Op-Ed Looks at Four Top Priority Issue Arenas
Four Important Reforms for Returning Governing Sovereignty to the People
by Darrell Udelhoven
The combination of scientific and empirically applied computerized mathematical applications will reveal that — the four most critical public policy issue equations for returning governing sovereignty back to the people are:1. Reform of broadcast media policyIn order to achieve our goal of a democratic representative republic we will need to develop strategies that focus simultaneously on all four reforms.
2. Reform of political process and campaign finance
3. Reform of corporate charters
4. Reform of global economic policy
Our First Priority must be broadcast media reform. Consider that nothing of significance happens, politically or otherwise, until ideas are conceived and then communicated to others or to a community of individuals that then begin working together to achieve a mutually beneficial common purpose.
We have been and are witnessing the greatest possible waste of our most valuable resource -- that of radio and television broadcasting. Access to broadcasting empowers entire classes of people more effectively than any other resource! Nothing compares to broadcasting's' ability to reach people. Global broadcasting is the perfect vehicle to reach and fully inform the world citizenry, and with its digital convergence with the computerized technologies of the Internet, the potential to inform the masses is tremendous.
Substantive equity to broadcast time in the arenas of news, information, and public affairs is the name of the game.
Average global citizens hear or see little about the tremendous inequities that exist in both the public and the private policy making arenas. Until spokespersons representing small business operators, family farmers, and all employees gain access to broadcasting the public will remain uniformed on the policy issues that are the key determinants of their political and economic destinies.
The corporate interests' class controls the entire mainstream media and until we change this equation, little else will change. It is forever impossible to have a democracy or a government of, by, and for the people, without substantive equity of access for the other politico-economic class interests' to broadcast time.
Additionally, as long as corporate interest' money controls the entire political process from the campaigns to the writing and passing of critical legislation there can be no Peoples' Representative Republic.
Modern journalism is about celebrity and the uncivilized waging of war by our two major political parties on each other. Many commentators are implying that everything is as good as it can get — no wonder people are politically passive.
The Supreme Court has reaffirmed the people's First Amendment rights on several occasions, most recently in the summer of 1994. Justice Byron White, writing the unanimous opinion of the Supreme Court in Red Lion Broadcasting Co. v. Federal Communications Commission.
The people as a whole retain their interest in free speech by radio and their collective right to have the medium function consistently with the ends and purposes of the First Amendment. It is the right of the viewers and listeners ... which is paramount.In this landmark case, the Court found that the First Amendment includes a right of the people to receive information, in addition to the better-known right of [the licensed broadcaster's] speakers to speak. The most common formulation of this right, called "diversity," is the notion that people should be free to choose among many sources of information, viewpoints, and ideas. The Supreme Court has supported and reaffirmed this rationale in their Red Lion broadcasting decision.
Corporate broadcaster's claim that public interest requirements violate "their" First Amendment rights as speakers, but I disagree. It is the general public that is being denied information from the other major politico-economic interest classes that are denied sovereign broadcast time access! [However, it is the corporate viewpoint alone that we receive.] It is time we all realized that corporations are ruling and controlling our political and economic lives.
All the other politico-economic interest classes are suffering from this unconstitutional regulatory discrimination by the FCC. It is time we launched a constitutional class action suit to rectify these discriminatory unconstitutional governmental regulatory transgressions! Money must never be the determinant of which political interests' have access to broadcasting. If necessary, we must amend the constitution to overturn some ridiculous court decisions that affirmed -- "money equals speech."
The full text of the Red Lion Broadcasting opinion may be found printed in the United States Reports, vol. 395, p. 367, (quote at p. 390).
Second: We must reform the political process and campaign finance laws. If necessary, we must pass constitutional amendments to take the influence of money out of the political process. I will treat this political issue in a later work.
Third: We must reform corporate charters. Corporations must not be treated constitutionally and under the law as equal to human beings and yet be free of liabilities. Corporations should not have human civic and political rights. Remember corporations control both print and broadcast mass media and mass media controls our politics our economic policy initiatives and our future. Corporations, not citizens, are ruling our world!
Fourth: We must reform the global economic policy making process. Again corporations are initiating nearly all of the global policymaking and we the people are constantly on the defense. We the people need to get on the offense because people not corporations are supposed to be making public policies and laws. You will need to visit my web site as I do not have the space to cover adequately these issues of paramount importance to every one of you. THE REAL POLITICAL ISSUES
Now is the time to begin this coalition of Internet organizations. We must begin organizing ourselves with labor, family farmers, and all the "homeland small business operators worldwide," in order to effect the necessary changes in legislation and public policy.
"There can be no daily democracy without daily citizenship. If we do not exercise our civic rights, who will? If we do not perform our civic duties, who can?" -- Ralph Nader
Major economies around the world are failing which is causing widespread human suffering; even in America, farmers and small business operators are failing in large numbers. Worldwide, we must use every means possible to raise the quality of life and standard of living for as many people as possible. In a six billion and rapid growing world population there are and will be millions even billions of lives at stake in this critical politico-economic human survival equation therefore, we must not fail to act!
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This article was written specially for The Progress Report by Mr. Darrell Udelhoven.
Do you agree or disagree? What are your priorities?
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