CONNECT
Bernie Sanders / Op-Ed
Published: Saturday 21 January 2012
“The US Constitution has served us very well, but when the supreme court says, for purposes of the first amendment, that corporations are people, that writing checks from the company's bank account is constitutionally-protected speech and that attempts by the federal government and states to impose reasonable restrictions on campaign ads are unconstitutional, our democracy is in grave danger.”
Bernie Sanders: We Must Stop This Corporate Takeover of American Democracy
The corporate barbarians are through the gate of American democracy. Not satisfied with their all-pervasive influence on our culture, economy and legislative processes, they want more. They want it all.
Two years ago, the United States supreme court betrayed our Constitution and those who fought to ensure that its protections are enjoyed equally by all persons regardless of religion, race or gender by engaging in an unabashed power-grab on behalf of corporate America. In its now infamous decision in the Citizens United case, five justices declared that corporations must be treated as if they are actual people under the Constitution when it comes to spending money to influence our elections, allowing them for the first time to draw on the corporate checkbook - in any amount and at any time - to run ads explicitly for or against specific candidates.
What's next ... a corporate right to vote?
Don't laugh. Just this month, the Republican National Committee filed an amicus brief in a US appeals court contending that the natural extension of the Citizens United rationale is that the century-old ban on corporate contributions directly to candidates and political parties is similarly unconstitutional. They want corporations to be able to sponsor candidates and parties directly while claiming with a straight face this would not result in any sort of corruption. And while, this month, they take no issue with corporations being subject to the existing contribution limits, anyone paying attention knows that eliminating such caps will be corporate America's next prize in its brazen ambition for absolute control over our elections.
The US Constitution has served us very well, but when the supreme court says, for purposes of the first amendment, that corporations are people, that writing checks from the company's bank account is constitutionally-protected speech and that attempts by the federal government and states to impose reasonable restrictions on campaign ads are unconstitutional, our democracy is in grave danger.
I am a proud sponsor of a number of bills that would respond to Citizens United and begin to get a handle on the problem. But something more needs to be done - something more fundamental and indisputable, something that cannot be turned on its head by a rightwing supreme court.
That is why I have introduced a resolution in the Senate (introduced by Representative Ted Deutch in the House) calling for an amendment to the US Constitution that says simply and straightforwardly what everyone - except five members of the United States supreme court - understands: corporations are not people with constitutional rights equal to flesh-and-blood human beings. Corporations are subject to regulation by the people. Corporations may not make campaign contributions - the law of the land for the last century - or dump unlimited sums of money into our elections. And Congress and states have broad power to regulate all election spending.
I did not introduce this lightly. In fact, I have never sought to amend the Constitution before. The US Constitution is an extraordinary document that, in my view, should not be amended often. In light of the supreme court's Citizens United decision, however, I see no alternative. The ruling has radically changed the nature of our democracy. It has further tilted the balance of power toward the rich and the powerful at a time when the wealthiest people in this country have never had it so good.
At a time when corporations have more than $2tn in cash in their bank accounts, make record-breaking profits and swarm Washington with their lobbyists 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for the highest court in the land to suggest that there is just not enough corporate "speech" in our system defies the bounds of reason and sanity. The ruling already has led to plans, for example, by industrialist brothers David and Charles Koch to steer more than $200m - potentially much more - to conservative groups ahead of election day 2012. Karl Rove has similar designs.
Does anybody really believe that that is what American democracy is supposed to be about?
I believe that the Citizens United decision will go down as one of the worst in our country's history - and one that demands an amendment to our Constitution in order to restore sovereign power to the people, as our nation's founders intended.
If we do not reverse it and the culture of corporate dominance over our elections that it has exacerbated, there will be no end to the impact that corporate interests have on our campaigns and our democracy.
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By Kiley Kroh
38 comments on "Bernie Sanders: We Must Stop This Corporate Takeover of American Democracy"
xabroqp
January 22, 2012 12:51pm
Ever since the citizens United decision, and the statement from Mitt Romney that 'corporation are people', I have pondered, does that mean I can marry one of them? (Or under Islamic Corporations, can I marry 4 of them at the same time ?) I intend to drag Exxon to the altar, marry her, and after a short and unsatisfying honeymoon, divorce her and collect half of the communal assets.
