Jim Hightower: How Occupy Wall Street & other grassroots efforts can counter corporate influence

[highplainsdem]

Great column from him, and a long one -- please read it in its entirety:

http://www.isthmus.com/daily/article.php?article=34951

1. Amend. Two major coalitions are aggressively organizing grassroots power from coast to coast to demand and pass a constitutional amendment to prohibit corporations from buying our elections. Yes, this is a difficult and lengthy process, but as an old Spanish dicho puts it, "Big maladies require big remedies." The people have passed amendments before and we can again, especially for a cause that starts with such broad and passionate public support.

2. FreeSpeechForPeople.org proposes a straightforward amendment to repeal the Supremes' infamous Citizens United ruling. The coalition's battle cry is: Citizens United against Citizens United. MoveToAmend.org proposes a broader amendment to declare that only human beings, not corporations, are persons with constitutional rights.

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3. Uncover. One of the little-noticed and unfulfilled promises included in the Court's Citizens United ruling is that corporations should at least have to disclose to shareholders and the public how much political money they spend on whom. Congressional Republicans, however, have blocked proposals to implement this minimalist democratic gesture, and President Obama so far has not issued administrative rules to shine even a little sunlight on secret electioneering by corporations.

-snipping the next five-

Whether it’s the Arab Spring or the American Autumn, democratic progress doesn’t come on the winds of history, but on the shoulders of a determined people. Occupy Wall Street offers millions of strong shoulders with which to shove corporate money out of our politics and make “people power” more than an empty slogan. While the Constitution says “We the People,” not We the Corporations, the people themselves must make that distinction real.

[highplainsdem]

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