Truthout is proud to bring you an exclusive series from America’s No. 1 progressive radio host, Thom Hartmann. We’ll be publishing weekly installments of Hartmann’s much-lauded book, “Unequal Protection: How Corporations Became ‘People’ and How You Can Fight Back.” Join us as, chapter by chapter, we delve into issues of corporate power, popular resistance and the nature of democracy itself.
Introduction: The Battle to Save Democracy
Part I: Corporations Take Over
Part II: From the Birth of American Democracy through the Birth of Corporate Personhood
Chapter Three: Banding Together for the Common Good
Chapter Four: The Boston Tea Party Revealed
Chapter Five: Jefferson Versus the Corporate Aristocracy
Chapter Six: The Early Role of Corporations in America
Chapter Seven: The People’s Masters
Chapter Eight: Corporations Go Global
Chapter Nine: The Court Takes the Presidency
Part III: Unequal Consequences
Chapter Twelve: Unequal Uses for the Bill of Rights
Chapter Thirteen: Unequal Regulation
Chapter Fourteen: Unequal Protection from Risk
Chapter Fifteen: Unequal Taxes
Chapter Sixteen: Unequal Responsibility for Crime
Chapter Seventeen: Unequal Privacy
Chapter Eighteen: Unequal Citizenship and Access to the Commons
Chapter Nineteen: Unequal Wealth
Chapter Twenty-One: Unequal Media
Chapter Twenty-Two: Unequal Influence
Chapter Twenty-Three: Capitalists and Americans Speak Out for Community
Chapter Twenty-Four: End Corporate Personhood
Chapter Twenty-Five: A New Entrepreneurial Boom
Chapter Twenty-Six: A Democratic Marketplace
Chapter Twenty-Seven: Restoring Government, of, by, and for the People
Copyright Thom Hartmann and Mythical Research, Inc. Truthout has obtained exclusive rights to reprint this content. It may not be reproduced, and is not covered by our Creative Commons license.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy