Our Future Is Local: Why Arizona Must Break Free From Corporate Rule

We are living through a time of political and financial chaos. This will likely lead to a long economic downturn. We have insulted and threatened our old trading partners too many times. Just across the border in Sonora, and around the world, they are starting to look elsewhere to replace our role in their economy. As America's power is squandered, it will cause shocks to markets here and around the world. There will likely be more fights as other countries try to take our place.

The old system of global trade that America led after World War II is over. This will bring shortages, turmoil, and strife, adding to the problems we already have, like giant monopolies, lack of rules, and a market that treats people like numbers on a spreadsheet.

Here in Arizona, our elected lawmakers should have seen these big changes coming. They should have noticed the warning signs from a federal government that acts with contempt for the people. But instead, they were too busy cheering it on as it attacked vulnerable social groups that made them uncomfortable. They should have been wise enough to know that attacking the powerless will never result in concessions from the powerful.

There is a real danger that we are living under right now that will only grow more threatening. Because our leaders ingratiated themselves to the problem and celebrated federal lawlessness, Arizonans may be left to fend for themselves socially and economically. We could be left to face monopolies of corporations that have no rules and can't be held accountable. If these same people stay in power, we might not live under a constitutional government anymore. We could end up living under something closer to corporate rule.

We have already seen what happens when the federal system is subverted for personal gain. We have seen what happens when the government teams up with the wealthy elite and assists them in exploiting our people and natural resources. Just look at what's happening around us. Rural wells are drying up as corporate factory farms guzzle more water than local families can use. Heavy industry installations are being rammed through local governments without proper hearings for residents. Relying on distant corporations and compromised politicians leaves us vulnerable to rising costs, dwindling resources, and preventable illnesses. All of this spreads poverty and misery to the people.

We've been living in the early stages of this transfer of electoral power to corporate authority for decades. Ever since "trickle-down" economics started to strip away social protections from the New Deal and handed our future over to Wall Street, we have seen a system built to protect us turn into one built to exploit us.

If we want stability, security, and survival, we must end our state government's codependence on this rotten and corrupt federal-corporate merger. This is a system that would rather replace us with machines than pay a living wage. It is preparing us to be used up and thrown away. While we still can, we must replace the politicians who have been collaborating with these people and putting corporate interests ahead of the lives and well-being of Arizonans.

But we don't have to accept this future. There is another path, one rooted here in our communities, not in Washington or Wall Street.

We can take back control of our state government this November. We can start building an economy that can withstand hard times and infrastructure to not only survive man-made and natural disasters but thrive in spite of them. We can rebuild paths for people and communities to create and retain real material wealth. We can start a new era of human dignity and self-determination for the people of Arizona.

Make no mistake: time is running out and for some things we will have started too late. The plan to turn our government over to corporate interests is already quite far along. There is too much momentum to stop all the damage they intend to do. We will still face hardship as we break away from the old power structures and their global supply chains. There will still be federal abuses of power that cause setbacks and economic pain.

But we can get through that if we take our destiny into our own hands as communities. If we act now and turn our state and communities away from the state lawmakers leading us to the slaughterhouse, we can elect leaders willing to help build a type of freedom that working Arizonans have never known.

What does that freedom look like? It starts with building member-owned local banks, businesses, and retirement funds that we the people control. This keeps our money here in our communities instead of sending it off to let Wall Street decide how our world is built. It lets us borrow at low rates to buy a home, start a business, or invest in land. This helps us build wealth here instead of paying hundreds of thousands in interest before making a dent in the cost of the asset we're buying. And we can do all of this while helping to secure a dignified retirement and intergenerational wealth—without corporate shareholders taking everything for themselves and leaving only crumbs for the rest of us.

All of this can be done through a network of local, community-chartered private systems that we all voluntarily invest in shares of. Because we would own these funds, we can keep the voting rights to one vote per person and restrict them to only residents of the area covered by a particular fund. These systems could be managed by members we elect—people who have a legal duty to be honest, careful, and thorough. No politician would ever vote to hold themselves to those standards.

We would be using the legal frameworks of contracts and public benefit corporations, and member-owned cooperatives already in the law to build our own economy and shared infrastructure. Doing this would free us from monopolies and rigged politics, giving each of us an ownership stake that cannot be taken away when the political winds shift.

We can have a stable, secure, and prosperous future. We can build it together.

Or we can cling to a corrupt, failing system and let it lead us into ruin, chaos, and poverty.

This November, we have a choice. We can keep sending the same politicians to Phoenix—the ones who bowed to abusers, cheered on the attacks on our neighbors, and left us exposed to unmitigated corporate greed. Or we can elect people who will stand up for Arizona communities, who will build local economies, and who will put power back in your hands.

It starts with believing that the way the ultra-rich gather and protect their wealth is possible for us, too. It starts with taking the first step toward real freedom. It starts with universalizing public access to property ownership on a working class community scale. It starts with you accepting that more can be done, and demanding elected officials that will do it.