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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (April 26, 2013)
9 Street roots April 26, 2013 A 28th amendment? THOM HARTMANN, from page 1 " I t is picking up steam. State aitetf Staler eo»nty after county, city after city — pretty much wherever this is presented as a ballot issue, people overwhelmingly vote for it. And h o t people of any one p a rty .... This Is not a partisan issue, this is a common sense issue.ff we all know that they’re not natural persons and the First Amendment was not written for corporations, it was for natural persons. It seems the only way to solve this problem — because the Supreme Court has taken this bizarre position that has evolved over the years increasingly in the direction of a corporate state — is to amend the Constitution, to simply say corporations do not have the rights of natural persons, do not have the rights under the Constitution other than creatures of law as artificial persons, and that money is property, not speech. And that’s what Move to Amend is promoting and I think that that’s the right . way to go. J.Z.: What has the damage been from Citizens United? T.H.: We have massive amounts of money flowing into our political process in ways that are virtually untraceable. Much of it coming from corporations and persons and perhaps even governments outside of the United States whose interests may not even be congruent with the United States. Under Citizens United, Osama bin Laden could create an American corporation and channel money through it and create a PAC and support political candidates. And for all we know, al Qaeda actually has done that. It’s entirely possible. J.Z.: The amendment talks about prohibiting influence on elections and politics. How could this be monitored or enforced? particular politician, that politician is going to get elected. It’s pretty simple math. J.Z.: One version of this proposed amendment states that it shall not affect the media from reporting facts to the people. Why is that in this amendment? T.H.: That’s in there because you don’t want to amend the Constitution in a way That directly contradicts the Constitution. There is only one industry that the framers felt needed protection. It wasn’t making cannons, or battleships, or armies. They didn’t think that was so important. It wasn’t buggy whips or transportation. It was the press. They felt that the press was actually an agency of the government. It was the Fourth Estate. This was the ultimate power of the people to be well informed and thus make appropriate choices about who was going to govern them and how. So that protection of the press is enshrined in the First Amendment. If you are going to amend the Constitution in a way that limits money, , speech and corporations, and the press by fand large -are corporations, it’s just prudent to make it very clear that we are not infringing on freedom of the press. T.H.: Well, you’re never going to be able to do this perfectly, human beings being as they are. But once you allow Congress to pass laws that regulate money in politics, I think that there will be a very rapid bipartisan consensus that it is something that should be done and be done quickly. Right now, the average member of the House and Senate has to spend roughly half of all their time raising money. There are offices in the building where I do my radio J.Z.: This amendment is gaining program that are rented by members of momentum. I ’ve read that 13 states are Congress. I constantly bump into them in supporting some version of Congressional the elevator, and they come over at noon and they’re there until 6 p.m. just dialing for action against corporate personhood. Are you hopeful this will happen anytime soon? dollars. Every member of Congress has one of these places where every day they just sit T.H.: I am. I think people are so fed up, I on the phone begging for money. th in k we will see this resolved in five to six Republicans and Democrats alike hate this years, maybe less. It is picking up steam. ... I think that you would very quickly see people willing to redo McCain-Feingold, only State after state, county after county, city after city — pretty much wherever this is far more aggressively and far more presented as a ballot issue, people effectively, to regulate the money in their overwhelmingly vote for it. And not people elections and we might even get publicly of any one party. Republicans vote for it. funded elections. Democrats vote for it. Libertarians vote for The second part is, if we are to say that it. This is not a partisan issue, this is a corporations are not persons, this has huge common sense issue. ramifications beyond politics. It would mean that many of the remedies that corporations J.Z.: Speaking of partisan issues. Congress have been using to assert their power over recently voted down even minor efforts to “we the people,” whether it’s genetically augment gun-control laws, despite the fact that modified foods or corporate secrecy and more than 90 percent of the public polls in privacy rights, or corporate rights to lobby favor of the changes. What’s your position on — fill in the blank — would all be subject what happened? to congressional action. If Congress no longer needs to T.H.: I think we just saw a very clear desperately go to them for money and example of the power of a small group of Congress were to pass laws stopping the corporations, who were never named, by the revolving door for staff, then I think you could see a very cleaned-up political process . way, because they have a front group, the NRA. You saw the power of a handful of very where we return to something that we’ve large, very powerful, very wealthy been close to on occasion in this country. corporations who make a lot of money selling guns and ammunition. You saw their J.Z.: Critics would say that i t still comes power to threaten and intimidate members down to the voters. Don’t we still elect our of Congress. It’s that simple. And it’s a great representatives? example of why we need to overturn Citizens