November 4, 2012
By Egberto Willies – Move to Amend Executive Committee & Vice President Coffee Party USA
Election 2012 is evidence that our Democracy is being held hostage. When Harry Reid in defense of the Disclose Act on July 16th, 2012 (C-Span 8:25 Mark) said “If this flood of outside money continues, the day after the election 17 angry old white men will wake up and realize they just bought the country” he effectively laid out the case against money being free speech.
Let’s be clear. The Republican Party and to a lesser extent the Democratic Party are beholding to corporate interests. These corporate interests for all practical purposes have bought control of our Democracy by having been given the same rights as living people who have the right to virtually unlimited free speech and having had money further defined as a form of free speech that use corporate personhood to demand unlimited speech.
Mitt Romney received a vast majority of his donations and support from a small few, the American Plutocracy along with nominal small donors. President Obama received much from the Plutocracy but a plurality from the masses. A President Obama win may give the false impression that allowing unlimited monies in our election does not corrupt it irreversibly given that the “17 angry white men” Senator Reid spoke about would have failed. That would be a flawed analysis as an Obama win in an economy still in distress would likely only be possible if he was presented with a fatally flawed opponent.
That a candidate as flawed as Mitt Romney has the possibility of winning, is exactly the reason why it is time that we remove moneyed corruption from our elections. He purchased the nomination by using unlimited resources to flood the airwaves to create an alternate state of reality with low information voters.
There is only one solution to this corruption, a constitutional amendment that specifically decouples money from speech and removes corporate personhood. This will ensure that while free speech is maintained, the use of money in politics can be regulated. Moreover it will remove the ability of corporate entities from claiming free speech rights and other rights of living breathing human beings.
There are many organizations working on constitutional amendments purported to solve the problem. Most solely concentrate on the overturning of “Citizens United” or codifying that money is not speech. The organization Move to Amend (http://movetoamend.org) is the one currently working on an all-encompassing amendment that will solve the corruption once and for all as it covers both the decoupling of money and speech as well as removing corporate personhood.
Many Move to Amend affiliates have already gotten resolutions passed at the city, county, and state levels. Following the grassroots method of building awareness through the resolution process is likely the most effective way of generating popular support for real change in our electoral and political process.
It is important that we right this ship called America. It won’t happen without your support.Make a difference by signing the petition.
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