This election is a choice between two visions for the future of America: One vision is for continuation of the progressive vision of a balance between equality and freedom as the moral foundation of justice, and a more recent conservative vision of an entitlement due the wealthy and the equivalence of corporations to the rights and protections of natural persons under the Constitution.

A progressive future is one in which government is a custodian of the public trust and advocates for justice; where justice is a balance between equality and freedom. Government as a custodian of the public trust means that everyone plays by the same rules and that everyone is equal before the law. Public trust means the rights of the people to preserve and protect the common property of the United States is not severable to the interests of privatization. Public trust means that a corporation has no rights except those given to it by law and does not have equal standing with a natural born person under the Constitution.

The conservative future is one of a hostile corporate takeover with privatization of government functions. The corporate takeover means that having wealth is an effective barrier to others participating in the process of government. It means that government would no longer serve the interests of the community but collaborate with the wealthy corporate owners to establish a separate set of laws that entitle them to preferential treatment while creating barriers to competition by eliminating opportunities for others.

The free market is a myth: if it isn’t regulated by government to prevent fraud, it is regulated by the corporate oligarchy to prevent competition. Free means not having to go to jail for fraud and theft.

Freedom of speech for corporations is a political myth: the right to free speech is a right of the natural born person, not an artifact of legal convention.

The conservative options for health care are no birth control, no abortion and no health insurance unapproved by a corporate CEO. The progressive option is universal health care and the right of women to make their own health decisions.

This election is about protecting the American value of living according to one’s conscience, as opposed to having a religious elite create intrusive bureaucratic regulations supporting their sectarian religious doctrine.

This election is about education for citizenship, not choice for a privileged elite who don’t want to associate with the classes below them.

This election is about living in fear promoted by gun merchants, or finding a means to reducing the violence that haunts personal security.

This election is about who gets to rewrite the tax laws: a privileged elite who personally benefits from tax entitlements to the wealthy, or one who advocates for tax fairness.

This election is about who gets to nominate justices to the Supreme Court: pack a court with conservative judicial activists who want to roll back voting and human rights, or one who advocates for judicial competence and fairness.

This election is about restoring the rights of workers as a civil right, and not disenfranchising workers of the right to decent wages, decent working conditions and peacefully addressing their employers for redress of grievances.

This election is a moral choice between affiliation or aggression, empathy or egotism, service or selfishness, cooperation or competitiveness.

The tale of two visions is the difference between a government of the people, by the people and for the people, and a government run by a plutocracy of wealth and corporate power.

via The presidential debate: What happened? | The Economist.