How to Take Back Our Political System From the 1%

[Mosaic]

Ferguson outlines bold measures to stop the tsunami of money that threatens our democracy, starting with a Constitutional Amendment.

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Now about remedies. First, let’s face it. We might as well be back in the Gilded Age. The Supreme Court appears determined to sweep away just about any impediments to big money’s sway in politics. I thus conclude that Dylan Ratigan and others who are campaigning to amend the Constitution to make it clear that the government has the power to regulate money in elections are right. I would not open Pandora’s Box by calling a constitutional convention; I would just try to move such an amendment through the normal process of passage by Congress and ratification by states. I would also be very careful about language. Potential threats to free speech are not fantasies; careless language could encourage tyranny. Any such amendment, I think, needs to make it clear that corporations are not to be regarded as natural persons and are not entitled to protections as though they were. But that’s not enough: we cannot have our political system dominated by a handful of super rich individuals.

Such an amendment also needs to write into stone the option of true public financing of elections. The central contention of my “investment” approach to party competition is that classical theories of democracy greatly underestimate the costs voters face in trying to control the state. Those costs are real; somebody has to pay them. Thus, in the real world, either we all pay a little or the 1% pay the whole bill and control the system.

The idea of a constitutional amendment daunts many people, because they usually take a long time to pass. But the Seventeenth Amendment providing for direct election of U.S. Senators passed remarkably quickly once Americans realized that the old Senate was then the seat of a “Millionaires Club.” I think we are approaching a time when something like that could happen again.

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Much more at Alternet http://www.alternet.org/story/152960/thomas_ferguson%3A_how_to_take_back_our_political_system_from_the_1/

[alfredo]

1. Kick and Recommend.

[Zorra]

2. Another suggestion regarding Constitutional Amendment.

OWS demands this of Congress:

Immediate drafting, passage, and implementation of one comprehensive Constitutional Amendment, or several Constitutional Amendments, that effectively render(s) moot the Citizen's United SCOTUS Decision, outlaws corporate personhood, outlaws all donations in any form, direct or indirect, to political candidates and legislators, and abolishes all lobbying of political candidates and elected legislators.

Overseen by OWS attorneys to work out any bugs.

If Congress refuses, we proceed to shut the country down until Congress accedes to our demand and does the will of the people.

Once the control of government through wealth by the 1% is gone from politics and government, we can use our new democracy to solve the rest of our problems.

Until this occurs, trying solve problems by process of the current system will remain virtually pointless.

[Mosaic]

3. Excellent points Zorra!!

I fully agree with you.

:applause: :patriot: :yourock: :fistbump: