Friday, November 21, 2014

A Call to Arms Against Citizen United Decision


This article appeared in the Huff Post Politics by Fred Wertheimer, President, Democracy 21.

He writes, in 1789, the Founding Fathers created a constitutional system of government by the people.  In 2010, five Supreme Court Justices -- Roberts, Kennedy, Scalia, Thomas and Alito changed it to a constitutional system of government by millionaires, billionaires and corporations.

In the constitutional system envisioned by our founders 225 years ago, individuals get one vote.  In the system created by the Supreme Court in 2010, Sheldon Adelson gets 100 million votes.  Tom Steyer gets 73 million votes.

That's not the way our constitutional system is supposed to work and Citizens must fight back.

The 2014 national election left us with a campaign finance system in shambles.  The political money that flooded the 2014 election was a disaster for ordinary Americans.  Never has so much money from so few people been so pervasive in our congressional elections.

Citizens United Should go down as one of the worst Supreme Court decisions ever.

Even with the disastrous Citizens United decision, there remain a number of important reforms that can be made within the constitutional framework of this decision.

They include:

- Public financing for presidential and congressional elections
- New disclosure requirements
- Ending individual candidate super PACs
- Strengthening the rules to prohibit coordination
- Restricting bundling by lobbyists
- Creating a real campaign finance enforcement agency

There are other changes that require a new jurisprudence to govern the constitutionality of campaign finance laws.

One such change is a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United.  An alternative approach is to develop a new constitutional jurisprudence for upholding campaign finance laws to be ready when the current ideological makeup of the Supreme Court shifts.

Some of these changes are incremental, others are fundamental.  All should be pursued.

In this regard, the wisdom of John Gardner, founder of Common Cause and of the modern campaign finance reform movement, should come to mind: "Reform is not for the short winded."

We know that the American people overwhelmingly object to the rigged influence-money system in Washington.  We know that citizens have never accepted political corruption as a way of life in our country and are not about to do so now.

The challenge that lies ahead is to convert deep citizen concern into powerful citizen action.

Fundamental campaign finance reforms to prevent political corruption and promote fair elections have been won by reform supporters in the past.  They will be won again in the future.

This fight goes on.










NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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