Saturday, January 22, 2011
I heart the Raging Grannies
January 21 is the one-year anniversary of the Citizens United decision by
the Supreme Court, which upheld the "personhood" of corporations and
allows them to funnel as much money as they want to influence elections.
Since they have a lot more money than most individuals, of course this
gives them great power.
How did it come to be that corporations are given the rights of persons,
in the first place? For a great exposition of how this happened,
basically through a clerical "error", check out Jim Hightower's Lowdown at
http://www.hightowerlowdown.org/node/664
There are lots of groups organizing to try to change this.
Citizens United Against Citizens United, a project of Public Citizen, is
dedicated to restoring our government to citizen control.
http://www.citizensunitedagainstcitizensunited.org/
Anna White <awhite@citizen.org> is a great point person to contact if you
want to organize an event and want suggestions/help.
Move to Amend Coalition http://movetoamend.org/ has a bunch of great
links, and has a great list of steps to take to organize an action at
http://movetoamend.org/action/local-actions-january-21st-first-anniversary-citizens-united-decision
http://www.freespeechforpeople.org
is working to enact a constitutional amendment that puts people ahead of
corporations.
The Coffee Party's motto is Wake up and stand up! They are another place
to announce Citizens United decision anniversary events to get the word
out.
http://www.coffeepartyusa.com
They are linked to Movement for the People
http://www.movementforthepeople.org
On this site, for a $20 donation, you can order a video called "Pricele$$"
to use as an organizing tool.
Here are some key phrases I have heard that could be made into banners or
signs:
We the people, not we the corporations
End corporate personhood
No government of, by, and for the corporations
It's a Democracy, Not an Auction
Separation of Corporation and State
Save Democracy: Close the Corporate Wallets!
Power to the Voters - Corporations have no business buying elections
The Supreme Court got it wrong: Corporations are not citizens
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
citizen united is the biggest threat to democracy since the beginning of the us of a. how can you have democracy when those with money can double-dip? if you own a corporation, you can speak as both a citizen and as a corporation. where's the fairness in that? not only that, but why do rethugs, who rant and rave about non-americans at every opportunity seem to be okay with foreign entities having so much impact on our elections and public policy? hypocrites!
I had not even thought about the double dip factor-- campaign contributions for "me & my corporation", plus since when does corporate money = freedom of speech? That was a huge stretch of legal imagination.
Of course they could double dip before, but now the limit of how much corporations could donate was lifted.
This ruling allows the wealthy to buy elections.
The last mid term election we had a flood of mystery ads (all very below the belt), from some never heard of before entities like "concerned Citizens Alliance".... our sitting Congressman investigated & it was some hole in the wall apartment office in Virginia state...
this campaign was for an Oregon election!
As if our elections system is not screwed up enough!
Post a Comment