Forum Post: Amendment 28 - Separation and Corporation and State!
Posted 12 years ago on Nov. 19, 2011, 10:40 a.m. EST by EdKearns
(3)
from Brooklyn, NY
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Our grand strategy and primary point of negotiation needs to be amending the Constitution. Amendment 28, Separation of Corporation and State, is the first step to policy changes in all of our interest. Before we can change healthcare, schools, jobs or corporate greed, we need to Reclaim Democracy!
We don't need Congress, just 2/3 of the states to do it!
OCCUPY AMERICA!
Rep. Donna Edwards proposed the Amendment before Congress in January 2010. Here's a link to her proposition:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6cehXA5mHo
A 28, Ammends the 14th that did not distinguish natural and artificial people as existed in decades of common law. It gave equal protection to people and that left the door open to the eventuality of "Citizens United. part one, Corporations are not people, part two, money is not speech, let the constitutional lawyer word it.
A29 Election reform. Part one--a proscribed campaign period commencing no more than 60 days prior to election. Part two--18 and possessing your social security ID and you eligible to vote. part three--each citizen contributes $15 on tax day to the campaign finance pool, to be distributed equally to the candidates, part four--voting is mandatory with progressive fines with no statute limitation 4th failure to vote is 4th failure to vote. part 5--Instant run ballot-vote 3 for each position contested.
OK that being said the absolute dream, your vision, your meditation must be this outcome, November 2012: A Congressional Progressive Caucus majority (CPC) don't know that caucus? Should and call petition to change name to Caucus for the 99%, 2 co-chairs, 80+members.
November 2012 Caucus for the 99% is a majority: 50%+1 in the house, 2/3' majority in the Senate and a similar outcome in 34 states legislatures===let the amending begin.
LSN The conversation that is the Occupation is doing that, When I'm out it's not just walking a sign or an action, its the time at the village seeing someone browsing and engaging that person. It is also, using the phone, fax email to your Senators, your Representative, same at the state level, letters to the editor-most are the same eg, letters@paper.com and finally any conversation is closed with this, I am a 99%er and we are watching. Are you a 99%er? Use your word processor, create that 99%er in about 150p font print it and tape it in you rear car window.
There is ample evidence that what I propose is already begun, recall for instance the 10 house candidates that recently carried 35,000 signatures to Boehner's office demanding that he act on the jobs bill, they are each declared as candidates for th 99%!! I could go on but this is already too long.
Has this amendment been written? Can you point me to a summary of how this amending process works? thx
To further answer your question, amending is accomplished by the Senate, then ratified by 3/4's of the states, hence my comment to LSN
Hope that helps
No as I said let the constitutional lawyer, Lawrence Tribe, Erwin Chemerinsky where are you, present it in legal form. In my opinion 28 and 29 are needed and I proposed an outline to correct the short coming of the 14th and completely new, election reform codified constitutionally or the 29th Ammendment.
Agreed - share it with everyone you come into contact with. My 2 cents: We should expect Wall Street to go for profits at any cost, no matter what it does to our country, health or future. We should expect skunks to act like skunks. But it is an entirely different thing for our politicians - the very people who are supposed to be our "representatives" and who have taken a solemn oath to act in our best interests - to act as they are. We need to reform the way we elect our officials. For decades now the corporations and special interests have had our "representatives" bought and paid for (both on the right and the left). Don't get distracted by the symptoms - we need to address the root cause. Concentrating our efforts on getting the money out of our politics is the best way we can create an environment in which further reforms can be realized. Until we end the current system of legalized bribery (campaign donations) and paid lobbying our politicians will continue to be the LAP DOGS of the corporations and special interests. What we need first and foremost is real, loop-hole free CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM!!!! If the corruption is not dealt with first, the chance of any other meaningful reforms becoming a reality is almost zero - the special interests will just use their money to buy votes and put forward bills that create loop-holes or otherwise twist the law in their favor. If we want our children to live in a country where there vote matters, we need to get the money out of our politics, otherwise they will increasingly become the 21st century version of the "landless peasant." Spread the word - End the LEGALIZED BRIBERY!!! CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM needs to be THE main goal of the protests!!!
Do you think the 99% should be attacking all three ways, maybe more; street protests, Amendment process, and building a third party. Activists can choose their preferred method or design a 4th, 5th, 6th... line of attack. Multiple working groups attacking from multiple angles like hunters taking down the wooly mammoth. The progress and setbacks each group experiences can be shared so that it avoids becoming 'all the eggs in one basket'
Yes! I agree - like EdKearns comment below it needs to have the goal of getting the corporate and special interest influence out of our politics.
Hell yes. But we all have to remain under the same Grand Strategy – Separation of Corporation and State to reclaim our democracy!!!