"If there's one thing that Americans from the left, right and center can all agree on, it's that they don't want more special interests in our politics," says Senator Schumer.
Senator Sanders agrees and is determined to counter the recent Supreme Court decision (Citizens United) that gives corporations enormous power over our political process.
In his address to Congress, Sanders sums up his strong opposition to the ruling, emphasizing that a Corporation "is not a person," and it "does not have First Amendment rights to spend as much money as it wants" to buy a candidate.
A recent Huffington Post report says Americans can "sit back and watch our democracy erode" or work to undo the Supreme Court decision, restore individual rights and end "Corporate Personhood."
Civil Rights are for People, Not Corporations, says RootsAction. Tell Congress and the President to END Corporate Control of Politicians.
We, the undersigned, agree with Senator Sanders' assertion that the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision is one of the worst decisions made in the history of the United States. We agree that something must be done to counter its effects.
Like Sanders, we emphatically oppose what he calls the ruling's "unleashing of a tsunami of corporate spending on campaign ads" and the dramatic negative effect this has and will have on our democratic process.
This decision, says Sanders, "...has radically changed the nature of our democracy, further tilting the balance of power toward the rich and the powerful, at a time when already the wealthiest people in this country had never had it so good."
As distasteful as the situation was, before the Citizens United ruling, with all parties having to spend much of their time raising money for campaigns, adds Sanders, the situation now has become only worse and will get even more disastrous, unless something is done to counter this unprecedented ruling.
Though we agree that the need for a Constitutional Amendment is rare, in this case, amending it is absolutely essential to preserving the very purpose for which it was created.
To put it bluntly, Americans are fed up with corporate control of our democratic system and our politicians.
MoveOn.org has suggested that President Obama act immediately and "sign an executive order to require corporations that do business with the government to disclose their political spending right away for this election," along with declaring "... his strong support for a constitutional amendment to get big money out of politics permanently."
We support and ask all members of Congress and President Obama to support Sander's The Saving American Democracy Amendment or any other appropriate action that will end the status of Corporate Personhood and reverse the devastating effects of the Citizens United ruling.
Thank you for your attention to the serious matter.
