As a working class citizen, loosing his economic livelihood, I protest the fact that the one percent has taken my political and economic abilities to redress my grievances. Not only have the one percent politically gagged me, but are, at the same time, economically deleveraging me. The right to collectively bargain in the market place is as important to me as the right to redress my grievances in the political realm, for the simple reason, they are both impediments to my freedom of association. It should be self evident that unchecked power manifests itself in many forms. As the Founding Fathers were able to break the hold of consolidated, non representative power in the monarchial form, I believe this generation must take on the Founders’ cause once more. We must demand accountability by the new forms of unchecked tyranny which are multi national corporations and the one percent that reign over them. They, the one percent, must be made accountable to a nation’s will just like every one else. They can’t be allowed to hold a whole nation hostage because they feel over taxed and onerously regulated.
When the job creators use their abilities as tools for political concessions, I perceive a new, un-checkable tyranny slithering its way into the body politic. The obfuscated nature of the Founders’ remedy, being three branches of government, has left modernity with a dysfunctional government. The halls of power are congested and only accessible by truck loads of money, and until we all have truck loads of money, we are all with out a voice. Although the remedy the Founders bestowed upon us worked for the Thirteen Colonies, it no longer works for a vast majority of the people. Where once there were thirteen points of view—articulated through the different congress men, who had to make concessions in order to secure the legislation—there are only two, and they both leave the working class’s grievances unremitted. The thirteen different colonies, which made up the divided interests of the nation, are now morphed into two political parties, one for the employers and one for the middle class government officials. These two interests have locked out all other members of society.
Does society really believe tyranny could only arise from political appendages? Tyrannical institutions within the private sector are as detrimental to personal liberties, as kings who tax but don’t represent. The one percent, I perceive, are using their job creating ability as leverage in the political arena. Only after securing their ability to produce without American labor, through the acquisition of foreign markets, do they talk about market insecurities. Only after they used their control of demand, which is their hiring and firing ability here in the ‘States, and their control of supply, which is cheap, undemocratic, foreign labor, do they command their political party to be obstructionally partisan. It should be no surprise that consumer expectations are low when unemployment is high. If the job creators really wanted to spur consumption, they only need to hire more employees. Having one politically astute sector of society control supply and demand is as detrimental to personal liberties as a king and his scepter. When the creators of jobs don’t like the democratically imposed regulations, they fire their employees, sowing the seeds of political unrest. This formula—one that has been used many times before—secures their party’s reign in two to four years. At least in the past when employers flexed their muscles in such a way, the act had adverse effects on the employer. The cost benefit relationship of the employer’s decision weighted more on the cost side of the scale.
Because of the new phenomenon called globalization, I feel more silenced than I have ever felt. Through domination of global market shares, the one percent has taken my market right to boycott their brands, moving their factories out of the market they politically support. They are able to leverage the American economy because they live off foreign revenues. While they demand more freedom against American accountability, in the form of deregulation and free mobility of capital, they ask for more sacrifice from every one else.
The market place of ideas is compromised when unpopular ideas are able to find safe harbor in other markets. How can Americans boycott corporate excesses, when multi nationals are able to survive without American patronage? A vast majority of Americans no longer have a say over the conditions corporations wish their employees to toil under. This unprecedented leverage at the disposal of corporate power is the harbinger of unchecked tyranny. Foreigners, who have not my liberties, choosing to prostitute their labor, should not affect my ability to protest American working standards. This new manifestation of power needs to be diligently eradicated. As the Founders destroyed the power of the crown eleven score fifteen years ago, we must set forth to do the same to the new, un-checkable scourge of American liberty. If the new world power structure is not accountable to anyone but the stock holders, then government—as people of the 20th century knew it—is obsolete and redundant. We need to wake up, or, like corporate down sizing, our political voice will be down sized, too.
To the enablers of the one percent, here is a little wisdom Benjamin Franklin would have us not forget: "Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power." And always remember: “Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary [economic] Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
I protest this new form of political usurpation for one simple reason. I’d hate to wake up one day and find that the Neo-American pledge goes something like this: I pledge allegiance to the logos of the One Percent of America, and to their profits for which I toil. One party, above the law, indivisible from Wall Street’s interests, and their justice is for all.