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Book Reviews
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We the People: A Call to Take Back America
by Thom Hartmann, illustrated by Neil Cohn
(Coreway Medi, 2004, 205 pages)
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So you think you already know everything there is to know about corporate power, globalization, and pre-emptive war? If so I strongly suggest picking up a copy of “We the People,” a new illustrated book by Thom Hartman. Written as a comic book, “We the People” looks at the corporate threat to democracy from a historical perspective. And along the way, it provides some remarkable facts and stories that even the most informed reader is probably unaware of.
Its basic premise is that the United States is in danger of becoming a feudal state. Feudalism is the subordination of government to the interests of the wealthy and powerful. In the past, that included lords, barons and aristocrats. Today those entities are corporations.
To make his case, Hartman looks at the history of our relationship with corporations in the United States. That history starts with a rebellion against the British East India Company which resulted in the Boston Tea Party. It includes Thomas Jefferson’s unsuccessful attempt to include an 11th amendment to the Bill of Rights that would have limited corporate power and of course, the infamous Santa Clara vs. Pacific Railroad Supreme Court decision which gave corporations the same constitutional rights as people.
“We The People” is not all ancient history though. It deals with recent events such as the 2000 presidential election and the debate over Diebold’s touch screen voting machines. Hartman also talks about the Iraq War as part of a failure to adopt forward-thinking energy policies. And Hartman actually knows a fair amount about the subject of fossil fuel and “peak oil,” which he wrote about in “The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight.”
But the thing that makes this book so interesting is its grasp of history. It’s full of quotes from people like Jefferson, Madison and Eisenhower, illustrating our historical struggle for democracy and a civil society.
Most surveys suggest that Americans already believe that corporations have too much power. But to understand what to do next, we need to understand the historical context. Hartman describes how the Santa Clara decision made it unconstitutional for states to ban political donations from corporations. And he discusses how corporations routinely use the 1st, 4th, 5th and 14th amendments to pursue their interests.
Hartman suggests that the opening shot in a rebellion against corporate power has already been fired by local governments seeking to reclaim their sovereignty. With the help of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, towns like Porter Township, Pennsylvania, have passed resolutions eliminating “corporate personhood” in their municipalities and thus reasserting their right to regulate the activities of corporations. “We the People” provides an appendix with sample resolutions and links to more information.
Hartman believes that a “radical middle” will fight for community sovereignty and democracy in the United States. And since this revolution is starting in rural Pennsylvania, he may have a point. The small rural communities there are not known as hotbeds of radicalism. They are communities made up of small farmers worried about the encroachment of corporate farms, and municipal governments who want to have some say over how corporations do business in their communities.
“We the People” is a valuable resource for anyone who wants to better understand America’s historical and recent struggles for democracy. And the illustrations by Neil Cohn make this book entertaining and to read.
[For an invaluable documentary, see The Corporation. HopeDance Media will be showing it in San Luis Obispo.]
Brad Johnson is a regular book reviewer for HopeDance.
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