Stop Corporations From Buying Elections

If you've got a spare hundred billion or so burning a whole in your pocket, then you can fight the corporate cash flowing into this year's political races all by your little lonesome, buying ad time for every liberal candidate out there.

Otherwise, you might try to fight corporate ownership of elections this way:

The right response to this assault (the Citizens United Supreme Court decision) on the law, on the basic premises of the Constitution and on democracy is to assure that no court can ever abuse its authority again. And the way to do that is by amending the Constitution to close the loopholes and assure that elections are about issues and the will of the people -- as opposed to special-interest demands and the will of the corporations.

Maryland Congresswoman Donna Edwards has proposed such an amendment.

It simply declares that:

Section 1. The sovereign right of the people to govern being essential to a free democracy, Congress and the States may regulate the expenditure of funds for political speech by any corporation, limited liability company, or other corporate entity.

Section 2. Nothing contained in this Article shall be construed to abridge the freedom of the press.

House Judiciary Committee chair John Conyers, the Michigan Democrat who is the chamber's great defender of the Constitution, was Edwards' first co-sponsor.

In the weeks since the Maryland Democrat proposed her bill, 23 additional House member have signed on.

SNIP

That's an impressive list, with several committee chairs (Conyers, Filner, Slaughter), the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (Grijava), the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus (Barbara Lee) and a number of other key players in the current Congress. It is significant that Pingree, the former head of Common Cause, is on board, along with Jesse Jackson Jr., who has written extensively about and taken a lead on constitutional matters.

But many of the most serious and engaged members of the House have yet to become co-sponsors of the proposal.

When representatives are home in their districts, it is vital that they be urged to sign on.

If they don't agree to do so, find a candidate who will.

The process of amending the Constitution will take time.

But, with members in their districts, this is the time to speed it up the process.

To learn more about the campaign to amend the Constitution in order to restore power to the people, follow the terrific work of the Free Speech for People and the Move to Amend projects.

For more ideas on how to reverse this abomination, read the great piece at the Hightower Lowdown. It's subscription only, but a year online is only $10 - a tenth of what it's worth.