Earlier this week, the Bush administration rebuffed labor's efforts to level the mountain range also known as "Free Trade". The Right is amazing at naming things that sound great but mean the opposite in practice. "Leave No Child Behind" specifically leaves behind children with learning disabilities. A "Right to Work State" is a state that weakens unions and therefore worker representation in the face of crushing corporate power.

The Myth of Free Trade
"Free Trade" means exploiting unprotected, abused workers in third world countries, Chinese manipulation of its currency in order to keep its prices low with respect to the US economy, Chinese dumping of products, US manufacturers moving millions of jobs offshore, and cheap foreign high-skilled labor brought in to work under L-1 VISAs, displacing tens of thousands of high-skilled US workers who now work at Starbucks for the health coverage, while watching their homes go to foreclosure auctions. Yes, The Right is really good at naming things. Sadly, they're terrible at running countries.

You've probably heard me say this before, but it bears repeating. We must decide whether we are a country in the service of its people or corporations. In the late 1800's Congress gave corporations the same status of people, except that corporations can exist in perpetuity. The government has no way of revoking a corporation's certificate of incorporation.

Corporate Power v. The People
Since then, corporate power has grown beyond the control of regular people, who are now at the mercy of the corproate stranglehold on Washington, where corporate attorneys write laws that effect all of us but benefit the few and the powerful. Bush's trade policies--clearly articulated this week, finally--accelerate this trend and firmly subordinate the interests of the United States to the interests of large corporations, regardless of nationality.

How Can We Fix this?
This is a large, complex issue and can't be solved overnight, but we start by removing Bush from office. His trade policies and failure to act on behalf of the American people with respect to trade are impeachable offenses in my view. He has abdicated any responsibility for the welfare of the people of this country in favor of enriching the corporate class, and in doing so imperiled our civil liberties and, indeed, the very autonomy of the United States itself. Bush's willfull negligence can only be answered with his removal from office, either through legislative action or at the polls, it matters little.

But the problem is institutionalized through the efforts of the vast corporate armies of attorneys who have through legislation handed over our democracy to large corporate interests, leaving regular people and small businesses with no seat at the table and the "let them eat cake" response of "let them get training", though they never say on what or for what, as long as prices are low at Wal-Mart nobody will notice. Removing a single person and the thousands of neo-con sycophants in his administration will not stop this wily weed from growing through other means.

So we must review each law, question the intent and purpose of the law and test its democratic veracity with the simple question: does this serve the people? And the answer can't be some trickle-down, trickle-on, tricked up economic excuse for corporate greed. Without basing our laws on some standard or principle, we are doomed to an Orwellian future must worse than our Orwellian present.

In the meantime, let's get these out-of-touch, out-of-control fraudsters out of the White House. Then we can begin the real work of extracting ourselves from this downward spiral toward total corporatization of we the people.