Welcome to “Fixing Our Broken Democracy.” This presentation is about the need for a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court decision known as “ Citizens United ,” which endowed corporations with constitutional rights intended to protect living individuals, and opened the floodgates to the corrupting influence of unlimited political spending. My name is Paul Lauenstein. I’m not a politician. I’m not a professional activist. I’m just a retired print shop owner and a concerned citizen. Like many Americans, I see a political system that caters to powerful special interests. That’s why I volunteer my time to help build the broad movement we need if we want a democracy that serves the interests of all Americans. 1
The Economist, a well-respected weekly, recently downgraded the United States from a “full democracy” (countries shown in dark green) to a “flawed democracy” (countries shown in light green). The United States should no longer be considered a beacon of democracy for the rest of the world. 2
In a study of almost 1,800 policy initiatives, political scientists from Princeton and Northwestern found that the preferences of average citizens have almost no effect on government policies. However, they found that the preferences of economic elites matter a lot. They concluded that America is more of an oligarchy – where a small wealthy elite rules – than a democracy, where the people rule. Let’s take a look at how we got into this situation, and what we can do to fix our broken democracy. 3
When Abraham Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg address, the memory of the American Revolution was still fresh in the minds of his generation. They remembered the sacrifices of their forefathers in overthrowing the tyranny of King George. They also remembered the economic oppression of the East India Company, a global corporation that monopolized trade in the colonies, and how the colonists threw the tea into Boston Harbor to protest that oppression. Standing on the blood-soaked battlefield at Gettysburg, Lincoln uttered these immortal words, “…we here highly resolve … that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” 4
Lincoln's generation fought a bloody Civil War to hold the nation together, hoping that government of, by and for the people would prevail. However, within a few decades, the Robber Barons of the Gilded Age – big industrialists such as Rockefeller, Vanderbilt and J.P. Morgan – were making a mockery of that vision. The Gilded Age brought extremes of both great wealth and grinding poverty, as the Robber Barons made huge fortunes, taking advantage of cheap labor at a time when workers had almost no rights. It was also a time of corruption in government. Lobbyists stalked the halls of Congress with money and gifts, to bribe politicians into writing the legislation that corporations wanted. Sound familiar? Corporate tycoons wanted to get their businesses out from under government control. Led by the booming railroad industry, step by step through the late 1800s, they manipulated and bribed state legislatures into lifting the restrictions written into corporate charters, and by now they had their eyes on the biggest prize: the constitutional rights of natural persons. They knew that corporations could manipulate constitutional rights to avoid compliance with laws they didn't like, a practice that has been dubbed the "corporate veto." For decades, lawyers brought case after case to the Supreme Court demanding 5
They staked their claim on the 14th Amendment of 1868, which affirmed that newly freed slaves were citizens. The 14 th Amendment guaranteed all “persons” equal protection of the laws. 6
Up until this time, it had been understood that a corporation was a separate kind of person, an artificial person. What does that mean? Well, let's say a group of people want to go into business together. They file with the state for a charter. Once the charter is granted, the law treats the business as if it were one "person," so that it can do things like entering into contracts and filing lawsuits. This gives the corporation a limited kind of legal personhood. And that’s fine. Corporations need to be able to function that way. (click) But that’s really different from saying that they have all the rights of people under the Constitution. These are natural rights that are inherently part of who we are as human beings. There is nothing natural or inherent about a corporation. It’s a legal arrangement created by an act of state law. 7
So the aim of the 14 th Amendment was to ensure that flesh-and-blood persons who had been abused for so long as slaves had equal protection of the laws. But what actually happened? Between 1890 and 1910 the Supreme Court heard 307 cases regarding the 14th Amendment. Most of them involved corporations, not African Americans. Corporations had the resources to manipulate the legal system to their advantage, while former slaves did not. 8
The Gilded Age did not last forever! Relying on constitutional rights such as freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of assembly, people fought back in great movements for change. 9
These movements included the Populists in the 1890’s, led by William Jennings Bryan, who demanded the direct election of senators, citizen ballot initiatives, and other experiments in direct democracy. 10
Then came the Progressives, led by trust-buster Teddy Roosevelt. He said, “ Corporate expenditures for political purposes have supplied one of the principal sources of corruption in our political affairs.” 11
In 1920, after decades of struggle, women finally got the right to vote with the passage of the 19 th amendment. Depression-era reforms such as social security, unemployment insurance, FDIC and Glass- Steagall stabilized the economy and led to a golden era in America after World War II. For decades, prosperity was widely shared as the middle class grew. 12
In the 1950s through the 1970s there were other remarkable people’s movements, such as the Civil Rights Movement, 13
the anti-war movement, 14
and the environmental movement. On Earth Day, 20 million Americans from coast to coast demonstrated in the streets to protest pollution, oil spills, and other harms caused by corporations. Earth Day won the support of Republicans, Democrats, and all kinds of Americans. It led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, the passage of the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts and many other laws to protect our shared environment. Lincoln's vision of government of, by and for the people was becoming a reality. However, corporate America watched these developments with growing alarm, and embarked on a counter strategy. 15
This two-minute clip from Heist: Who Stole the American Dream shows what that corporate counter strategy was. 16
The Powell Memo and Chamber of Commerce strategy changed our society dramatically. Lewis Powell was a tobacco industry lawyer before Nixon appointed him to the Supreme Court. The robe he wore on his first day as a Supreme Court Justice was a gift from the Phillip Morris Company. While he was on the Supreme Court, Powell helped decide a number of cases that expanded the power of corporations. 17
In Buckley v. Valeo , the court ruled that government can’t limit the amount of money that candidates spend on elections. This is the decision that created the notion that (click) money equals speech! (click) In First National Bank v Bellotti , the Court ruled that limiting corporate expenditures to influence ballot initiatives constitutes a violation of their First Amendment speech rights. Decisions like these led to more money in elections and more corporate influence. 18
Corporations have become so successful at winning constitutional rights that they can exercise what author Jeff Clements calls the “Corporate Veto.” This means corporations can use their newfound constitutional rights in court to avoid compliance with laws they don't like. 19
In his book, “Corporations Are Not People”” Clements describes how corporations use constitutional rights to circumvent laws protecting our health, safety, and environment. And they have done so hundreds of times! One such “corporate veto” happened right here in Massachusetts. 20
Recognize Joe Camel? The mascot created to market cigarettes to kids? In 1998 Massachusetts passed a law to protect children by banning cigarette advertising within 1,000 feet of schools and playgrounds. The Supreme Court struck down the law, saying it violated the First Amendment speech rights of tobacco companies. This case raises the question: what is the meaning of freedom? Does it mean corporations are free to do business regardless of the consequences for society? Or does it mean We the People are free to protect our children, regardless of the consequences for corporate profits? 21
With its infamous Citizens United decision of 2010, the Supreme Court struck down some of the few remaining campaign finance restrictions. Based on the doctrine that artificial entities have constitutional rights, and money is a form of First Amendment speech, the Supreme Court opened the floodgates to money in politics, and corporate domination of our democracy. 22
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