The Essential Bernie Sanders and His Vision for America by Jonathan Tasini

Author:Jonathan Tasini
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
Published: 2015-08-11T13:42:44+00:00

Politics

Billionaires Cannot Buy Our Democracy

The Kochs are our homegrown oligarchs; they’ve cornered the market on Republican politics and are nakedly attempting to buy Congress and the White House.

—Tim Dickinson, Rolling Stone31

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to expressly exclude for-profit corporations from the rights given to natural persons by the Constitution of the United States, prohibit corporate spending in all elections, and affirm the authority of Congress and the States to regulate corporations and to regulate and set limits on all election contributions and expenditures.

—proposed Saving American Democracy Amendment by Bernie Sanders and Representative Ted Deutch (D-FL)32

In 2010, the US Supreme Court ruled in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. Bernie has spoken out regularly about the case, calling it one of the worst decisions by the Supreme Court in the country’s history. In Citizens United, the court ruled that “Political spending is a form of protected speech under the First Amendment, and the government may not keep corporations or unions from spending money to support or denounce individual candidates in elections. While corporations or unions may not give money directly to campaigns, they may seek to persuade the voting public through other means, including ads, especially where these ads were not broadcast.”

Bernie believes the ruling put our democracy up for sale by destroying any limits on corporate spending and allowing billionaires to buy elections. It effectively considers a corporation a “person” by giving it the same free speech, First Amendment rights as an actual human being.

So Bernie has introduced a constitutional amendment in conjunction with Representative Ted Deutch, who is advocating the measure in the House. It must be passed by two-thirds of both the Senate and the House, and then ratified by three-fourths of the states (thirty-eight out of fifty). The proposed amendment reads as follows:

SECTION 1. The rights protected by the Constitution of the United States are the rights of natural persons and do not extend to for-profit corporations, limited liability companies, or other private entities established for business purposes or to promote business interests under the laws of any state, the United States, or any foreign state.

SECTION 2. Such corporate and other private entities established under law are subject to regulation by the people through the legislative process so long as such regulations are consistent with the powers of Congress and the States and do not limit the freedom of the press.

SECTION 3. Such corporate and other private entities shall be prohibited from making contributions or expenditures in any election of any candidate for public office or the vote upon any ballot measure submitted to the people.

SECTION 4. Congress and the States shall have the power to regulate and set limits on all election contributions and expenditures, including a candidate’s own spending, and to authorize the establishment of political committees to receive, spend, and publicly disclose the sources of those contributions and expenditures.

—J.T.

From Bernie’s Senate floor introduction of the constitutional amendment, December 8, 201133

In my view, a corporation is not a person.

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