Forum Post: A Billion Dollars To Buy Democracy

Watch video if you don't feel like reading - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VhsaCddvhs

We're supposed to control our government! It's in the constitution!

Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), author of House Joint Resolution 100, a constitutional amendment to get private money out of federal elections, today released the following video after Politico reported that super PACS and outside groups plan to spend one billion dollars to influence November’s elections.

“Corporations are not charities. Corporations and special interest groups are investing this massive amount of money to influence elections because they expect to see a return on their investments,” said Kucinich. “We are witnessing the auctioning off of our political process and our nation. Government has trillions of dollars of present and future assets which will either go for the general health and welfare of the American people or they will be awarded to interest groups for their winning bid.”

Money is destroying our politics and our political system. Our electoral system has become such a joke that two late-night comedians created their own SuperPAC and generated great laughter just by showing how one operates.

Two years ago, in a case known as Citizens United, the five-man Republican majority of the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are “persons” under the First Amendment and that no act of Congress can restrict the amount a corporation can spend in an election.

This would have staggered our founding fathers. Corporations in their present form did not even exist in 1789 when the Bill of Rights was ratified. The Bill of Rights was written to protect individuals from the power of government. It was never intended to give artificial entities any right to participate in our elections.

To save our democracy, we must get the influence of money out of our elections. Since the Supreme Court majority is opposed to such reform, the answer is a constitutional amendment.

House Joint Resolution 100, which I introduced, is a constitutional amendment that will require all campaigns for the federal offices of President, Vice-President, Senator and Representative, to be financed exclusively with public funds. It will prohibit any expenditures from any other source, including the candidate.

My amendment would be ratified by “conventions” of the various states, the same procedure by which our Constitution was ratified. The people of each state will elect representatives to a convention for the sole purpose of voting on the amendment. That way, it will be the people, not the politicians, who will decide this issue.

Save our democracy. Support Joint Resolution 100.

-Dennis Kucinich

Call your congressman and ask them if they think corporations are people.