Support Senate Joint Resolution 19

I was dismayed when the conservative-majority Supreme Court made the Citizens United ruling in 2010.  By a 5-4 vote, the court ruled that laws against corporations and unions using their general treasury funds to run ads for or against candidates were unconstitutional.  I was very unhappy at the prospect of their overwhelming the system with untraceable money spent in a fashion calculated to make our elected officials even more beholden to corporate interests and the plutocracy than so many already are.  The reality of the practice has not assuaged my misgivings in the least.  In 2012, 32 wealthy individuals gave as much to the Obama and Romney campaign super-pacs as the 3.7 million small donors who supported either candidate. 

If you feel the same way I do, there may now be something you can do about this.  I received a response email from the office of one of my senators, Dianne Feinstein, detailing a move to overturn Citizens United.  Here is part of what she wrote:

You may be pleased to know that I am a cosponsor of  S.J.Res . 19, introduced by Senator Tom Udall (D-NM) on June 18, 2013.   This measure would amend the U.S. Constitution to allow Congress to regulate the raising and spending of money for federal political campaigns, including by corporations engaging in so-called independent expenditures through outside groups like Super-PACs.  It would also allow states to regulate campaign financing in state elections in the same way.  S.J.Res . 19 is currently pending in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Go to the full letter.

A constitutional amendment can be a long, drawn out process, but there is no surer safeguard against such abuses than putting them in the constitution itself.  The popular support is there to effect change if people push for it.  A 2013 Gallup poll found that a majority of Americans, 50 percent to 44 percent, would support a law to ban all private funding of federal campaigns and replace them with a publicly-financed system.  A 2012 Greenberg Quinlan Rosner poll of 1,000 likely voters found that 62 percent oppose the Citizens United decision.  So far, eleven states and 350 municipalities have passed resolutions against the ruling, and 40 senators have registered their disapproval.

Take this opportunity to get in touch with your senators and your congressional representative to let them know you support Senate Joint Resolution 19.  Ask them how they stand on it.  Let's start taking some influence back from the well-heeled few.