When I tell people I work to limit corporate power, they often look at me as if I have two heads. I can sympathize. Prior to ten years ago, I might have reacted the same way.

At first blush, limiting corporate power seems so anti-American. In the United States, isn’t it our free markets, our unfettered cowboy capitalism, our rags-to-riches, anyone-can-go-from-the-garage-to-the-penthouse opportunism and yes, our resultant material wealth that makes us the most admired, most truly free, most competent – well, let’s just say it – best country on Earth?

“Freedom is participation in power” – Marcus Tullius Cicero

In a world where people will try almost anything – drugs, extreme sports, nightclubs, eating, sex, and religion included – to achieve happiness, it may be that taking back our government is among the most effective strategies. Happiness experts tell us that dedicated friends and close-knit families make us happy. I agree. However, as Francis Moore Lappe writes compellingly in the Winter ’09 issue of YES! Magazine, no one talks about power as a key to happiness.

Democracy is messy. It’s Charles M. Schulz equivalent is most assuredly Pig Pen, the lovable Peanuts character who kicks up his own cloud of dust when he walks. In Hollywood, democracy is played by Oscar Madison of the film and TV series “The Odd Couple.” I’m not sure whether Felix is communism or socialism, but Oscar is definitely democracy.