Maybe this could work to our advantage!!
January 21, 2012 8:20pm
DON'T FORGET TO VOTE ...........FOR RON PAUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
January 21, 2012 8:02pm
I think the amendment should include the elimination of lobbyists and all contributions. Gov should fund elections.
Amen!!!!!
January 21, 2012 8:13pm
vote ron paul!
The solution to this problem lies here: www.stoppoliticalads.com
January 21, 2012 7:45pm
When this decision came out I was half expecting for the Supreme Court to resurrect Richard M. Nixon and put him back in the White House. Most people don't know that the real reason he left office was he was going to be impeached for accepting multimillion dollar donations from corporations in violation of federal campaign laws at that time. Watergate was just the icing on the cake! It's not like this is a new problem. It's just getting publicity now!
January 21, 2012 8:13pm
vote ron paul!
January 21, 2012 6:42pm
Immediately IMPEACH Clarence Thomas for falsifying his financial disclosure forms for years conveniently omitting his teabagger wife's obscene income from the Kochroaches and for perjuring himself about his sexual predatory behavior during his career when he played the race-"high tech lynching" card at his confirmation hearing in front of the US Senate Judiciary Committee.
(Ironic how Thomas thinks the 1965 Voting Rights Act is UNConstitutional. The 1964 Civil Rights Act is in rhe same boat. He'd be picking cotton if his constructionist interpretation of Constitution and our Founding Fathers' intentions were the law because they were slave owners. He's too stupid to be on any court bench.)
The 5-4 idiotic rulings would become 4-4 rulings until a liberal justice could be confirmed to replace that teabagging, fascist, NeoNazi, Kochroach-loving, bribe-taking asshole.
Malfeasance in public office is all that he brings to the high court.
Roberts perjured himself at his confirmation hearing by falsely claiming he wasn't going to be an activist "justice". Malfeasance in public office is all that he can offer the country. He is a NeoNazi, corporatist, fascist asshole with an abundance of intellectual dishonesty. (Corporations are People, and Money is Free Speech...NO, Money is Property, and Corporations are Business Entities. Talk about Intellectual Dishonesty.)
Alito is a cold-blooded, corporatist, NeoNazi, fascist asshole who should be removed from the high kangaroo kourt because of the Citizens Untited v FEC and Lilly Ledbetter v Goodyear hatchet jobs/MALFEASANCE. He is despicably dishonest intellectually and has nothing to offer this great country.
Scalia is another cold-blooded, NeoNazi, fascist, asshole for the same reasons of MALFEASANCE perpetrated by Alito. He's a teabagging, Kochroach-loving, bribe-taking asshole just like Clarence the Clown Thomas.
(Only WASPs would have rights if his strict constructionist interpretation of the Founding Fathers' intentions in the Constitution were reality. His ancestors would never have been allowed into the country.)
January 22, 2012 7:52am
You have nailed it.
Why should they be above the law? It's ridiculous. It is not only ridiculous, it has cost us our democracy.
The worst? They actually ruled that "We the People" of the United States had no right to know who attended Dick Cheney's secret energy meetings. We are not even allowed to read the transcripts of the meetings. I suspect that is where they planed to move oil from $24 per barrel to $146 per barrel. We watched the results of the meetings but somehow the American people are not allowed to know. The supreme court is totally corrupt.
Then we have the Bush v Gore decision. The ruling was to "stop counting" the votes. The result was the worst president in American history, the 9/11 attacks, two wars and the economic collapse. Give it some thought.
January 21, 2012 8:14pm
i absolutely agree--vote for ron paul!
January 21, 2012 7:42pm
Here is the origin of Clarence Thomas getting on the Supreme Court. He being a former lawyer for Monsanto and looking out for his corporate handlers as a Supreme Court Justice. It's called NutraSweet. I'm sure very few people know or remember this. http://www.mercola.com/article/aspartame/fraud.htm
This is just one site about this issue. Clarence the Clown was put on the Supreme Court to ensure that Monsanto got away with perpetrating this poisonous fraud on the American public along with Dick Cheyney, as well as placating black people by putting a "Brotha" on the court!
