Crate Training Corporations
States must lead in breaking corporate political control via Transparent Election Acts (like Montana's) and constitutional amendments, re-establishing "We the People" as the shapers of a democracy for the common good.
In the Founders’ time, tyranny wore a crown. Today, it wears a logo.
When the American colonies rebelled, they weren’t just breaking from a king — they were escaping the corporate stranglehold of the East India Company, the multinational monopoly that corrupted Parliament and crushed small merchants. That revolt wasn’t just a tax protest; it was a declaration that the people — not corporate charters — would shape the laws of a free nation.
Two hundred and fifty years later, we face the same test in a modern form. Corporate power has once again escaped its bounds, merging economic muscle with political manipulation. Lobbyists now outnumber legislators. Anonymous “dark money” controls campaign airwaves. Laws are written by those who profit from them. The very democracy our founders built to restrain aristocracy has been captured by its modern twin — the corporate oligarchy.
This is why Step #2 of the New USA Plan calls every state to act.
The Montana Example
When Washington became paralyzed by corporate money, Montana — a state with more cows than lobbyists — decided to take matters into its own hands. Through the Transparent Election Initiative, known as the Montana Plan, citizens used their state constitution and corporate chartering powers to re-establish a simple truth:
Corporations are economic tools, not political actors.
The Montana Plan affirms that only natural persons possess political rights. It demands full transparency for corporate political spending, requires shareholder or member approval before companies can fund campaigns, and enforces penalties for concealment or deception. In doing so, Montana restored what the founders intended — a clear wall between commerce and self-government.
That model can work anywhere. Every state has the sovereign power to define corporate privileges within its borders. Every legislature — or ballot initiative process — can adopt similar reforms to restore accountability and trust.
A Union of States Reasserting the Common Good
Imagine fifty laboratories of democracy acting in concert — red states and blue states alike — united by one principle:
government exists for the common good, not for the profit of any one man or class.
Step #2 invites each state to:
- Draft and pass its own Transparent Election Act modeled on the Montana Plan.
- Amend its state constitution to declare that only natural persons have political rights.
- Mandate real-time public disclosure of all corporate political spending.
- Require shareholder or member approval before any company may engage in political expenditures.
- Prohibit political spending by corporations that receive public contracts or subsidies.
These reforms are neither partisan nor radical — they are restorative. They return to the Founders’ design: corporations serve the people, not the other way around.
Why the States Must Lead
Federal paralysis is no excuse for civic decay. The states were always meant to be the front line of democracy — the testing grounds of reform. When one leads, others follow. When many lead together, the nation changes course.
By acting now, the states can shift the balance of power back toward We the People. They can rebuild transparency, fairness, and trust — the essential scaffolding of democracy. This is how we constrain the vices and amplify the virtues of our system, ensuring that every citizen, not every shareholder, has an equal voice in shaping the future.
An Invitation
This is not merely policy; it is a moral choice.
Will we allow a corporate aristocracy to define our destiny, or will we, the sovereign people, re-establish the rule of law over privilege?
Missouri, Montana, Maine — and every state between — can light a torch for reform.
Step #2 begins wherever citizens decide that democracy is worth defending.
Because as John Adams wrote, “Government is instituted for the common good — for the protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people — and not for the profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men.”
That is the Moral Algorithm.
And it is time for the states to run it again.