Campaign to Legalize Democracy: Letter to the President

[Goldstein1984]

Submitted to www.whitehouse.gov on 02JAN2010:

Dear Mr. President;

You are, of course, aware that early in 2010 the Supreme Court of the United States is expected to render a decision in the case of Citizens United vs FEC. It is expected that the majority Conservative justices will find that corporations are persons under the U.S. Constitution.

You may also be aware that an organization, Reclaim Democracy, plans to kick off the Campaign to Legalize Democracy, with the goal of amending the U.S. Constitution to eliminate corporate claims to personhood, on the day the Supreme Court renders its decision in this case.

That a corporation is not a person seems intuitively obvious to me, and I believe the Framers of the Constitution also knew better.

The Campaign to Legalize Democracy seems so important to me that those campaign contributions that I would otherwise have used to support Democratic candidates around the country will be going the Reclaim Democracy instead. I may also divert funds currently dedicated to charities to this same cause.

I can't think of any greater threat to our nation than the loss of democracy that has accompanied the destruction of the middle and working classes during thirty years of feudal capitalism.

I hope the Campaign to Legalize Democracy will receive your support as well. If there is one theme that I find ubiquitous, it is that "we no longer have representative government."

Regards,

[Land Shark]

1. Our rights to representative govt are being VIOLATED rather than rendered non-existent

but, other than that important distinction, I agree fully.

Rights, like any valuable thing, are subject to being stolen, sometimes for very long periods of time (think: slavery). But that doesn't make things like slavery JUST, because of inalienable rights - rights that can never be lost or forfeited even with a constitutional amendment. Were this not the case, then per force we'd have to conclude that pre-civil war slavery was not only legal but was justice itself when it is not. Freedom and democracy don't have statutes of limitations, they're always there for us to get back, rightfully.

[Goldstein1984]

3. A good distinction

One that I follow in practice. I chose my words poorly.

The Bill of Rights doesn't establish rights, it acknowledges them. My favorite is the 9th Amendment, which is generally ignored. It states clearly that the Bill of Rights is not a list of all rights, that other rights exist. Privacy is one that I think is covered by the 9th Amendment. Regardless of how the other amendments are interpreted with regard to privacy, I claim it as a right acknowledged by the 9th Amendment.

[Yuugal]

2. Expect a vist from......