be gone.

Push it and expand #3 and GO!

[readmoreoften]

14. I, for one, would love to be so bored!

I'm behind any solution that involves working class strike-backs. Consumer politics only work on purely political issues (civil rights violations, i.e. the Coors boycott) you can't change capitalism by changing shopping patterns.

We need working class organization now. Within and without the unions.

No war between nations; no peace between classes.

[lib_wit_it]

23. "No war between nations; no peace between classes." Wow, if only that were so. /m

[Mz Pip]

5. And we do this, how?

Not to be a wet blanket on all of these ideas but if we can't get through even a totally watered down HCR bill how the hell are we going to nationalize the banking, finance, telecom and other industries?

I'm all for what you suggest but I just don't see how any of it is even remotely possible.

[Political Heretic]

8. You start by accepting that as sad as it is, the political system itself, including both parties

has become the problem.

The Democratic party still has a chance to be part of the solution. But it won't be "from within." It will from "without" as we rebuild the Democratic Party as a true people's party.

And that seems far fetched I know. Believe me I know. But I have an idea of where we might start.... be learning from history:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7541683

[BP2]

17. "both parties have become the problem" - After the Senate's HCR Bill, the old cliché applies:

I didn't leave my party, my party left me.

I barely even recognize the fucking Democratic Party anymore.

[bvar22]

21. That applied in 1992 with the passing of NAFTA.

Downhill since then.

Remember THIS Democratic Party?

n our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.

Among these are:

The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;

The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;

The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;

The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;

The right of every family to a decent home;

The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;

The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;

The right to a good education.

All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.---FDR

THAT was the Democratic Party I joined 42 years ago.
It bears NO resemblance to the political party using that name today.


"There are forces within the Democratic Party who want us to sound like kinder, gentler Republicans. I want us to compete for that great mass of voters that want a party that will stand up for working Americans, family farmers, and people who haven't felt the benefits of the economic upturn."---Paul Wellstone

[Hugabear]

15. If we had more people like Alan Grayson in Congress, we could do it in a heartbeat

I didn't say it would get done. I just laid out a roadmap for how it could get done.

I fully realize that BOTH political parties benefit heavily from corporate donations, so I don't really expect anything to happen. But I can have my fantasies, right?

[Political Heretic]

6. Sorry but before it was tabled, card check was already pushed out of EFCA

And what's left pretty much isn't worth the paper its printed on.

So unless that can be brought back, "EFCA" is essentially dead in anything other than name-only.

NAFTA will never be repealed just by asking politicians to do it or voting for politicians that you think might do it. It will only be repealed - maybe - if you're ready to take to the streets.

Point number three.... ah point number three. What you're asking for is the total transformation of our market economy. It accepts what I've been saying on DU for a while now, that our political and economic system itself is a failed system, that the US is essentially a "failed state" for 2/3s of its citizenry (though only 1/3 completely realizes their lot). Nationalization of most major industries in the united states is not something that can be accomplished under this economic and political system. You're arguing that its time we demand structural change, not just a rearranging of the deck chairs on our sinking ship.

I agree with you, but just realize the scope of what you're asking. This isn't going to happen merely by "getting out of the vote." It's going to depend even more on mass public action - the ability to build a movement bigger than the first civil rights movement, and one that demands a revolution of our political and economic institutions to that they better honor social and economic justice.

The problem isn't that we don't know what to do. The problem is that too few people are serious about what has to happen in order to make it a reality. And listen, I'm not trying to lecture from some place of perceived superiority. I don't know exactly what to do or how to do it.

All I know is as I've been saying recently, I'm turning to history - the history of mass social movements in the United States to study every way in which a small number of people have managed to turn something into hundreds, then thousands, then millions of people and change the country. If they can do it, then if we start really studying their example, we can do it too.

[Hugabear]

19. Any legislation can always be brought back

It would just have to be re-introduced.

[Octafish]

7. The sooner, the better.

One thing I'd add is to do whatever it takes to save the environment and to create a New Deal Manhattan Moon Project modernized job creation Thing.

You got my vote, Hugabear.

[kudzu22]

9. I think maybe the red & blue america should

just go their separate ways. Let the red states have their corporate fascist state and the blue states have single-payer everything, and we'll see who comes out ahead. Think we can arrange an amicable divorce?

[sandnsea]

10. MOVE YOUR MONEY

We should have done it the second after the Supreme Court stopped the count.

This would matter. Moving your money to local banks won't do a thing. Where do people think they put their money.

[Odin2005]

11. K&R

[sandyd921]

12. First order of business:

Nuke the filibuster so you can do all of the above.

[struggle4progress]

13. I think you are right that we can win, but as a caution against over-confidence I offer:

Bambi meets Godzilla

[Phlem]

16. Dude, I wish so much

but the Ripublicans would pull a JFK and shoot you before you could even get started on #3.

-phlem

[Union Yes]

18. There's truth to what you say. Solidarity! knr nt.

[adamuu]

22. 4 is not fair to border states

No one would set up headquarters in North Dakota (3 neighbors), Maine (1 neighbor), South Carolina (2 neighbors)
Not to mention Alaska and Hawaii

[omega minimo]

24. They own Congress. Have you suggested this before, now that it's too little, too late?

:popcorn:

[bertman]

25. I like the way you think, Hugabear. Rec. nt.