What could be more absurd on its face than declaring in the Constitution of the United States that certain people are only three-fifths of a person? To its credit, of 27 Constitutional amendments, more deal with realizing what a person is than anything else.
It took close to 100 years before civil rights, and particularly voting rights, were amended in the Constitution. It took almost 100 more years before an amendment addressed the lingering tactic of poll taxes that targeted the voting rights of certain citizens.
Such is the absurdity of America’s constitutional struggle with personhood, the amendment enacting equal voting rights for women didn’t happen until 1920. It took another amendment, perhaps less monumental, to set voting rights for those aged 18 to 21.
One might ask why all these amendments were necessary in a country that declared its independence on a premise of equality. Leaving aside an entire course of study on such matters, here’s a closing question: Could anything be more absurdly necessary than a Constitutional Amendment clarifying and codifying that corporations are not people.
"I'll believe corporations are people when Texas executes one" is but one of the crystallizing statements that occupy many many people's minds.