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March 14, 2013

THE PEOPLE SPEAK – Corporate control a valid concern

— Herb Pope is at it again. In his Feb. 26 letter, titled “Put Constitution back into government,” he spun a fanciful tale of the USA being replaced by a corporation back in 1871. Apparently, this is why nobody in the government will pay attention to his complaints that President Obama isn’t a natural-born citizen.

It’s too bad he had to spoil this tale with him continuing to beat this stone-cold dead-horse of birtherism. Though it was hyperbolic, it was a good effort to bring attention to the problems created by corporate special interests back in Washington. Such as the Citizens United ruling, which allowed corporations free rein to spend unlimited amounts of money to ‘buy’ political candidates. To quote Justice Stevens, who dissented in the Citizens United case, “A democracy cannot function effectively when its constituent members believe laws are being bought and sold.”

So, even though the whole idea of birtherism is so much hooey, and even though Pope’s story bore no real resemblance to the reality we live in, the allegorical point he made about corporations exerting a gradually-increasing influence on the government is worth keeping in mind.

JEFFREY “JAIME” EHLERS

Muskogee

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