Two years ago the Supreme court voted 5 to 4 in favor of Citizens United and allow what are now called Super Pacs to raise unlimited amounts of money to support candidates without full disclosure.
The Court also decided that in as much corporations are people too and therefore given the same rights as individuals including the right to freedom of speech.
Today we are seeing the ramifications and consequences of this unwise decision with the obscene amount of money financing political campaigns. This decision does not benefit the people but benefits only the wealthy and corporations by allowing them to control and influence the political process to further their own self serving agendas.
This decision has jeopardized the very core of our Democracy and makes a mockery of what our founding fathers wrote in the preamble to our constitution which states: “We the People of the United States”. It does not state We the Wealthy or We the Corporations.
Justice Stevens wrote in his dissent “ A democracy cannot function effectively when the constituent members believe laws are being bought and sold”. He also warned that the influences of money will corrupt the institution, and that is exactly what is happening now.
Our democracy has already been jeopardized by special interest groups and lobbyists and this decision further compounds that problem by destroying the rights of individual human beings. This should not be a partisan issue as it's detrimental to both political parties further corrupting the political process.
The group Move to Amend states:
We, the People of the United States of America, reject the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling, and move to amend our Constitution to firmly establish that money is not speech, and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights.
I urge You the People to fight for your rights and support Move to Amend. For further information go to: movetoamend.org
Mary Mahoney
Lincroft/Middletown 
3 comments:
The Republicans are against the super pacs. The Democrats thrive on super pacs money mostly from the unions-from the entertainment industry down to the teacher's .
An amendment would be great, thanx for trying to start this. Alas, the atmosphere is too poisoned politically for this to ever happen. We, the citizens of the United States should be outraged at the selling of our country to the highest bidder. Dems or reps, or indys should all be opposed to the influence of money in politics.
Anon: get your facts straight. Members of both parties are against super pacs. Unions don't have the kind of money that Sheldon Adelson or the Koch brothers have or the billionaire funding Sentorum.
The Supreme Court in their infinite wisdom, decided that Corps are people too thus given the same rights as human beings.
Before this ruling, there was a limited to how much an individual could donate annoymously. Now that is unlimited. BTW the court ruled with 5 of the conservative justices voting for it. Justice Kennedy who is usually the swing vote, voted with the conservatives.
I agree with the writer that this is not a partisan issue. It just further corrupts the process.
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