Gov. Parnell took a cruise to Seatrade last week and came home supporting the Miami-based cruise industry over the majority will of Alaskans.
According to Carnival, I mean the governor, taxes and pollution rules passed by the citizen's initiative are driving the industry from Alaska. That's simply not true. The Alaska Legislative Research Report (May 1, 2009,) demonstrated our tax regime to be on par with other destinations. The Juneau Empire (Sept. 27, 2009,) exposed the industry's fraudulent claims regarding discounted tickets and tax impacts on passengers.
Consider this: if taxes and pollution control programs were responsible for the temporary downturn in passenger numbers (already in rebound) rather than the near collapse of the world economy, why did Disney rush to fill nearly every vacant berth slot after Carnival and Royal Caribbean changed ship deployments? The industry's other "bargaining chip" for lowering taxes is equally weak -- dropping a lawsuit against the head tax they know they can't win.
But the most important issue isn't the specific amount we charge to offset the industry's impacts on our ports, or keeping our waters clean. It's the crisis in our democracy. The governor is allowing cruise corporations to dictate whether to pay taxes, just as he recently allowed them to choose participants on an advisory board regarding the analysis of shipboard wastewater treatment technologies.
Unfortunately, governance by corporations has become the norm in America. Insurance corporations control the health-care debate, banking corporations control our economy, and oil and coal corporations control the rhetoric on climate change. To add insult to injury, a recent Supreme Court decision ("Citizen's United v. FEC") will allow corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money on elections. The ex-corporate lawyers of the Supreme Court believe corporations should have all the rights of natural persons.
In a recent CBS/Washington Post poll, 80 percent of America disagreed with the Court. Corporations are not persons. They are not born and they do not die. They have no compassion, morals, or sense of justice. Their only legal responsibility is to make money. America is now controlled by a handful of un-elected CEO's and corporate board members, and faces its greatest threat since the Civil War.
"I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance of the laws of our country." -- Thomas Jefferson
"The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of a private power to the point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That in essence, is fascism." -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt
"Our founding fathers never wanted them, these behemoth organizations that never die, so they can collect an insurmountable amount of profit. It puts the people at a tremendous disadvantage." -- Dale Robertson, founder of TeaParty.org
I recognize the importance of addressing oil taxes, education, infrastructure development, and yes, stopping the cruise industry from sailing roughshod over elected officials. But we must also focus on the systemic disease undermining the health of our society - the emergence of a "corpocracy" controlling almost all aspects of our lives for its one and only cause, private gain. It is proper we discuss granting corporations privileges, such as tax advantages, limited liability and access to the courts, but corporations have no legitimate claim to our inalienable rights as people, such as the ability to influence elections and legislation. It's not a free-speech issue because there's nothing free about it. The corporations can buy too much speech.
Please tell your representatives and senators to support HB359 and SB285, which would abolish "corporate personhood" for purposes of elections in Alaska. Demand that candidates state their position on the issue of corporate personhood next October. The United States Constitution does not begin with "We the Artificial Persons;" it says "We the People." We ignore that distinction at our peril.
Gershon Cohen is assistant director of Ultimate Civics, a project of the Earth Island Institute, and one of the sponsors of the 2006 Cruise Ship Initiative.
By GERSHON COHEN