Deutch amendment to overturn Citizens United introduced, Report on grassroots organizing parties for January 21 Day of Action

Written by Ben Moran, Intern, Democracy Is For People Campaign.

This is an exciting time here at the Democracy Is For People Campaign! Congress is responding to a groundswell of support for an amendment to rein in corporate influence over our democracy.  U.S. Sen. Tom Udall’s (D-N.M.) constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United v Federal Election Commission ruling has continued to gain co-sponsors, while several members of the House of Representatives also have introduced amendments.

Friday, U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) introduced an amendment that would go even further.  Public Citizen President Rob Weissman commented, “We herald the Deutch amendment and applaud the efforts in Congress to seriously address this issue at the crux of challenges to our democracy. Rep. Deutch’s amendment would clarify that constitutional rights are intended for real, live, breathing human beings. It would end corporate spending on elections. And it would give Congress authority to adopt a sensible campaign finance system. It would make America stronger, more democratic and more just.”

Reports from the Grassroots. We are getting closer to the January 21 National Day of Action, and the organizing parties held last week to plan for it went extremely well! This past week we have been receiving more and more encouraging reports from event hosts. They have been coming up with some great plans for the January 21 Day of Action to call out corporations for posing as human beings, and being ‘citizen impersonators’ and ‘imposters’ in our democracy. Democracy is for people, and as house-party host Laura from Pennsylvania remarked, “If corporations are people, they should be able to produce a birth certificate and show us their belly buttons.”

Many hosts responded with excellent reviews of their gatherings! Eric Miller in Washington, D.C., wrote in that, “We had a very nice meeting here at American University in D.C. …  everyone was very engaged and ready to take further steps.” Bill from California told us, “We had a great event here in little Ojai, CA.” Laura’s party in Colorado had a huge number of guests, “We had 50 participants who were all engaged and actively participating.” Dorothy in Washington state said, “Mine was a raging success.” People are ready to stand up for our democracy and protect it from corporate interests. Some already are working on local resolutions calling for an amendment.

It’s imperative that we keep the momentum going. November’s organizing parties were a great way to continue building a groundswell of public support, matching the overwhelming public opposition to Citizens United. The question is how to direct the support toward getting an amendment passed? We are certain that continuing our efforts to coordinate with activists, organizing protests and planning our next round of parties will lead to more public pressure to get the Supreme Court’s decision overturned.

Stay tuned, we will be having another series of organizing parties with another guest speaker on Thursday, December 15.