January 21, 2012 6:17pm
Restore America's Trust, Values,and Respect!!! Neuter all Bankers & Politicians.
It works for dogs and sex offenders!!!
January 21, 2012 8:14pm
and vote ron paul!
January 21, 2012 6:11pm
I say restore America's Trust, Values, and Respect!! Neuter all Bankers
January 21, 2012 8:21pm
SO VOTE RON PAUL
January 21, 2012 4:58pm
I support all efforts to negate Citizens United established personhood. I'm wondering where I might find the text of the Constitutional Amendment proposed by Senator Sanders.
January 21, 2012 9:18pm
It's on his web site ,but it's pretty short:
SECTION 1. The rights protected by the Constitution of the United States are the rights of natural persons and do not extend to for-profit corporations, limited liability companies, or other private entities established for business purposes or to promote business interests under the laws of any state, the United States, or any foreign state.
SECTION 2. Such corporate and other private entities established under law are subject to regulation by the people through the legislative process so long as such regulations are consistent with the powers of Congress and the States and do not limit the freedom of the press.
SECTION 3. Such corporate and other private entities shall be prohibited from making contributions or expenditures in any election of any candidate for public office or the vote upon any ballot measure submitted to the people.
SECTION 4. Congress and the States shall have the power to regulate and set limits on all election contributions and expenditures, including a candidate’s own spending, and to authorize the establishment of political committees to receive, spend, and publicly disclose the sources of those contributions and expenditures
January 21, 2012 3:45pm
from Rand Cop. To Citizens United
with nod to Auden
The banks do what the corporate can,
deeds quite impossible to man.
But one prize is beyond their reach:
the banks cannot master speech.
About a derivatized mess,
the land in truly human stress,
Congress cows to bank lobbyists,
while drivel gushes from their lips.
January 21, 2012 8:22pm
YOU BETTER BE VOTING FOR RON PAUL
January 21, 2012 3:42pm
This will end up just like the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson case that established the doctrine of separate-but-equal which was overturned on May 17, 1954 in Brown v Board of Education.
January 21, 2012 3:42pm
Mr. Sander is behind in his call to stop the corporate takeover. He is mistaken. He need look no further than the many of his colleagues around him. His good intentions are a sad joke against the reality of events! Mr Sander can be forgiven in this for projecting his own morality on those around him and believing they are honourable in their representations. It's not to stop the coup of our democracy but now a fight to the finish for it's re-enstatement and the establishment of protections so that it may never again be subverted, hollowed out and left a mockery as a democracy in name only. Now is the time for citizens of good conscience to come together... and so we invite Mr Sander and others of good will in our former government to unite outside it's corrupting hallways to persue the birth of a new and better democracy than has ever existed before. Nothing less is acceptable as it is inevitable that the people will triumph.
January 22, 2012 4:14am
You're right. The corporate takeover of our government dates from the inception of the Cold War, and has continued to this day. Presidents Kennedy and Carter were
mavericks efficiently eliminated, one with guns, the other with dirty tricks. The only
road to redemption is to establish one or more rogue political parties to harness
the anger of the American people to throw out the crooks and swindlers who run things.
January 21, 2012 2:39pm
Even if the Constitution were amended to prevent corporate meddling in politics, we would still be left at the mercy of the Supreme Court to stand legal logic on its head and find some legalistic loophole to restore their idea of order. The Court has no respect for the very essence of what our republic is supposed to be, distilled in the phrase "consent of the governed." The "justices" who sit on the Court feel no allegiance except to their cronies in corporate board rooms and "conservative think tanks." They feel no accountability to the very people who are at the mercy of their decisions. They have made themselves and the U.S. government irrelevant to the persecuted 99% who toil to make the rich richer and ever more powerful.
Until recent times, I viewed the Constitution as the closest thing humans have ever devised to holy writ. Now I feel utterly betrayed and bereft of faith in that document, the way it has been perverted into an instrument of corporate oligarchy and tyranny. It now has no more validity than the concept of "divine right" which it was supposed to replace with that of equality of all humans under their Creator.
We don't need an amendment. We need a new instrument of government.
