The Nation magazine features an excellent article by Lawrence Lessig, this week, titled “How to Get Our Democracy Back.” In it, he examines the problems of money in politics and offers some good ideas for solutions.
More info on the subject can be found at Fix Congress First.
Maybe they overreached a little too far this time. Perhaps the five black-robed neo-fascists just handed us a gift. The gift of clarity.
The Supreme Court’s recent ruling, giving corporations unlimited influence in politics, represents a giant goose step toward the Corporate State, where Big Money makes all the important decisions in government, and the citizen/rabble get to vote on things like how well Tom DeLay shook his booty on Dancing with the Stars.
The power grab here is obvious, and it has served to wake many people up. There is a growing movement, now, towards drafting an Amendment to the Constitution, to simply clarify the fact that corporations are not people. The stupidity of the notion illustrates just how far we have fallen, but it is sorely needed, for this legal fiction of “corporate personhood” is at the root of how Concentrated Wealth has managed to wrest all political power away from We the People.
Democracy is on the ropes in America. Norquist has got the baby in the bathtub, a cruel smile on his face as he plunges it underwater, watching it cough and sputter. It’s time for us to wake up and fight, or it’s going to slip away.
Here’s a couple places to get started: