I'll grant that corporations should be treated equally the moment a corporation goes to jail for committing a crime.
Or can get sick, die, or have kids, etc.
It's ridiculous to consider a transnational corporation with no allegiance or duty to the country, which can and does relocate to foreign countries for tax purposes, cost savings, to exploit other markets, etc. and which is a sociopath when it comes to the U.S. These entities have no real interest in the affairs, health or long term prosperity of the country - they're only duty is to maximize profits, and if that means undermining the U.S. economy, and getting in bed with the Chinese, or Russians, or any other of our competitors, they'll do it without blinking. Kill 10,000 U.S. jobs to move production to Taiwan? Of course, if EPS goes up a nickel, what's there to think about. They're not Americans - they're global entities that happen to have a parent company that is located here.
Heck, just take trade deals. Their interest isn't the U.S., it's maximizing GLOBAL corporate profits, and any company's profit interests often do directly conflict with the long term interests of the U.S. Why should we allow corporate assets to be used to influence the political process to craft trade deals in a manner harmful to the actual living, breathing citizens of the U.S.?
From all I can tell, the Founders would roll over in their graves knowing those that followed them gave political 'rights' to the equivalent of "EITC USA, Inc.," the Boston based wholly owned subsidiary of the East India Tea Company. When that company used its influence to obtain crony capitalism deals in the U.S., undercutting local U.S. businesses, protesters destroyed a million dollars of their inventory and dumped it in the sea. Now we have conservatives arguing that "EITC USA, Inc." has some 'right' to spend unlimited sums, in secret, to influence local elections. It's absurd.
