PDA in Cleveland for the Grassroots Leadership Conference
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PDA in Cleveland for the Grassroots Leadership Conference
7-24-2010 – 3:57 pm | Comments

We will be posting videos and some photos here throughout the rest of the conference…we will begin with a video clip of Jeff Cohen from yesterday, Friday July 23rd, during the PDA Sixth Anniversary Celebration. …

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Home » Civil Rights, Constitution, Featured

Restore the Power to the People: Amend the Constitution!

Submitted by Bryan Buchan on 2-7-2010 – 2:47 pmComments

Corporate PersonhoodRestore the Power to the People: Amend the Constitution!
William John Cox | PDA Blog Contributor

¿Plata o plomo? Colombian and Mexican drug gangs ask government officials, judges and police officers which they prefer, “silver or lead,” when offering bribes and threatening violence.

The U.S. Supreme Court decision granting corporations the same free speech rights as natural persons allows them to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence elections and public affairs.

Corporations, foreign and domestic, can now force politicians to choose silver or lead when supporting or opposing corporate and foreign power interests.

Any politician who places the wellbeing of the public over corporate demands can count on well-financed negative publicity at the next election. Moreover, corporations will be able to directly influence the election of state judges and the confirmation of federal judges.

With the Congress, White House and Supreme Court now up for sale to the highest bidder, we, the people of the United States of America, must exercise our fading power before it is lost forever.

The 11th and 12th Amendments clearly establish that the Constitution exists to protect the rights and powers of the people, not corporations.

It is our Constitution! We must amend it to ensure it protects us, not corporations.
　
　

The Power to the People Amendment
Section 1
Only natural persons shall be protected by this Constitution and entitled to the rights and freedoms it guarantees
.

Section 2
Nothing contained in this article shall be construed to abridge the freedom of the press for non-person entities engaged in the gathering and reporting of fact, analysis, and opinion. In all other respects, Congress and the States shall regulate and tax non-person entities as necessary for the public good.

Section 3
This article shall become operative once it has been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three-fourths of the States thereof.

  • crispus
    The Constitutional Amendment for Universal Rights of Human Beings deserves a strong push throughout the states. It is the civil rights movement movement of the 21st century. It is also the heart of the struggle to preserve civil liberties in a global world. It is truly amazing how much power individuals human beings have ceded to corporate entities and their industrial combines. This very legal fiction has fouled the reputation of the United States. The extraordinary influence and human and industrial capital possessed by commercial enterprises has made moot human freedom. We have set a course that empowers wealth over even democratic participation. I mean by that, moneyed interests politics take the place of citizenship.
    I see an even more frightening consequence that continues to grow from corporate rule of US politics. This is a path toward making suffrage, independent press and entire ideal of democracy obsolete. Corporations are celebrated for their "efficiency" in profit making. This translates into eliminating anything that slows down business decisions. That would include election campaigns, debates, discussions, dissent, town halls, even votes. That stuff just gets in the way of making more money.
    I understand that "captains of corporate-dom" and their technocrats the globe over are salivating at the prospect of this possibility. Get pesky Republics and peoples rights and grievances out of our damn way. The nature of commercial organizations is antithetical to human liberty. It must serve the needs of the organization over the individual.

    Why would anyone that claims the title "Democrat" support granting the "inalienable rights" of natural persons, real and living beings to such entities and organizations?
  • do1949
    The Court got it wrong! Let's change the Court not the Constitution. I am as appalled and horrified by the Court's decision as anyone. This decision is the consequence of conservative "activist's" judges not flaws in the US Constitution. Expect to see much more of this until a progressive is added to the Supreme Court.
    It is both easier and less dangerous to pass laws that are "deemed constitutional", and to elect a President and Senators who will appoint progressive Jurists than to amend the US Constitution. (Wow, I can not believe I wrote that) Just look at the effort to pass the ERA
    .
    How do the 11th and 12th Amendments "clearly establish that the Constitution exists to protect the rights and powers of the people, not corporations"? I see nothing in these Amendments that address the campaign contribution rights of "corporations", or of the ability
    of government to restrict corporate contributions, if it is there it certainly is not clear. If forced to argue a constitutional basis to limit corporate power I would use the "tenth amendment to the US Constitution" .
    The proposed "Power to the People Amendment", is very ambiguous and would not solve the problem of Corporate dominance of politics. Would it allow for an argument that an "unborn" fetus is a "natural person"? As with most legal terms, the precise definition of murder varies between all jurisdictions but often require that the victim be a "natural person"; such as illegal abortion of a fetus or the unlawful killing of an unborn child which is considered a "natural person".

    This proposal needs more discussion.
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