An Open Letter to the Citizens Against Citizens United

[Julian Englis]

From The Atlantic, the essay An Open Letter to the Citizens Against Citizens United argues reversing Citizens United is not enough.

Rather, the author says three major changes are necessary:

-Elections funded by all citizens, not just a tiny fraction of the 1 percent;
-Limits on independent expenditures -- whether by individuals or corporations; and
-An express recognition in our constitution that only persons are persons.

The essay is well worth reading and sharing.

All across America, an uprising is growing. I'm not talking about the ongoing Occupy Wall Street movement. I'm talking about the thousands who are organizing, city by city, to end the corrupting influence of money in politics.

Triggered by outrage at the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. FEC, and fueled by anger at the "superPACs" that that decision has made possible, groups such as MovetoAmend.org,Public Citizen, the Coffee Party, United Republic, and now Common Cause are all pushing to get cities and towns to pass resolutions demanding that Congress propose a constitutional amendment to reverse that decision and restore this democracy to its citizens. Los Angeles was the first, but by the end of this spring, thousands more will have joined LA's call.

These citizen movements are incredibly important, and their objective is plainly right. Our democracy has been corrupted by the influence of money. Politicians are dependent upon "the funders" -- spending anywhere from 30 percent to 70 percent of their time raising money from these funders. But "the funders" are not "the People": 26 percent of Americans give more than $200 in a congressional campaign; .05 percent give the max to any congressional candidate; .01 percent -- the 1 percent of the 1 percent -- give more than $10,000 in an election cycle; and .0000063 percent -- have given close to 80 percent of the super PAC money spent in this election so far. That's 196 Americans, a little less than the capacity of a single Boeing 767. On average, my colleague Paul Jorgensen calculates, the per capita contribution of the 1 percent is more than ten times the per capita contribution of the 99 percent.

More at: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/03/an-open-letter-to-the-citizens-against-citizens-united/254902/