What I want in a candidate... (Yet another fine Jackpine rant)

[Jackpine Radical]

I want someone who comes pretty close to meeting my definition of “right” (by which I actually mean “left”) on the most important issues.

The most important issues for me are:

The environment. If we don't quit poisoning ourselves, emitting greenhouse gases, etc. the whole show is over and the rest doesn't matter.

The war. A million dead Iraqis, a milion wounded, 5 million orphans all because of American greed, as personified by Bush.

Poverty. It is a crime that a nation as rich as America cannot manage to distribute its wealth a bit more equitably. In addition, we are perhaps about to tumble into an economic abyss in which the poor will bear more than their share of the burden.

Health care. Not just universal “insurance,” but universal coverage. If you have any questions, go see Sicko.

Those are the Big Four. It would be possible to list many more. The failure of the educational system. Crime in the streets and in the suites. On and on. Add your own favorite issue if I haven't mentioned it.

But here's the kicker. All of these major problems have one underlying cause. No one of them can be solved without addressing that underlying cause, that meta-problem.

And what is that problem? Simple. We all know the answer already. The fundamental reason for most of America's ills is that this nation, and indeed most of the world, is ruled, overtly or otherwise, by incredibly powerful corporations that exist solely to benefit themselves. Concepts such as conscience, social obligations, love, and compassion were omitted from the design of the “corporate person.”

In a previous journal entry, I compared the roles of government and the corporation thusly:

Government is supposed to act in the interest of the greater common good. In our system, governmentrs are supposed to be responsive to the wishes and needs of the governed, while maintaining civil relations with other governments. Governments may indeed be be corrupt, but this is a perversion of their intended nature.

Corporations are a very different sort of animal at their very core.

Milton Friedman used to say, in effect, that the only legitimate goal for a corporation is to make profits for its owners. Any other purpose is, in his view, immoral. Actions for the greater good (e.g. voluntary environmentalism) are immoral unless they increase profits.

And, as we all know, corporations are "persons" for most purposes under the law.

Psychopaths are persons who act without conscience--that is to say, only in their own narrow self-interest. As Robert Hare put it, psychopaths are "intraspecies predators who use charm, manipulation, intimidation, and violence to control others and to satisfy their own selfish needs. Lacking in conscience and in feelings for others, they take what they want and do as they please, violating social norms and expectations without guilt or remorse."

Put these two ideas together. Corporations are expected, mandated, required to be psychopathic--predatory--in their relationship with the other persons in their world.

The times of greatest evil are when governments fall under the sway of psychopaths who twist them away from their intended functions to serve the narrow self-interests of the few. In the old days, the psychopaths tended to be evil individuals, despots and tyrants. These days, they tend to be evil corporations. True, individual psychopaths may appear to be in charge--Bush and Cheney, for example--but these individuals are actually mere tools of the great corporate forces abroad in the world.

It seems to me that the great challenge of our times will be to build adequate firewalls to protect governments from the currently prevalent form of psychopath, namely, the corporation.

Our system is delusional on many levels. For my money, the most dangerous of these delusion is the notion that, somehow, the interplay of forces in the free marketplace will work out to produce universally beneficial solutions—that, somehow, a chaotic pirate universe in which the unchecked plundering of the innocent is combined internecine battles among rival pirate gangs, will magically move toward a state in which the greatest good is delivered to the greatest number of people.

I find it absurd that anyone could seriously advance this theory—and yet, it is the theory underlying the entire right end of the political spectrum, from the libertarians to the Neoliberals.

I want a candidate who sees reality pretty much the way I do, and who is willing to “take up arms against this sea of troubles, and by opposing, end them.”

This candidate must also be electable, of course. The first battle he—or she—must win is the one for the White House. “'Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.”

Is that asking too much?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. I'd settle for a candidate with a sense of human decency.

Which eliminates all the Republican candidates and few Democratic candidates.

[Jackpine Radical]

2. Ainnit the truth!

[iamahaingttta]

3. It's time to eliminate Corporate Personhood.

That is the underlying problem, I agree.

But until that happens, we can ALL simply stop giving them our money. Granted, this is not always possible in every case and with every dollar, but we can at the least, each and every one of us, try to do our part to starve the beast.

Watch every dollar that you spend! That will be the most important way we can begin to get out of this mess...

[Jackpine Radical]

4. And fiscal conservatism is also the best bet

for individual survival. Or group survival, for that matter.

It s possible to avoid some of the giant corporations for your individual purchases. Buying local products (farmers markets, etc.) from local merchants.