A Constitutional Amendment to Ban Sweatshop Imports
Stephen Crockett and Al Lawrence
While the Bush Republicans are pushing for a Constitutional Amendment designed to be an emotional, social wedge issue in the 2004 elections, the US Constitution is currently not giving the American people protection against a much bigger economic and defense issue. Our large corporations are undermining the national security of the United States by exporting our economic strength to other nations for their private financial gains.
We need a Constitutional debate on these seemingly legal forms of traitorous behavior by the economically powerful. The large corporations have close to complete control of the Bush Republican political machine. This political machine now controls the Senate, the House of Representatives, the federal courts, the White House and the overwhelming bulk of the American Media. Public policy is no longer serving the public good or looking after the interests of the average American citizen. Only the wealthy have a real voice in establishing any influence on public policy.
Our form of campaign financing has made almost all politicians dependent on the wealthy to fund television advertising based campaigns. The growing control of our political system can best be understood by looking at the Bush campaign in this election cycle. Bush has already raised 170 million dollars with many thousands paying the legal limits and many corporations bundling contributions by executives.
It is little wonder that Big Business has had a field day rewriting environmental policies, labor policies, energy policies, open bidding policies in federal contracts and access to legal remedies in our courts. Everything (from defense contracts to prescription drug programs to protecting various industries from lawsuits over misdeeds to tax policies) that could be redesigned to gain private wealth from changes in public policy has been done for the wealthiest under the Bush Republicans.
We are paying a huge price as a nation by giving the Corporate Bush Republicans complete control of our government. Our national strength is being exported. We are not just losing jobs to China, India, Mexico and other poor nations by the actions of these traitors in Corporate America. We are losing future tax revenues to fund defense programs and pay for other national security expenses. Our large corporations are increasing the ability of other nations to fund their weapons programs and build armies. Our large corporations are providing first class technology that will help other nations upgrade their military.
Our government is undermining child labor laws, anti-pollution regulations, anti-monopoly laws, fair trade practices, laws controlling the length of the work day, worker safety regulations and much more in America by permitting large corporations to move operations abroad where these legal constraints are do not exist. We need a Constitutional Amendment to prevent our corrupted political system from selling out the national good to wealthy international interests. No imports made under working conditions that are significantly below American standards should be permitted unless taxed by our government to equalize the playing field.
Written by Stephen Crockett and Al Lawrence (hosts of Democratic Talk Radio http://www.DemocraticTalkRadio.com ). Mail to: 7A Planville Drive, Fayetteville, TN 37334. Phone: 931-438-1500 or 443-421-0287.
