Although the Constitution as ratified in 1788 excluded several key demographics, developments throughout history have steadily rendered our democracy more inclusive, creating the promise of a government in which all people have a voice in its path forward. However, one recent Supreme Court decision has acted as a deadly corrosive agent for the promise of democracy in America; the majority in the Supreme Court case Citizens United v. FEC has extended First Amendment speech rights to include unlimited donations made by corporations. The decision has opened floodgates allowing the wealthiest Americans to exercise increased control over the political process, thus drowning out the voices of the majority. In order to recover from this striking blow
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Moreover, because freedom of speech cannot be denied based on the identity of the speaker, corporations are given First Amendment protection. The problem with this logic is that corporations, in the words of Justice John Paul Stevens, “are not themselves members of ‘We the People’ by whom and for whom our Constitution was established.” The First Amendment was intended to protect self-expression, the right of the people to communicate ideas freely without constraint by the government. It is absurd to reason that the Founders intended to protect corporate corruption of elected officials under the alias of free speech, and to pretend that they did so places the fate of government in the hands of very few wealthy individuals -- hardly a democracy in any stretch of the word.
In the wake of the decision of Citizens United, a Constitutional amendment is needed to preserve democracy for the majority of Americans. Constitutional rights must be limited to individual, natural citizens, and a federal small-donor matching program is crucial if the laws of our nation are to benefit more than just the very wealthy. Only by doing so will the real power in the American system be returned to whom it was intended to belong: the
Moreover, because freedom of speech cannot be denied based on the identity of the speaker, corporations are given First Amendment protection. The problem with this logic is that corporations, in the words of Justice John Paul Stevens, “are not themselves members of ‘We the People’ by whom and for whom our Constitution was established.” The First Amendment was intended to protect self-expression, the right of the people to communicate ideas freely without constraint by the government. It is absurd to reason that the Founders intended to protect corporate corruption of elected officials under the alias of free speech, and to pretend that they did so places the fate of government in the hands of very few wealthy individuals -- hardly a democracy in any stretch of the word.
In the wake of the decision of Citizens United, a Constitutional amendment is needed to preserve democracy for the majority of Americans. Constitutional rights must be limited to individual, natural citizens, and a federal small-donor matching program is crucial if the laws of our nation are to benefit more than just the very wealthy. Only by doing so will the real power in the American system be returned to whom it was intended to belong: the