Did you get enough of the political ad, flyers, mailers, and radio spots this election? I did (see post), and I do not think I was alone. Everyone is complaining that money, especially the corporate money, involved in this years election process. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has been leading the charge against the Citizens United ruling. Sen. Sanders is the sponsor of the Saving American Democracy Amendment.
“Amazingly enough, we withstood the assault. We withstood the hundreds of millions of dollars that came in from these billionaires,” Sanders said after the election. The money spent by billionaires to influence the election was not enough to topple President Obama. Others in Congress survived the financial onslaught too. But he said a constitutional amendment still is needed.” Sen Bernie Sanders
This year voters voiced their agreement with Sen Sanders in elections across the country. The two biggest amendments were:
- Montana’s Initiative 166, Stand with Montanans, establishes an official Montana policy that corporations are not people with constitutional rights and charges Montana’s elected officials with supporting a constitutional amendment to create a level playing field in campaign spending.
- Colorado Amendment 65 instructs Colorado’s congressional delegation to propose and support an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that allows congress and the states to limit campaign contributions and spending that allow all citizens, regardless of wealth, to express their views to one another on a level playing field.
Both of these amendments were aimed at limiting campaign contributions and ‘corporate personhood’. While this is good for the people in these states, we need more. We need to craft legislation to overturn Citizens United ruling. Sen Sanders fears that Congress will not have the strength to stand up to the corporate money.
“I worry very much what it does on the floor of the House and the Senate. How many people are going to have the guts to stand up to big money when they know that the airwaves in their states are going to be flooded with negative ads if they vote against Wall Street or vote against coal or oil? So I would say that one of the major issues that we’ve got to deal with is Citizens United. I think we need a constitutional amendment to overturn it. I think it would be a wonderful rallying point for folks all over this country.”
I completely agree with Senator Sanders. We need to reverse Citizens United and remove the corporate money in our political system. We need all of elected representatives to stand up for the ‘real’ people and reject the ‘corporate’ people.
Watch Senator Bernie Sanders as he proposes his Constitutional Amendment to reverse Citizens United. Then take one minute to sign his petition.
