Forum Post: Take Back Democracy - US Constitutional Amendment for Human and Democratic Rights
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 9, 2011, 10:25 p.m. EST by Richard3IR
(8)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
RECOGNIZING that concentrated corporate and economic power has fundamentally distorted and corrupted the political process in the United States of America with the result that the laws of the United States increasingly favor concentrated corporate and economic interests over those of the People of the United States; AND RECOGNIZING that private election funding, lobbying, public relations expenditures and conflicts of interest have distorted and are damaging the democratic process and are preventing our governments from acting in the public interest; AND AFFIRMING the inalienable rights of individual Americans to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness through a fully functional democratic system, as envisioned by our Founding Fathers.
We the People demand that the Constitution of the United States of America be amended as follows:
- To strip corporations and other business organizations of all constitutional rights, including all rights to free speech. Corporations and other business organizations exist to serve the People, and must not have the power to subvert to the will of the People and their democratically elected representatives.
- To eliminate the use of election funding to distort and corrupt the political process, by eliminating all private funding of elections and instead providing for the funding of elections at a restricted level of expenditure using public funds. Removing the burden of continuous fundraising will enable the elected representatives for devote their time and energy into the development of good public policy, rather than fundraising and dealing with the associated obligations to donors.
- To eliminate the distortions of the public interest resulting from the excessive influence of lobbyists at all levels of government, lobbying in the form that it presently exists must be completely abolished. Input to government on policy and other decisions must provided through fully open and transparent procurement mechanisms with the sources and interests of all submissions fully disclosed and subject to registration.
- To prevent the use of public relations to distort public and political discourse and to eliminate the resulting undue influence, use of all indirect channels (such as advocacy organizations) shall be outlawed, money spent on public relations shall not be deductible for tax purposes and all expenditures and efforts to influence public or political opinion shall be open, transparent and subject to registration.
- To strengthen conflict of interest rules to prevent the manipulation of political decisions by concentrated interests by prohibiting public officials from accepting any form of compensation from entities which they regulate or have any other dealings during the term of such dealings and thereafter and from accepting employment or retainers from such entities for no less than ten years after such dealings.
Read: The World As it Is: Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress By Chris Hedges
See this: http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/chris_hedges_shares_his_thoughts_on_occupy_wall_street_20111007/?ln
While I take your points about the dangers of a constitutional amendment - bringing these issues into the light and the resulting debate could influence the development and strengthening of appropriate legislation. The alternative, of allowing corporations to buy legislation and rulings that are favourable to them (and harmful to the American people) is a guarantee of more of the same.
For example, I am very concerned about climate change and had expected to see effective legislation brought forward in the 2008 / 2009 time frame but spending by oil and gas companies lobbying politicians on Capitol Hill jumped a whopping 64% between 2007 and 2008, with the oil and gas sector paying out a total of $128.6 million in 2008 to stop this from happening. One Washington, DC insider says this unprecedented rise in lobbying activity is due the oil and gas industry feeling that they're in an "end game" with Congress considering a nationwide cap and trade policy and President Barack Obama turning his attention to alternative energy policies: "This is an endgame for an industry that has fought tooth and nail for the better part of decade to ward off federal climate change and renewable energy policy. They're backed in the corner and there are lobbyists totally infesting the backrooms on Capitol Hill at the moment. This is an unbelievably powerful lobby and they're going all out." In late February of this year the Center for Public Integrity released a report finding that: "Senate lobbying disclosure forms shows that more than 770 companies and interest groups hired an estimated 2,340 lobbyists to influence federal policy on climate change in the past year, as the issue gathered momentum and came to a vote on Capitol Hill. That's an increase of more than 300 percent in the number of lobbyists on climate change in just five years, and means that Washington can now boast more than four climate lobbyists for every member of Congress." We need substantial legislative and/or constitutional changes to restore a functionality to democracy in Washington.
We do not need a constitutional amendment for what your looking for. We have god given un alienable rights. We just need people to be smart and stop watching TV and getting the information from main stream media. no constitutional amendments can do that. besides a constitutional convention would be extreemly dangerous at this time because it mosylikely would be taken over by the money interestes and we could very well find ourselves without a United States of America at all. I must remind all who read this that in 1789 a constitution was ratified in secret and by the barrel of a gun (Rhode Island delegates) with no official record. and it is this constitution that gave us Washington DC, an office of the president and so on. I can assure you that this country would have been much more managable under the Articles of Confederation which governed the united States of America from 1777-1789. You can now see that no colonist shed a drop of blood for the Constitution. but they were all willing to die for freedom.