As former Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter has pointed out, The history of American constitutional law in no small measure is the history of the impact of the modern corporation upon the American scene. Exposure of these hidden histories of corporate takeover often comes as a rude awakening. It's hard to accept that giant corporations have been defining our values and shaping our culture for well over a century. But it's not as if we must start from scratch. Here, the people govern.
All people possess inalienable human and constitutional rights.
The role of government is to nurture democracy and prevent special privilege. To fortify ourselves with the energy and power of this saga, we have but to read the Declaration of Independence, the preamble to the U.S. Constitution, the charter of the Knights of Labor, the platforms of the Populist farmers and workers' parties demanding an end to corporate rule, our original state constitutions, the Niagara Declaration, the Declaration of Sentiments, and other self-defining documents. We have but to learn the hidden histories of people's vital movements for rights, justice and democracy, of people's valiant resistance against corporate tyrannies. Let us create a great debate in our communities, across our state and nation- debate which challenges the authority and legitimacy of business corporations to rule. This brief history of democracy tried and thwarted in Ohio tells us that in every generation, people understood that if they did not define corporations, then corporations would define them.