Issue #1. Corporate Influence over Government.

The US must find a way to limit the influence of corporate money in elections. An unhealthy symbiosis between elected officials and corporations has caused our democracy to devolve into a corporatocracy. Recent legislative battles over healthcare for 49 million Americans not covered at all, or climate legislation to put a price on carbon and encourage clean technology, or financial reforms that would reform the financial institutions that caused the 2008 economic meltdown, have all been blocked or diluted or turned into an economic win by special corporate interests. In the end, Americans are more cycnical than ever about their government as they watch it cater to corporate over public interests. Even the Supreme Court, a conservative legacy of the George W. Bush Administration, has ignored a 100 years of precedence to undercut restrictions on corporate contributions to political campaigns.

What we propose:

A Constitutional Amendment

We ultimately need a constitutional amendment that limits the rights of corporations. They are not persons. They should not have the rights of persons. They are in fact wealth generating entities for a limited number of people. They do not serve the general good, which was why we originally chartered them. An amendment that limits their ability to participate directly or indirectly in elections is hour highest priority. While a daunting task, especially given the relationship of corporations and politicians today, this is a critical long term priority. In the short term, legislation that requires full transparency on all corporate funded campaign advertising is needed. Publicly financed elections would also help change the landscape. Candidates who choose to run only with public dollars should be assured of a dollar for dollar match against candidates that choose to run on private funds, thus ending the advantage of wealthy or corporate funded candidates.