A government “of, by and for the people” is the most basic promise of American democracy ─
but, in 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling eroded this promise by deciding it is unconstitutional to limit the amount of money that corporations and trade unions can spend to tell people to elect or defeat specific candidates.

By Rob Schofield

cross posted from Progressive Pulse

Momentum is growing.

-The number of states (Hawaii and New Mexico) which have passed resolutions calling on Congress to overturn Citizens United.  2

-The number of Citizens United resolutions pending in other states.  17

-The number of local government resolutions passed across the country. More than 147

-The number of local government resolutions passed in Vermont alone.  64

Citizens United Amendment Campaign

This is a great piece by this American Life, Take the Money and Run for Office disecting the non-stop money wheel in D.C.

After coming one vote shy of passing the campaign finance reform bill in 2010, Democratic senators are giving it another shot. They rolled out a simpler version of the legislation Wednesday that aims to shed more light on who's giving big bucks to super PACs to influence elections.

GOP presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney and the political action committee backing him have outspent the three other candidates combined, according to news reports.

A great article from the Charlotte Observer about how to hold Super PACs accountable for their wacko ads. 

--Besides being incredibly insensitive, the ad against state Rep. Hugh Holliman in his last election was a flat-out lie.

Leader Pelosi was on Colbert last night: "I think that if want to cancel elections and have the wealthiest people of America...give millions, tens of millions of dollars, we can just ask them who do they want to be president, who do they want to be in Congress, who do they want for governor." She was on Maddow too, talking about the need for reform. 

This PSA was developed for the LWV by Discovery Communications as part of Creating Change program.

By: Dr. Sally Goerner, Director
The Integral Science Institute

cross posted from Progressive Pulse