On not settling for half measures when it comes to our democracy
This article by Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap appeared in Common Dreams on June 2nd, 2014.
Remember back in 2009 before the Citizens United v. FEC Supreme Court ruling when the U.S political and legal system wasn’t about prioritizing the interests of the extraordinarily wealthy, but instead was fair and just no matter what your social status?
Remember when the electoral system wasn’t corrupted by big money, and your average person had real influence over who could win for political office?
Wait a minute! You don’t remember that? Yeah… neither do I.
I remember the 2008 election — at the time the most expensive in the history of the world. That year a record-shattering $5.3 billion was spent by candidates, political parties and interest groups on the congressional and presidential races.
I remember in 2006 when my community in northern California passed a ballot initiative to outlaw political contributions by outside corporations because of our experience with a giant timber company based in Texas that tried to recall our elected representatives for enforcing the law against them; and of Wal-Mart corporation trying to change our local zoning laws through purchasing a ballot initiative.
Our community tried to protect ourselves, but two short years later in 2008 our “Humboldt County Ordinance to Protect Fair Elections and Local Democracy” was overturned in federal court because it violated the so-called rights of corporations to influence our local elections.
Our community is only one of thousands that has been slapped down in the name of “corporate personhood” over the past 125 years.
But didn’t corporate constitutional rights start with the Citizens United Supreme Court case in 2010? Wouldn’t it make such a big difference if we could just overturn that case?
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