The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America
That’s all the Constitution says about free speech. That’s all the Constitution guarantees. Everything else is determined by Congressional legislation and/or the court’s opinions interpreting the Constitution and the legislation/law. Even many lawyers – so indoctrinated by their years of study of "case law and precedent" – have lost sight of this basic truth. They tend to believe that the "personhood of corporations" and related issues are constitutionally guaranteed. No, these issues are a matter of law and opinion, not the Constitution.
The Soul, the Body and the Heart of the Network
The following few paragraphs are the most important thought behind everything else the Network stands for. It is the reason we created it. This is the fundamental...the foundational reason we cannot loose if we act with sufficient vigor to force our representatives to do what we elected them for. Reread the 1st Amendment above and look for where it mentions anything about money. It doesn't, does it? There is no explicit or implicit link between free speech and money -- none at all. If there is no link or Constitutional guarantee that free speech rights can justify unlimited money being used to control any sector of our society, any and every use of money can be regulated or even outlawed by new legislation. The heart of the legislation we propose will say:
"The Constitution of the United States of America makes no link between free speech and money. In order to fully protect the free speech rights of the individual citizens of our country, the Congress has the absolute right to create legislation to limit or completely eliminate the influence of money to affect any matter of public concern. Any and all prior legislation or court opinions to the contrary are hereby made null and void right now."
We will then continue within this legislation to establish those details and institutions only now made "legal" and protected from any incursion of big money that we the people require of our representatives. We believe the following ideas should be considered:
A publically financed, national elections website which will be freely available to any candidate for public office -- from dog catcher to president -- and public interest campaigns with all the software appropriate to the conduct of elections.
Public financing of elections to level the playing field and allow those who don't have unlimited funds to finance them to run. Establishing very low limits for individual campaign contributions and only from voters in the voting district they would represent.
The ground rules for debates and TV coverage established to provide equal access for all qualified candidates. And much more....
If you care about freeing our country from the control of big money, instill this concept into your mind and have it ready for any conversation you might have. It is rock solid and based in the foundation of our country. Never let anyone argue that our goals are in any way un-American. It just ain't so. We stand for democracy. We stand for the rights of our citizens. We stand against their tyranny. We will not budge.
Do not grant the high ground claiming to stand for the American ideal or values or anything. They are wrong. They are lying and deceiving us to allow them to have the control. We won't stand for it any longer. We will not bend to anything the Tea Party people or the Heritage Foundation or even the Supreme Court says to the contrary.
The public is seething. Some people think the problem is big government. If you really look, you will see that the real problem is the corrupting control of government by big money interests, not government per se: Corporate America controls our government in ways that continue to allow their officers $ Millions in salaries and bonuses at the same time they sell us bogus financial instruments which deplete our retirement funds, force us into bankruptcy, and increase our health insurance costs while they figure out how to eliminate risk and refuse coverage in ways that are producing record profits. From right to left and from bottom to very near the top, we all know this and we’re fed up.
While concern over the power of huge corporations, unions or other organizations to control both the economy and government has been growing for years, it has reached a crescendo from both the right and left following the recent “Citizens United” Supreme Court decision unleashing a new flood of corporate funding which enables them to buy our representative and thus the entire process to a vastly greater degree than before. There is a growing sense on both the right and the left that it is not big government that should concern us, but rather the ability of corporate American to control our government in their own self interest and against the public interest.
There is a growing consensus that this Supreme Court decision must be reversed. Almost everyone who agrees is calling for a Constitutional Amendment to remedy the situation. Most of these voices also only address the one issue relating to the application of the principle of free speech to corporations. This is too narrow a proposed fix to solve the overall problem. When you fix the levy, you have to fix the whole thing.
We strongly disagree on both of these last points. The Constitution requires a long, expensive and difficult process to propose and approve amendments. The framers were wise to make this difficult in order to protect us from a short-term majority easily changing the foundations of our democracy, especially the Bill of Rights protections. However, this tedious process is not necessary in our current situation.
