Reclaiming Our Democracy “We the People” – Not “We the Corporations”

Reclaiming Our Democracy“We the People” – Not “We the Corporations”

A presentation for theConejo Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship

March 16, 2012

Daniel Lee, Move to Amend, Los Angeles

John Goodman, California Clean Money Campaign, Orange County

We Want This:

Not This:

TONIGHT’S TALK WILL BE ABOUT:

A Beautiful Vision for Our Country,

Two Contrary Trends,

and Things that YOU Can Doto Help Us Get our Country

on the Right Track

• Our founding documents articulate a grand and beautiful vision

• Democracy = everyone is equal

• Equal in political power and in opportunity

• A very nice idea, but so far unrealized in practice!

A Grand Vision(a closer look)


Our constitution makes three claims:

• We the People are the source of all authority and power

• We establish a government and elect representatives to run it on our behalf

• All powers not specifically given to the government remain with We the People!

• Much of our history has been a struggle to define exactly who are We The People.

• That is, who gets to have the rights set forth in the Constitution.

• And on whose behalf should our representatives work.


The Founding Problem

• At our nation’s founding and for roughly a wise man’s lifetime thereafter, not all men were counted as equal. African-descended slaves were merely a fraction of a man.



• And only white male landowners had the right to vote or hold office.



• And only white male landowners had the right to vote or hold office.

• Men of that time couldn’t even think of women as equal; they were property, like children.

The First Great Trend

• This is a series of broad movements By the People, and For the People.



• It begins with outrage,




• Spreads until it changes the culture,





• And is finally ratified by legislation.





• And is finally ratified by legislation.

THIS IS DEMOCRACY in action!


• In the 18th and 19th centuries a grass roots movement pushed the notion that truly all men deserved to be treated equally. That slavery was an abomination.



• By the end of the civil war, that notion was established in our laws. Slavery was no more.



• By the end of the civil war, that notion was established in our laws. Slavery was no more.

• But discrimination continued….


• Another grass roots movement grew in strength asserting that women were as entitled as men to be empowered as full members of the polity, with all the same right and responsibilities as men.


• Property rights for women came first



• Voting rights came later




• Full equality in the workplace is much more recent…and some would say is still a work in progress.




• Full equality in the workplace is much more recent…and some would say is still a work in progress.

• Reproductive rights are a hot item of debate right now!

The First Great Trend• By now we called this ever evolving effort

the Civil Rights Movement (still a grass roots movement)

• The first focus was fighting discrimination against blacks and other racial minorities

• Then it moved on to fight discrimination against women

• And it has now expanded to fighting discrimination against disabled, LGBT, and others

















Most recently attention has shiftedto some new battlegrounds:



• Reducing or eliminating the power of money in electoral politics




• Restricting “rights” to actual people




• Restricting “rights” to actual people

These are the two topics we’ll bediscussing for the rest of this evening.

The Contrary Trend

• This is a narrow “movement.”

The Contrary Trend


• Based in class and privilege.

The Contrary Trend



• Enforced through the courts, instead of by legislation.

The Contrary Trend




• Unlike the First Trend, this one has mostly been out of sight.

The Contrary Trend




• Unlike the First Trend, this one has mostly been out of sight.

• But it sure has been effective!

The Contrary Trend

• The founders of our country knew that if everyone got to be included in We The People, they’d lose many of their cherished privileges.

The Contrary Trend


• They soon found a way to subvert that trend.

The Contrary Trend


• They soon found a way to subvert that trend.

• They sought to make corporations have “personhood.”

The Contrary Trend

• Then, each time The People got some new right, so would corporations, and that would enable the powerful to keep their power and privilege.

The Contrary Trend


• But at first the courts blocked this attempt.

The Contrary Trend


• But at first the courts blocked this attempt.

• Starting 130 years ago, after packing the Supreme Court with company lawyers, they succeeded!

The Contrary Trend

• In the case Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad in 1886.

The Contrary Trend


• Corporations got to be included in We The People at a time when most black men, women, and Native Americans still did NOT have that right.

The Contrary Trend


• Corporations got to be included in We The People at a time when most black men, women, and Native Americans still did NOT have that right.

• Although not actually a Court decision, this case has been cited as precedent ever since.

The Contrary Trend

• In 2010, in the case Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission, by a narrow (5 to 4) vote, the Supreme Court took this result to a new extreme.

• They declared spending money was just like speech, and so was protected by the 1st Amendment.

• Now Corporations can contribute unlimited amounts of money to “independent” expenditures meant to buy our elections.

The Contrary Trend




The Contrary Trend




The Contrary Trend

• Thus, by a relatively hidden, and profoundly NON-DEMOCRATIC method (using the courts instead of votes of the people’s representatives or direct votes of the people), the wealthy and privileged have preserved their class and its superior privileges and power over the rest of us.

The Contrary Trend

• Thus, by a relatively hidden, and profoundly NON-DEMOCRATIC method (using the courts instead of votes of the people’s representatives or direct votes of the people), the wealthy and privileged have preserved their class and its superior privileges and power over the rest of us.

