(Article changed on April 12, 2014 at 11:22)
We've gotten multiple mail solicitations from different sources in the last couple days for some petition calling for "comprehensive" campaign finance reform OR a constitutional amendment to "reverse" McCutcheon, with the emphasis on the former. The problem is that the Supreme Court has made itself perfectly clear. Any attempt to undo what they are doing, and they will strike DOWN your comprehensive campaign finance reform just as comprehensively.
We have determined that the source of all this is in large part the DCCC (though individual members of Congress are also sponsoring it). And we are glad the DCCC is now at least giving lip service to the idea of constitutional amendments. But the idea that ordinary legislation is a viable alternative that might avail anything is just a silly waste of time and energy, at best a distraction, and at worst a dangerous delusion. And THAT is the message we must now send with this new action page to keep this movement on track.
ONLY A Constitutional Amendment Can Stop McCutcheon Action Page:
http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum1172.php
If you don't believe us, listen to Reince Priebus, chairman of the RNC. Ya know what he said about the McCutcheon decision that just came down? He called it a good "start," that's right, a good START.
Chief Justice Roberts has made his position perfectly plain. In his view money IS political speech . . . period . . . and therefore ultimately cannot be constitutionally regulated in any way. And nothing in his McCutcheon decision represents any binding promise that he won't turn around tomorrow and strike down even the individual candidate contribution limit next, to be consistent with the LINE of decisions he is in the process of building.
Indeed, one of the main cases relied on in McCutcheon was the Arizona Free Enterprise Club v. Bennett case from 2011, which struck down a perfectly good public campaign finance statute in the state of Arizona. Ya wanna try to pass one anything like that today? Roberts will laugh you out of the Supreme Court, and he's already now built enough of the chain of precedents to do it.
Short of someone handing a member of Congress a bag of money on video, and having them speak directly into the camera, "I swear under penalty of perjury that I am taking this money in exchange for a particular vote on a particular measure," there is no way for anyone to get in trouble for corruption in the world of Roberts' active premeditated design.
No . . . there is one and only one thing for us to do, and we're doing it, throw EVERYTHING we have behind a constitutional amendment NOW.
You REALLY need to also call your members of Congress on the phone and give them this same message. Forget all about trying legislate this. Even if it something passes, it's just a lost cause, with a couple more lost years, while at the same time giving this rogue Supreme Court majority an OPPORTUNITY case to go even further down their predetermined road. We have absolutely no choice but to replace any members of Congress who are not 100% behind the constitutional amendment movement, and full cosponsors of one of the proposals already on the table to evidence their commitment.
Sure you can make regular phone calls. But if you use the new People Lobby interface we have created for you, you can increase your impact by making a public record of what your members of Congress say in response.
Constitutional Amendment ONLY on the People Lobby: http://www.peoplelobby.org
And lastly we want to thank the more than 500 of our participants who have already contributed what they could to get us started on production of Citizens United, The Movie, which will dramatize all these truths and more. If all you have seen was our original demo with the stand-in voiceover, please go back there check out the progress we have already made, with professional voiceovers now on that, and a new opening title sequence almost done as well.
Forwarding Link to Kickstarter: http://www.peaceteam.net/share.php
We still have 2 weeks to run till the Kickstarter cutoff, and if people continue to support our work, we might have a large part of this project funded in the this first round.
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