They no more have intrinsic rights than wheelbarrows do. A nation that has an ongoing legal debate on whether Mexicans are persons should ask itself why we don't give a second thought to the idea that corporations have constitutional rights. Try the ultimate test. Suggest it to a few corporate CEO's and they will cringe and fight against it tooth and nail. It is a good idea, counterintuitive though it seems at first.
Corporate donations are a brilliant strategy to frustrate discussion of underlying issues.
They work as a carrot to encourage simplistic and short-term decisionmaking, as a stick for retaliation, and as a careening cart that so churns up our social terrain that we can't see a way out of the rut we are in. If corporations paid their way through fair taxes and exemplary behavior, citizens would be able to use the democratic process to make such decisions in a rational manner. We the sovereign people set up corporations to serve public needs. We the sovereign people devised laws and regulations to direct corporate behavior. We the sovereign people do not ask for their charity, but demand their obedience.