• DOES THAT MAKE YOU ANGRY?

Wait a Minute…

• To understand why this is such a radical development, we have to go back over the history of corporations and compare it to how our society is supposed to be constructed.

Wait a Minute…


• Corporations have been around a very long time.

Wait a Minute…


• Corporations have been around a very long time.

• They can serve vital public interests.

Wait a Minute…

• Our founding documents declare that only We the People have the power to rule.

Wait a Minute…


• We set up a government to do what we require of it.

Wait a Minute…



• People have rights; government has duties

Wait a Minute…



• People have rights; government has duties

• Corporations were authorized by the states to serve clearly defined public needs—and ONLY to do that.

Wait a Minute…

• For the first century of our country’s existence, it was routine to revoke a corporation’s charter if it did anything other than its defined public purpose.

Wait a Minute…


• And all corporations required an act of their state legislature to exist, and

Wait a Minute…


• And all corporations required an act of their state legislature to exist, and

• They only existed for a set period of time.

Wait a Minute…

• What are corporations like now?

Wait a Minute…


• Anyone can create one, easily.

Wait a Minute…



• They are immortal.

Wait a Minute…




• They have limited legal liability.

Wait a Minute…





• They can live many places at once.

Wait a Minute…





• They can live many places at once.

• They can create children and parents or merge with others!

Wait a Minute…

• When found guilty of a crime, they cannot be jailed.

Wait a Minute…


• They cannot be compelled to go to war.

Wait a Minute…



• With all those advantages, if you also give them “personhood” they become SUPER PEOPLE—invincible and omnipotent.

Wait a Minute…



• With all those advantages, if you also give them “personhood” they become SUPER PEOPLE—invincible and omnipotent.

That sure doesn’t seem fair, does it?

What’s To Be Done?

• There are several approaches people have suggested to “solve” this problem.



• Several different constitutional amendments have been proposed.




• And some new laws are actively being pushed in Congress and the states.




• And some new laws are actively being pushed in Congress and the states.

• WE NEED TO DO MORE THAN JUST ONE OF THESE, and do them NOW!


• Of all the proposed Constitutional Amendments, only one deals with both the issue of corporate personhood, and with money having been declared to be speech.


• Of all the proposed Constitutional Amendments, only one deals with both the issue of corporate personhood, and with money having been declared to be speech.

• That is the amendment offered by Move to Amend.

MovetoAmend.org

• You can read the MTA amendment here: http://www.movetoamend.org/amendment

• You can learn more here:http://movetoamend.org/learn-more

• You can find out about MTA events nearyou here:http://movetoamend.org/calendar

http://www.movetoamend.org/amendment

http://movetoamend.org/learn-more

http://movetoamend.org/calendar



MTA’s Long-Term goals:


• To create a movement so powerful it can change the culture, and



• Get an amendment passed and ratified.




• The MTA amendment would declare that:




• The MTA amendment would declare that:

• Corporations have no rights in law, and

• Money is not speech.

• This would mean that states and the Congress could regulate corporations in any way they deem appropriate.


• And corporations would have no appeal to their “inherent” rights to stop that.


• And corporations would have no appeal to their “inherent” rights to stop that.

• Likewise, the spending of money on elections could be regulated without any “free speech” limitations.

MTA’s Immediate goals:

• Continue to build public awareness—and

outrage—in the general public at the

court-created legal doctrines of

“corporate personhood” and of

“money equals speech.”


• Make these issues key “political litmus

tests” and force candidates for office to

articulate their support or opposition to

these doctrines.


• Create and grow a national 501(c)(4)

political organization dedicated explicitly

to running local and state initiatives and

candidate pledge campaigns on these

core issues.


• Elect candidates who are enthusiastic

supporters of abolishing “corporate

personhood” and “money equals speech”

via a constitutional amendment.

MTA’s Strategies:

• Gather at least 500,000 signatures on

their petition nationwide. (They already

have about 200,000.)

MTA’s Strategies:

• Gather at least 500,000 signatures on

their petition nationwide. (They already

have about 200,000.)

• Get at least 100 local governmental

agencies or states (and other groups)

to endorse Move to Amend.

MTA’s Strategies:

• To accomplish this they are organizing

a “Resolutions Week” (June 11th-15th).

• Sign up on the MTA website and they’ll

be in touch with more information on

what you can do in your community.

• Daniel: Here should be whatever will support whatever else you want to say about MTA as an organization and what you have done with it.

• Tell me what to add and I’ll insert it.


• Another, and still necessary approach (even if MTA is ultimately successful) is to pass laws that restrict corporate power—or, given that the Supreme Court has given them so much power —at least mute the deleterious effects of their power.


• Another, and still necessary approach (even if MTA is ultimately successful) is to pass laws that restrict corporate power—or, given that the Supreme Court has given them so much power —at least mute the deleterious effects of their power.

• This is the mission of the California Clean Money Campaign.

