Fixing the Problem Not the Symptom

The National Campaign to End Corporate Personhood and Demand Democracy!

Fixing the Problem Not the Symptom Dear Glenn, In a campaign statement this week, President Obama stated his support for a constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling. His comments prove that we are making an impact -- folks in Washington, DC are beginning to pay attention to the Democracy Movement sweeping the rest of the country. Too bad the President isn’t demanding a constitutional amendment that would not only overturn Citizen’s United, but would also overturn the twin doctrines that “money is speech” and “corporations are people.” Don’t get us wrong, we’re glad Obama may be moving in our direction, but our goal at Move to Amend is to force Washington DC to act on our systemic constitutional amendment, not merely to go back to 2009 and the pre-Citizens United days when corporations and the very wealthy still ran our government. Your effective grassroots organizing is helping build a mass democracy movement to put the power in the hands of the people. We are well on the way to passing resolutions and citizens initiatives across this country, calling on for an amendment to end corporate personhood and put the “free” back in speech. Obama’s partial remedy, which is also shared by a number of other non-profit organizations, merely scratches the surface of campaign financing and completely ignores corporate personhood. For a good understanding of why corporate personhood should be abolished, check out this article by the Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy -- a founding member of the Move to Amend coalition. Let’s actually fix the two biggest problems standing between good government and We the People, and set the stage for American democracy to flourish. We can't assume that we'll get more than one chance at this amendment -- let's make sure we get it right and that we get change that's real. In solidarity, Ben Manski, David Cobb, Leesa "George" Friday, Jerome Scott, Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap, Laura Bonham, Lisa Graves, and Nancy Price Move to Amend Executive Committee PS -- Adam Liptak has provided some provocative insights in this article on the decline of the U.S. Constitution as a model for emerging democracies. He cites, among many other issues, the difficulty of amending it. Perhaps it is time to consider expanding our views on the Constitution and imagine a legal system that really protects people's rights over profits.

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