Amendment XXVIII To The Constitution

For over five years I have been saying that there is too much money in politics and that we should amend the Constitution to take the private money out. The ability of those with a lot of money to use it to influence our lawmakers gives them an advantage over the ordinary working class and deprives the us, the people, of equal access and the ability to be heard. Consequently almost everything that Washington does it does for the benefit of the super rich and the corporations they control. During those five years and more I have found very little support for the idea. Then the Supreme Court gave the corporations the right to spend as much money as they want to influence politicians. And now the idea seems to have gotten wings and is taking off. Its about time!

Representatives Donna Edwards and John Conyers have introduced a bill to amend the Constitution. The amendment would allow the Congress and the states to regulate political expenditures by corporations.

Amendment XXVIII

Section 1. The sovereign right of the people to govern being essential to a free democracy, the First Amendment shall not be construed to limit the authority of Congress and the States to define, regulate, and restrict the spending and other activity of any corporation, limited liability entity, or other corporate entity created by state or federal law or the law of another nation.

Section 2. Nothing contained in this Article shall be construed to abridge the freedom of the press.

Politicians rightly believe that most Americans decide who to vote for based on the information they get form thirty second TV commercials. And the corporations can buy a lot more really slick commercials than the average citizens can even in groups and organizations. So any politician who doesn't go along with the corporations and give them what they want will find themselves the victim of corporate wrath. They will find that their opponent is supported with far more negative TV ads maligning them and supporting their opponent than they can afford to buy. No politician who isn't willing to stand against the corporations and risk not being reelected or to serve only one term will be elected. They won't even be likely to be willing to run. We might as well dispense with elections and just let the corporations appoint the lawmakers. So this amendment is a good thing. It just doesn't go far enough!

We need to take all private money out of politics completely. As well as prohibiting corporations from funding our elections we should make our elections publicly funded. Elections should be paid for from a fund taken from tax revenue and set aside for that and only that purpose. The funds should be distributed equally to all candidates who manage to get the signatures of a percentage of all registered voters in the district they seek office in. That would give them an equal chance to state their views and their position on issues and to say how they would legislate. It would give us a much better idea of who were voting for and why.

We also need to make it a crime to bribe an elected official. And it should be considered a bribe to give money, or anything of value, to a lawmaker. That includes such things a giving to a charity or institution like a hospital or university in the politician's name. And it should be considered a bribe to take a lawmaker to dinner at a five star restaurant or on a Caribbean cruse or a golfing outing in Scotland, etc. Lobbyists should be restricted to talking to the lawmakers during regular office hours or at town hall meetings where you or I or any ordinary citizen could go and present their case for or against legislation.

It isn't easy to amend the Constitution. It takes two thirds of the Congress and three fourths of the states. Now with the corporations able to spend as much as they want to to prevent an amendment that would deprive them of that ability it will be even harder than it would have been before the Supreme Court ruling. It will take a truly massive grassroots movement. We, the people, must make our Congressmen believe that they will not be reelected if they do not support the amendment. Without it we are doomed to rule by the corporatocracy.