Target donating to right-wing candidate

Now that the Supreme Court's conservative wing has decided that corporations are just people, too, Target has donated $150,000 to the campaign of Tom Emmer, Republican candidate for governor of Minnesota. This is a homemade video by a Minnesota grandmother - and the mother of a gay son - who wasn't willing to let that go without protest.

Think about it. Even if you support Emmer, how do you think your $50 donation to his campaign stacks up against $150,000 from Target? Do you really think that Emmer will care two hoots for what you think, compared to the views of his corporate benefactor?

From Target's point of view, purchasing a politician might be just a good business investment. Or, alternately, this could be just because of the right-wing political views of its CEO, using corporate money to advance his own agenda. But what if you own shares of the company, perhaps through a mutual fund in your IRA. Technically, you're a part owner of the company, so it's partially your money going to fund this right-wing politician. But you've got absolute no say over the decision. (You'd have very little say over the decision even if you owned shares directly, not compared with, say, wealthy investors in Saudi Arabia or Hong Kong, who might be able to influence Target management.)

According to the right-wing fanatics on the Supreme Court (as usual, the Citizens United decision was 5 to 4), multinational corporations and their wealthy CEOs apparently didn't have enough power in our political system as it was. And the fact that such corporations are foreign-owned, at least in part, didn't dissuade them, either. Well, what's good for multinational corporations is good for America, right? Heck, why don't we just let them run for office themselves, and skip the middle-man?

The fact is, corporations aren't people. Corporations don't make decisions, their management does. Furthermore, ownership isn't control. You may own shares in a corporation without having any control over what they do. In fact, for most of us, that's almost always the case. So a CEO can give your money to a right-wing candidate who'll pledge to lower the CEO's taxes, and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it.

Well, you can protest. You can contact Target. You can cut up your Target charge card, like this woman did. But for the most part, you probably won't know when corporations do this kind of thing. And when they all start doing it, you might have trouble shopping anywhere.

Long-term, you can simply vote for progressive politicians, especially for President. The Supreme Court is making such loony decisions - this is far from the only one, all made on a 5-4 vote - because past Republican presidents have appointed far-right extremists to this lifetime position. Now, their decisions are making it easier to keep electing corporate shills. We're paying for our previous mistakes - paying in so very many ways.

For decades now, we've been on the wrong path in America. When will we citizens wake up and change course?