As the holiday season blooms in full force, we're enjoying some of our favorite holiday songs and stories, as we hope you are. Something we've noticed in past years, however, struck a chord with us today, as we were scanning the recent political news.
In many of those traditional holiday tales - from Hans Christian Anderson's Little Match Girl to Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol - the theme, whether good or bad, is how things are now and how they might be, if only the protagonist acted differently. Strangely, Americans are facing a similar choice themselves when it comes to the problem of money in American politics. The difference is that the horrors we're all seeing as the 2012 races approach aren't just the ghosts of future elections - they're a terror that's already here, and getting worse.
Just yesterday, a federal appeals court in Wisconsin followed the misguided lead of the U.S. Supreme Court in their Citizens United decision last year, striking down a state law limiting how much any one person can donate to independent political action groups. With decisions like these, wealthy individuals, political lobbying groups, and corporations have effectively reduced elected officials of either major political party to little more than pets on leashes.
Even as the winter of our political discontent continues to grow less hospitable to good government, an independent U.S. Senator and a Democratic member of the U.S. House may have begun to bring light to legitimate campaign finance reform.
In case you missed it last Friday, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont introduced an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to help shrink the influence of money in politics. If you think we've made mention of similar proposals earlier this year, we have. There were no less than five similar measures proposed in 2011, though most of them have loopholes Santa can drive a sleigh through. This one is different.
The Sanders amendment in the Senate is the identical twin to an amendment proposed by Florida Representative Ted Deutsch in the U.S. House. The amendment plainly and clearly states that the Constitution ONLY fully protects and outlines the rights of "natural persons" - real-life, flesh and blood human beings. No corporations. No unions. No amorphous outside political groups that can take as much money as they want, without disclosing clearly where that money came from. Those groups have severe limitations under this amendment, different from natural persons - because outside groups, unions, and especially corporations are not people.
We're well aware a constitutional amendment as proposed by Sanders and Deutsch is an incredibly small light in the darkness, a massive challenge to pass at any rate, let alone quickly.
That said, any number of great American leaders, from Thomas Jefferson to Abraham Lincoln, to even our most recent leaders, have faced off with big banks and corporations. These groups have attempted to control far too much for the benefit of far too few, leaving most of us to shiver in the cold. Still - some of our leaders have attempted campaign finance reform. Some have even been successful for a short time.
Just as Scrooge questioned whether the terrifying future he was confronted with was what he truly had to live with, so too our future doesn't have to be one where only those with the most money have freedom.
Do we shiver in the alley, looking on as the fat cats treat our politicians like their pets? Or do we follow the lead of those like Sanders and Detusch, who reach out to help us, even at their own peril?
The choice is still ours. Let's hope we all make the best decision in 2012.
