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.