1) We believe the full remedy is possible through the much simpler process of legislation which requires only one majority vote by Congress and it’s a done deal. With the right understanding and political will, we could change the face of how governmental business is done in our country next week. Well, that might be a little optimistic, but…
2) We further believe that the full remedy must include a comprehensive redefinition of all aspects of free speech. Over a period of many years the concept of free speech has become distorted to the point that the intent of the First Amendment has virtually been reversed leaving the American public less free than perhaps at any time in our history. As is, corporations are protected; people are subjected. That’s not the way our founding fathers saw it, nor should we. In a democracy we have the power to change that. If we don’t, we have no one to blame but ourselves.
We will examine each of these distortions and propose the legislation we believe is necessary to fully guarantee the deepest meaning of free speech for our citizens which underlay the very foundations of our representative democracy. Anything less will necessarily leave the door open for the corrupting influence of big money to again virtually control our economy and government as it does now.
Contact us: WeDontHaveFreeSpeech@outlook.com
p.s. If
you want to read or share our complete introductory series and other blog posts
about this and other issues, see our Annotated Table of Contents below. Or if you have questions or comments,
email us.
Annotated Table of Contents
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/sign-the-pledge-big-out?source=c.em&r_by=14960502
Insist candidates vote for a single act of Congress
stating: “There is no relationship between speech and money stated or implied
in the US Constitution and therefore no such relationship exists” as the basis
of further reforms to limit the abuses of Big Money interests.
Best summary of the proposed “Recover our Democracy Act;”
its Constitutional basis; removing purported legal objections, public financing
of elections, limits on campaign contributions, public funding of federal
elections, preprogrammed campaign website, redefining a bribe and much more
Cut and paste text to share by electronic media to spread
the word on our plan
Our appointment being ignored while lobbyists immediately enter
our Congressman’s office
Being on the outside: Explaining the meaning of our logo…the
corrupting influence of Big Money
Political contributions, Citizens United Supreme Court
Decision, “We don’t
have free speech. We can’t afford it,” our
solution is an act of Congress,
“Backdoor money in politics, quid pro quo, “anything of material value
offered or given to, or received and accepted by any candidate, incumbent or
governmental employee under any circumstance shall be defined as a bribe,” penalties defined for candidates and government
employees.
Our early commentaries: Free speech is fundamental to
democracy, different views, uses and limitations of free speech, public
financing of elections, fair and balanced media coverage
Original free speech: freedom to speak our mind, power
to “buy” both the “content” and the “delivery” of “free” speech, "personhood" of corporations,
Supreme Court and Citizens United,
ownership of the media, points of view, political advertising, educational content,
bought speech,…
Trickle down economics, tax reductions, income disparity,
deregulation, power by changing belief systems, abuses, distortions and lies, is
it regulation or just bad regulation?, affording governmental programs and high
taxes, millennia of struggle by the rich to retain control vs. democracy,
85% of Democrats, 81% of Independents, and 76% of Republicans opposed
Citizens United
Humans speaking their mind
without fear, means of extending the reach of speech [meida], bought speech,
literally “free” speech decoupled from money, power of the media, corporate personhood,
limitations of free speech, campaigns and political speech, alternative communications
for elections: public financing, freedom of the Internet….
Figures on campaign
contributions given by largest lobbying corporations [6+ years old = pre Supepr
PACs]
One of our earliest posts:We don't have free speech
that has meaningful access to our own representatives. Our logo, our slogan, our chants, young adults, spreading
the word on the Internet, Obama’s election, making videos,
Largely unedited, free associated ideas on framing the legislation
Free public website designed
and formatted to conduct campaigns for office and public issues , FEC provided
bank account, and credit cards , campaign accounting system and
regulations, partial design specifications, real time public review access…
…the most logical
public space to allow the free flow of information on issues of public interest
“understanding the
power of corporations as a means of amassing power and money, the founding
fathers originally rejected the existence of corporations,” corporations
are not mentioned in the Constitution and have no protected rights; therefore,
Congress may limit or abolish corporations as deemed necessary for the public
good. Growth of corporate power, personhood of corporations and personal rights
attributed to corporations , theory of 14th amendment [due process]
applies to corporations,
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