January 21, 2012 8:45pm
Sorry, GSTRADTMAN, but as a constitutional legal scholar, I don't agree with you. No matter how cheeky corporatist Roberts and his four conservative gang members may be, they wouldn't dare try to override the supermajority of states required for such an amendment by trying to distort its purpose. Supreme Court justices can be impeached, and if the gang of 5 tried what you fear, there would be a strong cry for their impeachment.
That is not to say that the amendment's drafter can use imprecise language or leave conceptual holes that could give rise to "exceptions." But it's not that linguistically difficult to write an amendment that will do the trick. For example, I saw a proposed amendment by Dennis Kucinich that establishes public financing of election campaigns. Such an amendment would admit of no doubt as to the drafters' intent.
Unfortunately, there will be millions, perhaps even billions spent by corporations bent on keeping their current oligarchic advantages trying to fool the gullible American public, but there is strong sentiment by people of many political persuasions against the corrupting influence of money in politics, so the battle may still be won by those who favor a real representative democracy instead of the horrible corruption of it that exists today.
Michael L. Marowitz
J.D., J.S.M. (Master Degree in Law with emphasis on constitutional law, Stanford Law School, 1981)
January 21, 2012 8:16pm
so, vote for ron paul!!!
January 21, 2012 2:32pm
I agree!
January 21, 2012 2:28pm
How about naming the five justices every time it comes up. The world needs to know who is responcible the undermining of the constitution. They can be popular while they are out shopping.Like all traitors.
January 21, 2012 3:54pm
great idea Road House, get right on it and report back. like why leave it to someone else.if it's something you think is imporant take the leadership role. the rest of us would probably like to know a lot of things others are working on. Tally hooo....
January 21, 2012 1:58pm
Since corporations are people, what's to stop them from running for office.. could we have a Senator Exxon?
January 21, 2012 1:46pm
My personal opinion - even before the Citizens United case - the Supreme Court, en toto for the past 40 or 50 years - should be lined up against a wall and shot for treason. They have done more to undermine the very fiber of what this country was founded upon than all subversive acts combined against this country.
January 21, 2012 1:33pm
We need Bernie Sanders to run for President. He would win the hearts of the american 99% Thank you for standing up for the rest of us Bernie.
January 22, 2012 8:58am
The powers that be would kill Bernie. I have few doubts about that.
January 21, 2012 1:30pm
When I load this page, a little box shows up that says message from web page: Hyphenator .Js says language nul is not yet supported. Then the text disappears. I had to reload this page 6 or 7 times before I could scroll down to wread the text. Is this some kind of bug? Could Nation of Change look into this?
January 21, 2012 10:52am
Dear Senator,
I agree 100% with your argument, and I believe most Americans do. The problem is that politicians like corporate money as it keeps them in power. And unfortunately for most of them that is the most important thing.
I think at the end of the day, the two party system will never produce true change as both parties are essentially the same. They have a few polarizing issues such as gay rights and abortion to keep the electorate divided and give us the illusion of choice.
Here is my solution to you as one of the few honest politicians left. Why don't you contact the Ron Paul camp. The two of you could stage an independent run for president and VP. I think you will both be pleasantly be surprised by how much you philosophically have in common. Furthermore, this may the only chance either of you have to actually break through the corruption and have a real say in DC, instead of being fringe outsiders.
Think about it, please. Our country needs you. Paul could easily peel off 20% of the right wing vote, you could peel off 20% of the left wing vote, and virtually all the independents would be up for grabs. With the enormous discontent with the status quo, the two of you could actually make this happen. First steps: Audit the Fed and restore civil rights!!! Let us know what you think; I for one would be very willing to help create a true "Nation of Change".
January 22, 2012 7:46am
The problem is Ron Paul is in favor of even more "deregulation" It is the lack of government oversight that caused the economic collapse. We need more regulation, not less. And we need enforcement. Lack of enforcement and oversight, mostly during the Bush Administration, caused the entire collapse.
This Ron Paul style worshiping of the free market as if it is some extra super divine force is completely unreasonable.
January 21, 2012 8:19pm
i am with you 100%, VOTE FOR RON PAUL!!!