Lincoln Would be Turning Over in His Grave

The power once held by the citizens of the United States has been handed over to corporations that have politicians who are bought and paid for to do their bidding. We no longer have a nation that operates on the context that the will of the people is heard. We are now controlled by politicians whose only goal is to be re-elected and who receive the money for re-election from those same corporations. Power has been shifted from the people to the corporations.

The people, however, are not standing idly by. Movements like "Occupy Wall Street" have helped raise awareness among the citizenry. Information is being dissiminated to voters like never before. The people are becoming increasingly informed about issues that create the political arena in Washington. Corporations were never intended to have such power in the political process. The power was intended to be held in the hands of the people.

In his Gettysburg Address, President Lincoln said:

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Corporations have been granted the rights of humans. Once corporations were given personhood with the passage of Citizens United, the reality of a government of the people was lost in “Citizens United. This is the 2010 Supreme Court case that shocked America, influenced an election, and reversed over 100 years of campaign finance laws. In this case, corporations were declared as people and as such declared to have the same rights as people do. It also opened the doors for corporations to pour unprecedented amounts of campaign donations into elections, and what’s more, these donations can be totally secret. Corporations can now literally and legally buy elections and shape the government like never before in our nation’s history.” –Addicting Info

The people of a nation strive for what they perceive is best for the nation. The opinion with the greatest number of supporters that cast their ballot wins. Citizens United changed all of that. Now corporations have more power to dump more money into political coffers. This gives them the ability to sway votes in Congress. Huge funds are also spent on advertising to confuse voters and lead them to believe something is good for them that are actually not in their best interests.

Yes, President Lincoln would be turning over in his grave if he were here to witness this.

http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.htm

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2011/11/13/what-the-founding-fathers-thought-about-corporations/