CaClean.orgYesFairElections.org

CCMC’s Mission…

…Is to get the (corrupting influence of)

Money Out of (electoral) Politics.

This means making our representatives

actually represent us instead of

those who pay for their campaigns.

CCMC’s Mission…

…Is to get the (corrupting influence of)

Money Out of (electoral) Politics.

This means making our representatives

actually represent us instead of

those who pay for their campaigns.

CCMC’s Goals

• Ultimately, to switch our system to full, publically funded elections.

CCMC’s Goals

• Ultimately, to switch our system to full, publically funded elections.

• That would mean no one could spend any private money on an election campaign (for office or for or against a ballot proposition).

An Analysis of the Problem

• One way money “buys” elections is through misleading (often anonymous) advertising.


• One way money “buys” elections is through misleading (often anonymous) advertising.

• The best “solution” to this problem is to force those who buy those ads to admit who they are on those ads themselves.

• The Supreme Court’s 2010 “Citizen’s United” decision was a very close one (a 5-4 vote), but 8 of the 9 Justices signed one of several opinions that each included this strong statement about the need for disclosure (as well as their opinion that the Internet makes such disclosure rapid and easy for voters):


• “With the advent of the Internet, prompt disclosure of expenditures can provide shareholders and citizens with the information needed to hold corporations and elected officials accountable for their positions and supporters. Shareholders can determine whether their corporation’s political speech advances the corporation’s interest in making profits, and citizens can see whether elected officials are “in the pocket’ of so-called moneyed interests.”


• More briefly they said:


• More briefly they said:

• “Identification of the source of advertising may be required as a means of disclosure, so that the people will be able to evaluate the arguments to which they are being subjected.”


• Of course, what’s possible may not happen unless it is legally compelled.


• Of course, what’s possible may not happen unless it is legally compelled.

• And the Supreme Court cannot make any laws; it only affirms or rules against those that are impermissible (however, in effect, sometimes they make up entirely new legal doctrines!).


• So it is up to Congress or the state legislatures to pass the necessary laws.

History of Recent Actions

• So it is up to Congress or the state legislatures to pass the necessary laws.

• Congress tried and failed to pass their DISCLOSE act. (A majority passed it in both houses, but it was one vote shy of enough Senate votes to overcome a filibuster.)


• In California, a Disclose Act would have to pass by 2/3rds vote in both Assembly and Senate plus get the governor’s signature to become law.


• In California, a Disclose Act would have to pass by 2/3rds vote in both Assembly and Senate plus get the governor’s signature to become law.

• AB1148 almost passed a month ago on January 31st. (It got only 52 of the needed 54 votes in the Assembly.)


• Now, less than a month later, the California Disclose Act is back!As AB1648.

• It is likely to reach the first committee in mid- to late-March or early April.

• And it has been strengthened (and it willbe further improved as it moves through the process).










• I know many of you understood and endorsed AB1148.

• AB1648 is the same bill, on steroids.

• For those who don’t know about it, I’ll briefly explain its purpose now.

And later on I’ll take questionsif you want more details.

Details on AB1648





Details on AB1648





Details on AB1648




And later on I’ll take questions if you want more details.

Details on AB1648

• Every election time we are all deluged with political ads (on TV, radio, and the internet, plus direct mail and newspaper and magazine ads).

Details on AB1648

• Every election time we are all deluged with political ads (on TV, radio, and the internet, plus direct mail and newspaper and magazine ads).

• Voters rarely know who actually pays for those ads.

Details on AB1648

• Disclosure (as in AB1648) would force those who pay admit who they are ON THOSE ADS!

Details on AB1648

• Disclosure (as in AB1648) would force those who pay admit who they are ON THOSE ADS!

• And it will apply to all elections in the state for any office (except federal office) and for any ballot proposition.

Details on AB1648

• Sign our petition (here, today).

Actions YOU can do for AB1648


• Ask your friends to sign the petition(either online or on paper).



• Ask your friends to sign the petition(either online or on paper).

• Invite me (or another speaker) to explain AB1648 to your group (Kiwanis, Elks, Toastmasters, Bowling Club, or whatever!)


• Write to your Assembly person (and later to your State Senator).



• Lobby them in person.



• Lobby them in person.

• Go to Sacramento and testify before a committee.


To Repeat…

Every big social change in our

contract about and with our

government has been forced

into being by a strong

grass roots movement!

Please remember:

When THE PEOPLEPush Against

Entrenched Power

They Have to Keep Pushing!

Please remember:


Entrenched Power

Please remember:


Entrenched Power

They Have to Keep Pushing!

Please also remember:

Large Goals

Are Achieved

Slowly, and

in Many Small Steps


Large Goals

Are Achieved

Slowly, and

in Many Small Steps


Large Goals

Are Achieved

Slowly, and

in Many Small Steps


Large Goals

Are Achieved

Slowly, and

in Many Small Steps


Large Goals

Are Achieved

Slowly, and

in Many Small Steps

Questions, Anyone?

Thank you.

Documents

Reclaiming Our Democracy “We the People” – Not “We the Corporations”