The 2004 Green Party presidential candidate, David Cobb, spoke to about 70 students, faculty and community members last night.
“Students have always been the leaders of social change movements in this country,” said Cobb, the national spokesperson for movetoamend.org. “Young people are having their future hijacked. Tuition is up and the rich and elite are getting tax breaks. And it ain’t right.”
The Center for Student Legal Services paid the $1,200 to host Cobb’s lecture and subsequent discussion last night from 7 to 9 p.m. at Nelson Commons Banquet Hall.
His lecture, “Creating Democracy: A Discussion of Corporate Personhood in the U.S.,” was about the consequences of corporations being treated as citizens under the Constitution with full protections and freedoms allotted to citizens, he said.
Dr. Scott Miller of the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs opened for Cobb, speaking about the history of energy in Ohio,
focusing on fracking and other types of unsustainable resource extraction in
Ohio.
“These extractive [industries] have created a boom and bust cycle for the local economy,” Miller said. “It creates a legacy of resource extraction … like acid mine drainage.”
When Cobb took the floor, he didn’t use a microphone and captured the crowd with strong energy and the four points he planned to cover: democracy, sovereignty, legal “personhood” and corporation.
“I am proud and I am patriotic and these days, I am a pissed-off American,” he said. “I consider myself a progressive.”
Cobb covered all of the effects of corporations as citizens, from their ability to give limitless donations to political parties running for government to their effect on environmental legislation.
Cobb’s current role as national spokesperson for Move to Amend and community organizer for Democracy Unlimited is a natural progression from his life work spent fighting corporate harm. He said he believes an amendment will be passed within 10 to 15 years to change the role of corporate personhood.
As a former presidential candidate, Cobb spoke about the need for more candidates and more substance from existing candidates.
“We’ve got to demand more,” he said. “It can’t end at voting. If all you do is vote and expect social change, you are wasting your time.”
In his speech, he venerated the creation and implementation of new ideas.
“If enough people believe something is true, it becomes true,” he said. “We are collectively involved in creating social constructs every day. If we assert the society we want to live in, we can create a new reality.”
jc543108@ohiou.edu
@ThePostCulture
