In response to the Supreme Court’s freakish decision in 2010 to bestow political “personhood” on corporations, I got an email from a guy named Larry, screaming that “Big money has plucked our eagle.”

 Yes it has – and the Powers that Be tell us that we shouldn’t even try to undo this theft of our people’s democratic authority, but should just try regulating corporate money, like maybe requiring them to disclose how much they’re spending on campaigns. Now there’s a bold stand for democracy: “Give us campaign finance reporting regulations or give us death!”

 Come on, we’re bigger than that. Here are just a few actions for real change that you can take, teaming up with others right where you live:

 AMEND. Two major coalitions are organizing to overturn the court’s corporate money edict by amending the Constitution. One is FreeSpeechForPeople.org and the other is MoveToAmend.org – and both have action kits for raising the issue locally, petitions to be circulated, video and other good graphics to educate people in your community, and a wealth of other organizing ideas.

 LOCALIZE. Pass your own local and state laws to stop the wholesale corporate purchase of our government. These include outlawing any corporate claim of personhood in your area, providing the alternative of public financing for your local and state elections, and banning campaign donations by corporations that try to get government contracts and subsidies. For information and help, check our PublicCampaign.org and ReclaimDemocracy.org.

 CONFRONT. Yes, get in the face of power. Ask all candidates where they stand on corporate personhood and demand that top executives of big corporations located in your area publicly agree not to spend corporate cash on your elections.

 Remember, the Constitution plainly says “We the People,” not We the Corporations.

“The Hightower Lowdown,” www.hightowerlowdown.org, October 2011.

Shoveling America’s wealth to the top

 As an old country saying puts it, “Money is like manure – it does no good unless you spread it around.”

 Yet, America’s corporate and political leaders have intentionally been shoveling wealth into an ever-bigger pile for those at the top. They’ve gotten away with this by lying to the great majority, which has seen its share of America’s prosperity steadily disappear. Yes, they’ve told us, the rich are getting richer, but that’s just the natural workings of the new global economy, in which financial elites are rewarded for their exceptional talents, innovation, and bold risk-taking.

 Horse dooties. The massive redistribution of America’s wealth from the many to the few is happening because the rich and their political puppets have rigged the system. Years of subsidized offshoring and downsizing, gutting labor rights, monkeywrenching the tax code, legalizing financial finagling, dismantling social programs, increasing the political dominance of corporate cash – these and other self-serving acts of the moneyed powers have created the conveyor belt that’s moving our wealth from the grassroots to the penthouses.

 Not since the Gilded Age, which preceded and precipitated the Great Depression, have so few amassed so much of our nation’s riches. Having learned nothing from 1929’s devastating crash, nor from their own bank failures in 2008 that crushed our economy, the wealthiest of the wealthy fully intend to keep taking more for themselves at our expense.

 Now, however, the people are onto their lies. Polls show that two-thirds of Americans support increased taxes on millionaires, an end to corporate tax subsidies, and policies to more evenly distribute the wealth we all help create. This rising egalitarianism shows the true American character, and it’s changing our politics – for the better.

“It’s Official: The Rich Get Richer,” The New York Times, October 26, 2011.

“The Wall Street Protesters May Have Picked The Right City for Their Campaign,” The New York Times,” October 26, 2011.

“New Poll Finds A Deep Distrust Of Government,” The New York Times, October 26, 2011.