Forum Post: Constitutional Amendment on Political Speech
Posted 13 years ago on Nov. 8, 2011, 6:40 a.m. EST by AndrewBWilliams
(52)
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I think one of the biggest problems we have is the participation in the political process by corporations and other artificial entities that use huge amounts of economic power to influence policy. Right now the Supreme Court has determined that money equals free speech so corporate power is basically unchecked and to a great degree is unable to be regulated. I propose a constitutional amendment limiting political participation to natural persons and then grant congress the power to regulate contributions from natural persons. It could read something like, "Only natural persons may participate in the political process. Congress shall have the power to regulate campaign contributions and the spending of money, or in kind contributions, intended to influence elections."
The problem is not that money is speech - its that corporations wrongly are granted the rights of individuals like free speech.
So what? What you are suggesting would also limit unions right to collectively lobby or advertise.
Hi there, thanks for taking time to read my post. I agree with your concern about unions and I thought about that too. My thought is that people could get together collectively to petition congress much in the way that OWS is doing. An association formed of natural persons could be politically involved, but if the main purpose of an artificial person's existence is to make money such as with a corporation, or to organize workers, such as with a union, you could not participate in politics. People in unions or corporations who wish to organize politically should have to form independent organizations to do so that are not connected to the corporate or union treasury. Although I would like to shield unions from this rule because I am pro union, I don't think an amendment that is not consistent across the board would have a chance of passing. I do believe that both conservatives and progressives share a lot of common ground on getting the money out of politics and if we are to bridge that gap we can't keep our sacred cows if we wish them to get rid of theirs too. I would love to see a solution that can accomplish what I am suggesting without unnecessarily limiting free speech.
Unions are made up of people. The union could agree to encourage its people to act as individuals, as could a company, so long as neither entity monitors what individuals decide to do or takes punitive measures if a person openly disagrees. Unions need to be able to lobby until corporations and pacs are also denied that special access. Advertising would be fine for any group as long as they stick to facts and dont use propagandist tactics...fines for doing so, and pull the ad, with an anouncement of the falsehoods it contained. Biological people are the only persons...
So it would be OK to kick unions out of the electoral process too.
Fine by me.
Corporations can encourage their employees to participate via donations etc, and often do