[oldembed src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6IsLMBLz3as" width="425" height="300" resize="1" fid="21"]
Since candidates like Mitt Romney have explicitly stated that 'corporations are people', Making Change at Walmart has launched a spoof campaign that asks the question, 'if corporations are people, can't they run for office'? This week they campaign launched its first ad, taking on the economy and jobs. The website goes well beyond the ad and includes comments like:
Labor Laws
Newt Gingrich called for an end to child labor laws, suggesting schools fire union workers and hire poor students as janitorial staff. This is an excellent idea that doesn’t go far enough. For too long, Corporate America has been shackled by ALL labor laws; I would not be the Fortune 500 Company I am today if not for my bad labor practices. Abolishing the National Labor Relations Board will go a long way towards creating the kind of environment conducive to predatory capitalism
Replace the Secretary of Labor with the Secretary of Capital who will oversee the rights of Corporate Americans, encouraging new and innovative ways to increase the wealth gap in America
Make every state in the union a Right to Work state – so long as that right to work is at a low paying, benefit-less job at Walmart
Minimum Wage and Overtime Pay
In recent years, the push to raise the minimum wage in this country has grown louder. Americans complain it’s impossible to raise a family on $7.75 an hour. Well, it’s also impossible to pay that amount to workers and make a ridiculous profit! Minimum wage is nothing but a safety net – In addition to hurting corporations like me, it does nothing to encourage employees to work hard, or get second or third jobs. I vow to lobby Congress to abolish the national minimum wage, as well as mandatory overtime pay
Workplace Discrimination
In 2011, The Supreme Court of the United States heard the largest class action suit in the history of the United States. Dukes v. Walmart claimed that my stores systematically and purposely promoted men over women, as well as paid women less for doing the same job as men. In 2010, Women earned 77 cents to men’s dollar. This is America. We can do than better that. As President, I vow to bring that down to 50 cents!
While the positions in the ad and on the website are obviously satire, they aren't that far off from actual positions held by conservatives and if voters don't rebuke these types of positions in 2012, how much further to the right will Republicans drift?
