Corporations Have More Rights than Women

Thanks, Ted Cruz et al.

A few weeks ago, a duo of Supreme Court bombs came out. The first was the leak of a draft ruling on Roe v. Wade which would roll back its protections. This got a lot of press at the time and continues to get the odd story, but as with the 24-hour media cycle, it is starting to fade away.

The second was less-reported but just as impactful, and that was the ruling that political donations could be used to pay back private debts after an election cycle. This comes thanks to everyone’s favorite punching bag Ted Cruz, who litigated this nonsense up to the Supreme Court and managed to prevail.

My partner, who tends to have very on-point opinions on these things, told me one morning “well, it seems that corporations have more rights than women now.” My gods, that was on the nose.

With the various rulings in recent years, this is becoming more true than ever. In particular, Citizens United, which protected political donations as free speech, kicked things off, although it was brewing for a while beforehand. There was a cavalcade of activity on this front after that, with PACs, Super-PACs, and the notion of “corporations as people,” among other things, and oh boy has that shit rolled downhill.

So, we now find ourselves on the precipice of a country where corporations with lobbyists and billions in political capital stand to enjoy more rights as “people” than women. I say “women,” but in reality, corporations seem to have more rights than just about anyone except the rich white guys who run them.

When the Elon Musks of the world can throw childish temper tantrums and try to buy Twitter, it’s hard to argue that women, queer folx, BIPOC, or anyone who isn’t born into privilege can make much of an impact in this country. A handful of white guys control most of the media, whether traditional, social, or otherwise, and another handful of white guys pull the strings of the mostly old white guys in congress.

Yeah, we can vote, protest, and organize all we want, but when a couple of dozen people control the bulk of the narrative at any given time, it can be hard to get traction. And, when quite a few of those people are aligned with Donald Trump, who is actively attempting to subvert the American democratic process as we know it, the shit rolls downhill much quicker.

It’s scary, everyone. When Margaret Atwood has to remind people that “The Handmaid’s Tale,” a book about religious fascism destroying democracy and stripping rights from women, was written in the 80s and isn’t a modern-day woke attack on modern conservatism, I begin to worry that America is just a lost cause.

Honestly, the only thing that gives me any kind of reason to keep trying is that so many of the corporations that find themselves empowered by conservative power grabs are turning “woke.” Pride events, which are taking place all this month, are seen as profitable ventures, and while corporatizing is not the greatest thing for the LGBTQIA+ movement in general, it beats the hell out of these big corporations campaigning against Pride.

Honestly, a lot of companies see the way the wind is blowing. Millennials and Gen Z are increasingly liberal, and keeping the status quo is no longer a profitable option in many cases. In my favorite example, Disney caters to the youth, and the youth demand representation — one of the biggest conservative bogeymen. And, when Disney is a multibillion-dollar enterprise with far-reaching media holdings, they do what they want.

Ron DeSantis can do whatever he wants, but the Mouse House has a better read on the next generation than nearly any Republican these days. And, thanks to a lot of efforts from conservatives to empower companies like Disney with political clout, they can tell conservatives who don’t like their corporate choices to piss up a rope.

Unfortunately for us, this puts the general public at the whim of those same couple dozen billionaires who control everything. And when the biggest among them is Elon Musk, whose name has become synonymous with “insane evil overlord” among certain people, I’m not confident in the future. I mean, I wasn’t really before, but when the richest man in the world is an edgy memelord, it’s hard to have confidence in just about anything.

So, as it stands, we have precious few options for change. My political clout is a mere fraction of Elon Musk’s, and there are a dozen corporations that control the majority of the products we consume, so one individual person like myself doesn’t stand much of a chance.

There is also a not-insignificant group of people trying to subvert democracy completely to shove an insane dictator into power in the hopes of making America great again, somehow. Because nothing says “America is great” like subverting everything it was built upon.

We are, more or less, forced to rely on the political clout of a handful of powerful corporate interests to defend democracy from those who would try to destroy it. Unfortunately, it is in their best interests to continue giving money (excuse me, political speech) to those very people who would subvert the American experiment.

As such, we are in a bit of an untenable situation all around. Our corporate overlords own the media, control the politicians, and get to dictate where things go from here to a not-insignificant degree. Meanwhile, an insane conman has nearly half the country in his thrall, and his political party is pulling as many levers as possible to ensure that they have power for as long as they can manage.

And, what this all boils down to is that unless you’re a white guy, every corporate entity in America is poised to have more rights as people than you. If you’re female, female-presenting, or have a uterus, they’re going to take away quite a few of your healthcare choices. If you fall anywhere on the LGBTQIA+ spectrum, they’re going to try to legislate the queer out of you. And, if your BIPOC, they are going to do their best to strip away whatever rights you’ve fought for.

The fact of the matter is unless you’re white, straight, cis, and male, the system never worked for you, and any progress you’ve made in the past century stands to be lost. The system is working as intended here, making sure that the rich white guys continue to control everything — the media, the politics, the economy — and everyone else gets hosed.

I don’t have any good solutions here. Fight the good fight, protest in the streets if you can, write your congresspeople for whatever good it will do, donate what money you can to the political causes you believe in, and don’t give up hope just yet. Most importantly, go out and vote in every election like your life depends on it, because in all likelihood it does.

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