Amend it, don’t end it

Amend it, don’t end it

by digby

Assuming that we don’t continue to stick our fingers in our ears and sing lalalala while the planet gets so hot in the next decade that we are living in a Mad Max style dystopia, this could be the most important long term initiative the left takes up:

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) decided to take the next step toward realizing this goal by introducing a constitutional amendment to the U.S. Senate that would overturn the ruling which classified multi-national corporations as people and therefore entitled to the same rights as living, breathing, human individuals.

The Saving American Democracy Amendment states:

Corporations are not persons with constitutional rights equal to real people.
Corporations are subject to regulation by the people.
Corporations may not make campaign contributions.
Congress and states have the power to regulate campaign finances.

“There comes a time when an issue is so important that the only way to address it is by a constitutional amendment,” Sanders said. He had previously described the Citizen United ruling as “basically insane. Nobody that I know thinks that Exxon Mobil is a person,” Sanders said in November.

Sanders is accompanied in his endeavor to restore fiscal sanity to the political system by Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL), who has introduced a companion measure in the U.S. House.

Sens. Tom Udall (D-NM) and Michael Bennet of (D-CO) have also introduced a similar constitutional amendment that would essentially defeat Citizens United by granting Congress and the states the authority to regulate the campaign finance system. Udall and Bennet hope that by emphasizing states’ rights, they’ll gain the support of a few Republicans.

Here’s a place to start. Hopefully a full fledged campaign will develop.

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