U nited.... It doesn’t just affect T.H.: Arguably. But there is a reason why politics. It also affects corporate control of the advertising industry is a multi-hundred- billion-dollar, perhaps trillion-dollar, industry. our lives. It works. If you run enough ads for a particular drug, or cosmetic, or soap, its sales will overwhelm that of its competitors. And similarly, if you run enough ads for a J.Z.: Looking at the larger picture, what is your prognosis for progressive politics? There are a lot of cynics, despite the re-election of How to get involved ■ Attend the Move to Amend Northwest Regional Grassroots Democracy Convergence on May 3-5, in Portland, with David Cobb and many other speakers ■ Go to www.oregonrestoresdemocracy. org to sign up on this coalition website to stay informed, to get involved with their “rolling legislative lobbying” and to find out about upcoming events ■ Call or write the legislators on the House Rules Committee asking them to ensure a work session on HJM 6 and then to move it out of their committee to the House for a vote President Obama. Several proposals have been circulated to create a 28th amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This is the version from the national coalition Move to Amend: Section 1. [Artificial Entities Such as Corporations Do Not Have Constitutional Rights) The rights protected by the Constitution of the United States are the rights of natural persons only. Artificial entities established by the laws of any state, the United States, or any foreign state shall have no rights under this Constitution and are subject to regulation by the people, through Federal, state, or local law. The privileges of artificial entities shall be determined by the people, through Federal, State, or local law, and shall not be construed to be inherent or inalienable. Section 2. [Money is not free speech] Federal, state, and local government shall regulate, limit, or prohibit contributions and expenditures, including a candidate’s own contributions and expenditures, to ensure that all citizens, regardless of their economic status, have access to the political process, and that no person gains, as a result of their money, substantially more access or ability to influence in any way the election of any candidate for public office or any ballot measure. T.H.: Things have gotten radically better Federal, state, and local government in a whole variety of directions. Can you shaft require that any permissible imagine how George Bush would’ve reacted contributions and expenditures be to the Boston bombing once it came out publicly disclosed. that these brothers were Muslim? We’d be The judiciary shall not construe the invading Chechnya or in a nuclear war with spending of money to influence Russia. Thing could be a lot worse, and they were a lot worse. elections to be speech under the First 1 I think that, frankly, we expected Franklin Amendment. Roosevelt when we elected Obama and there were some very big differences Section 3. Nothing contained in this between Franklin Roosevelt and Barack amendment shall be construed to Obama. The first was that when Roosevelt abridge the freedom of the press. came into office, the Americans had seen almost four years of a God-awful depression that was clearly caused by nine years of Republican policy and was made worse by before the next election and blame it on the four years of Republican austerity as a Democrats. Although that may backfire reaction to it. And there was no debate because people are getting it that about what needed to be done. In fact, Republicans are driving this austerity Hoover himself in his last months began agenda. It’s going to take something like moving in the direction that FDR eventually that to flip the House. Remember, there went with the New Deal and trying to were only two and a half months during the stimulate the economy, borrowing money Obama presidency that he had a filibuster- and spending it. So FDR had an absolute proof Senate. It was nine glorious weeks! consensus behind him. He had a wind So, if we can reclaim the House in the behind his back. Even Republicans were election of 2014 and hold the Senate, then lining up with him in many cases. Harry Reid rolls back the filibuster, then we Two, he had an absolutely overwhelming can get a lot done the last two years of the majority in both the House and the Senate. Obama presidency. That means we can’t sit There was basically no piece of legislation around being the circular firing squad he couldn’t pass. The problem he had was complaining about the things we don’t like. the Supreme Court; they kept knocking It’s fine to talk about them, but to do so in a down things that he passed. So in 1937, he way that causes people to become tried to pack the court, and just that threat discouraged or cynical about the political caused the court to change their behavior. process is exactly what the Republicans So when Obama came into office, we want us to do. hadn’t had four years of mind-boggling pain. What we had had was a few months of a J.Z.: Are you looking forward to visiting freak-out, and Obama actually got that under Oregon again? control fairly quickly. Not as good as he arguably could have, but he stopped the T.H.: Oh yeah. I love Oregon. What was bleeding. The pressure was off. originally going to be one 1-hour speech has I am personally of the opinion that turned into a couple different presentations because we have not seen any genuine in a couple different cities. So I am not sure transformations or repairs to the financial what I am going to be doing beyond that. I systems, or to our trade systems, or to our will be visiting with my three kids. Dalo’s industrial systems or economic policies, Ethiopian Restaurant is the one thing I there is going to be another crash. When know I’m going to do while I’m there. It’s that crash happens, it is going to be big. It is my favorite restaurant in town. So I’d like to going to be bad. Republicans are going to do give a shout-out to them. everything they can to make it happen a 'eetroots.
