LIVE from Las Vegas: Undoing "Corporations United" and restoring grassroots democracy
Isn't it time that we amended the Constitution to establish that Congress has the ability to regulate corporations, rather than the other way around?
Yes, say the folks on a rather excellent panel organized by People for the American Way, called Undoing Citizens Corporations United: A Comprehensive Plan to Prevent Corporations from Buying Elections.
Moderated by Marge Baker, the panel includes Rob Weissman, Representative Donna Edwards, Representative Alan Grayson, and Lisa Graves.
It's an all-star lineup assembled to talk about a cause that's incredibly important: Reclaiming our democracy from corporations and fighting corruption.
As the panel's name makes clear, this is a discussion about what we can do to overturn and reverse the Supreme Court's "Corporations United" decision. Specifically, amending the Constitution.
As Rob explained, we can mitigate this boneheaded decision through legislation, but the only way to undo it is either to get a new Supreme Court which will re-interpret the matter, or to amend the Constitution.
Since waiting for the Roberts majority to become a minority is not a feasible option, that leaves us with the latter course of action.
Representative Donna Edwards spoke at length about the difficulty — and necessity — of getting an amendment passed.
We cannot allow despair to prevent us from doing the organizing and mobilizing we have to do to push back and restore uncommon sense.
Representative Alan Grayson echoed her comments.
"Once you lose democracy, it's gone," Grayson said. "But I don't feed that that's what's going to happen... We have to win, and we will win."
He told the story of being in the courtoom when the decision was handed down, explaining that he and Mitch McConnell were the only elected officials in the room, and that McConnell was fighting a smile after the verdict was handed down, which Grayson described as "frightening", to sustained laughter.
That, Grayson said, was when he knew just how awful the decision was.
Lisa Graves emphasized that we have to think about winning, about going on offense, even when we're losing. "We have to make some lemonade here," she said. "We get tied up in this conventional wisdom about what can't happen."
She's absolutely correct. Conventional wisdom and right wing control of our discourse (not just right wing media, but the prevalence of their ideas, their frames) is our greatest enemy. We're going to fall short if we allow ourselves to become disillusioned and not see what is possible.
It sure seems like the Supreme Court has backed American democracy into a corner. But fortunately — as history has proven many times — the enduring ideals that this country was founded upon have continued to inspire generations of Americans to rise up, fight back, and win. The abolitionists did it. The suffragists did it. The New Dealers did it. Now it's our turn.
Yes, say the folks on a rather excellent panel organized by People for the American Way, called Undoing Citizens Corporations United: A Comprehensive Plan to Prevent Corporations from Buying Elections.
Moderated by Marge Baker, the panel includes Rob Weissman, Representative Donna Edwards, Representative Alan Grayson, and Lisa Graves.
It's an all-star lineup assembled to talk about a cause that's incredibly important: Reclaiming our democracy from corporations and fighting corruption.
As the panel's name makes clear, this is a discussion about what we can do to overturn and reverse the Supreme Court's "Corporations United" decision. Specifically, amending the Constitution.
As Rob explained, we can mitigate this boneheaded decision through legislation, but the only way to undo it is either to get a new Supreme Court which will re-interpret the matter, or to amend the Constitution.
Since waiting for the Roberts majority to become a minority is not a feasible option, that leaves us with the latter course of action.
Representative Donna Edwards spoke at length about the difficulty — and necessity — of getting an amendment passed.
We cannot allow despair to prevent us from doing the organizing and mobilizing we have to do to push back and restore uncommon sense.
Representative Alan Grayson echoed her comments.
"Once you lose democracy, it's gone," Grayson said. "But I don't feed that that's what's going to happen... We have to win, and we will win."
He told the story of being in the courtoom when the decision was handed down, explaining that he and Mitch McConnell were the only elected officials in the room, and that McConnell was fighting a smile after the verdict was handed down, which Grayson described as "frightening", to sustained laughter.
That, Grayson said, was when he knew just how awful the decision was.
Lisa Graves emphasized that we have to think about winning, about going on offense, even when we're losing. "We have to make some lemonade here," she said. "We get tied up in this conventional wisdom about what can't happen."
She's absolutely correct. Conventional wisdom and right wing control of our discourse (not just right wing media, but the prevalence of their ideas, their frames) is our greatest enemy. We're going to fall short if we allow ourselves to become disillusioned and not see what is possible.
It sure seems like the Supreme Court has backed American democracy into a corner. But fortunately — as history has proven many times — the enduring ideals that this country was founded upon have continued to inspire generations of Americans to rise up, fight back, and win. The abolitionists did it. The suffragists did it. The New Dealers did it. Now it's our turn.
# Posted by Andrew : 11:21 AM
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