New animated video tells "Story of Citizens United," makes case for constitutional amendment
Corporations aren’t people and shouldn’t be able to buy elections.
If you agree, you’ll love “The Story of Citizens United v. FEC,” a new 8-minute animated short by Annie Leonard, of The Story of Stuff fame.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling that gave corporations the green light to spend unlimited amounts of money to sway elections, we have seen corporations pour enormous sums into elections — and winning them.
In the video, Leonard explains the ruling, its fallout and why we need to overturn it with a constitutional amendment.
Getting corporations out of our democracy is critical to making progress on a huge range of issues that we Americans care about, from good jobs to clean air to safe products. Unless we act, those concerns will take even more of a backseat to the concerns of Walmart, Exxon and Dow than they do now.
Added Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen and content adviser on the movie,
A year after the Supreme Court’s abominable Citizens United decision, we have overwhelming evidence of the damage done to our democracy — and clear signals of worse threats to come. In the 2010 elections, corporations and the super rich funneled a reported $300 million through so-called ‘independent’ organizations to run attack ads and advance corporate agendas. And 2010 was just practice for 2012. If we are going to rescue democracy and re-establish the principle that corporations shouldn’t be able to buy elections, we must have a constitutional amendment to overturn the heinous Citizens United decision.
So check it out and leave a comment on YouTube. Then sign a petition for a constitutional amendment to overturn the decision. Then throw a house party or tell all your friends.
Our democracy hangs in the balance.