On Jan 30, 2017, the house of reps introduced House Resolution 48 "Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States providing that the rights extended by the Constitution are the rights of natural persons only."
While there's a lot of noise about Trump's administration, ultimately, our problem is that we've lost our representative democracy. We have 158 families controlling the representatives that are supposed to represent 320,000,000 of us. There are lots of pieces to fix - one of which is clearly legislating that the constitution applies to people and not corporations. An amendment of this sort would kill the Citizen's United ruling, and walk us back to a political system where money != speech.
If you are support this this - PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF MERGATROID - contact your representative in the house of reps. Tell them to co-sponsor Resolution 48. Point out the other reps from their state and/or party who are already on board. ((actually all but one are Dems - who's the rockstar republican here? That's right - the badass out of the shallow south - Rep. Jones, Walter B., Jr. [R-NC-3]) You can find the names of the bill's co-sponsors here).
Here's what I sent to my representative:
Dear Ms. ---,
I'm a supportive constituent registered to vote in (your district). While everyone is battling over the latest oddity from the Trump administration, please take a step back and recognize that we are where we are because our privately funded two party system. This system has given rise to corporate personhood. I'm 100% against corporations (including PACs) being given the same rights under the constitution as citizens.
Please - join 5 of your California colleagues and sponsor House Joint Resolution 48. ( https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-joint-resolution/48/ )
"H.J.Res.48 - Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States providing that the rights extended by the Constitution are the rights of natural persons only."
Already on board from CA are:
Rep. Takano, Mark [D-CA-41]
Rep. Lee, Barbara [D-CA-13]
Rep. Khanna, Ro [D-CA-17]
Rep. Lieu, Ted [D-CA-33]
Rep. Huffman, Jared [D-CA-2]
PLEASE - even as you deal with the latest developments from the current administration, PLEASE do all you can to FIX THE SYSTEM. Please co-sponsor joint resolution 48, and support any and all efforts to end this privately funded political system. Stopping corporate personhood (and the idea that $ is speech) is a start. There's much more to do. But let's start with Res 48.
I'm rooting for you!
Malaysia41
Done! Thank you for providing the basic letter, I adjusted it to fit my situation/rep and sent it off.
Here's the current list of co-sponsors as of this morning:
Rep. McCollum, Betty [D-MN-4]
Rep. Cartwright, Matt [D-PA-17]
Rep. Ellison, Keith [D-MN-5]
Rep. Pocan, Mark [D-WI-2]
Rep. Takano, Mark [D-CA-41]
Rep. Blumenauer, Earl [D-OR-3]
Rep. DeFazio, Peter A. [D-OR-4]
Rep. O'Rourke, Beto [D-TX-16]
Rep. Slaughter, Louise McIntosh [D-NY-25]
Rep. Grijalva, Raul M. [D-AZ-3]
Rep. Lee, Barbara [D-CA-13]
Rep. Conyers, John, Jr. [D-MI-13]
Rep. Engel, Eliot L. [D-NY-16]
Rep. Tonko, Paul [D-NY-20]
Rep. Raskin, Jamie [D-MD-8]
Rep. Khanna, Ro [D-CA-17]
Rep. Capuano, Michael E. [D-MA-7]
Rep. Lieu, Ted [D-CA-33]
Rep. Norcross, Donald [D-NJ-1]
Rep. Jones, Walter B., Jr. [R-NC-3]
Rep. Beyer, Donald S., Jr. [D-VA-8]
Rep. Serrano, Jose E. [D-NY-15]
Rep. Huffman, Jared [D-CA-2]
Rep. Norton, Eleanor Holmes [D-DC-At Large]