People For the American Way Wants A Pledge-- And So Do The American People

A few weeks ago People For the American Way sent a letter to men and women running for Congress calling their attention to a fundamental, even existential, threat to our Democracy. The 5 right-wing corporate justices on the Supreme Court have basically upended the entire thrust of electoral fairness by unleashing a tidal wave of corrupt corporate cash into the electoral system. Americans of all political persuasions are unhappy about it but it's Congress that needs to act. Not as in "play act," but to do something about it. No one's talking about lining the 5 judges up and shooting them, but a Constitutional Amendment to prevent a corporate take-over-- not to mention a foreign big money take over-- of our fragile electoral system is what's called for. This is the simple, straightforward letter PFAW sent out:

Dear Candidate,
 
Early this year, the Supreme Court dealt a dangerous blow to our democracy. In Citizens United v. FEC, the Court overturned laws and its own precedent to confer free speech rights to corporations equal to those enjoyed by individuals. Under the ruling, neither Congress nor the states can restrain corporations from spending unlimited amounts of money from their corporate treasuries to directly support or attack candidates.
 
The threat posed by this ruling is difficult to overstate. For example, in 2008 Exxon Mobil Corporation reported profits of $45 billion. If this one company had devoted even two percent of those profits to the political process, it would have outspent both major presidential candidates combined. With so much money involved, Americans can't have confidence that elected officials will protect the public interest over corporate interests.
 
Several polls have documented nearly universal opposition to the Supreme Court's misinterpretation of the First Amendment granting corporations a constitutional right to flood our elections with corporate funds. Americans from across the political spectrum overwhelmingly want their lawmakers to reject Citizens United by enacting a new amendment to the Constitution. State and local governments have already begun drafting resolutions calling for a constitutional amendment to restore the ability of government to regulate corporate spending in our elections.
 
We ask you, along with every other candidate for Congress, to sign a pledge affirming your commitment to amending the Constitution to repair the damage done by Citizens United.
 
That pledge reads as follows:
 
Pledge to Protect America's Democracy:

The Supreme Court's flawed decision allowing corporations to spend unlimited amounts to influence election outcomes endangers our democracy and threatens to drown out the voices of individual citizens. I pledge to protect America from unlimited corporate spending on our elections by supporting a Constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court's decision giving corporations the same First Amendment rights as people.

Friday they announced that their initial outreach has been successful with dozens of candidates pledging their support. Thirteen candidates for the Senate and 35 running for the House have already signed on. “Americans are fed up with government that responds to corporate money, not the needs of ordinary Americans,” said Michael B. Keegan, president of People For the American Way. “The depth of feeling is palpable. We’ve already seen that candidates who want to serve their constituents have been eager to sign onto this campaign. More are signing on every day, and we’re confident that pace will only increase.”
 
Added Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen, the organization partnering with PFAW in the effort, “Corporations already rule the roost in Washington. Witness the oil industry’s free pass to drill offshore without adequate environmental scrutiny or the health insurance industry’s enormous influence over the outcome of the health care debate, to name just two of countless examples. The Supreme Court’s decision threatens to make a bad situation exponentially worse. We applaud candidates who stand up and say that this must be stopped.”

At PledgeForDemocracy.org, voters can use an interactive map to learn who has taken the pledge-- and who hasn’t. Here's the full list. You'll notice that among the more high-profile names are current and former Blue America endorsees like Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN), Roxanne Conlin (D-IA), Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD), Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL), Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Rep. John Hall (D-NY), Rep. Paul Hodes (D-NH), Justin Coussoule (D-OH), Bill Hedrick (D-CA), Fred Johnson (D-MI), Ann McLane Kuster (D-NH), Elaine Marshall (D-NC), and David Segal (D-RI). These are names you can count on to represent us in what Alan Grayson was talking about when he described us and them. And if you missed it, Friday afternoon, Ed Schultz and Justin Coussoule, one of the first to take the PFAW pledge, went after Washington's worst coin-operated political hack, John Boehner:

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