CITIZENS UNITED IS WREAKING HAVOC ON OUR DEMOCRACY

Rochester, N.Y.-- The disastrous 2010 Supreme Court Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (FEC) decision is now bearing fruit in the form of union-busting. Ironically, “Citizens United” is the hypocritical name of a conservative advocacy group which receives corporate funding and works to promote increased rights for corporations by influencing public policy.

The Citizens United v. FEC case originally dealt with the question of whether or not airing Citizens United’s documentary about Hillary Clinton was an advocacy ad, and therefore subject to existing restrictions on election ads under the McCain-Feingold law.

Whether your passion is workplace rights, protecting the environment or creating green jobs or improving public education-- or really any other issue on which corporate interests are blocking real solutions-- this is your campaign too.

In an eye-popping act of judicial activism, the court decided to consider the much broader issue of corporate spending to influence elections, which wasn’t even presented in the original case. This is how anti-labor business puppet and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker got elected, along with many other GOP governors in 2010.

In the decision that stunned democracy advocates and trampled a number of campaign finance laws, a slim five-Justice majority ruled that corporations-- including for-profit corporations-- do indeed have a right to spend as much money as they want to elect or defeat candidates in our elections. This decision effectively grants corporations the same First Amendment Free Speech protections granted to real live people. The catch is that corporations obviously are not people, are they?

Democracy: use it or lose it

photo:  Ove Overmyer

One reason corporations have been able to hijack our democracy is that many of us haven’t engaged much in it ourselves lately. If we want policy makers who prioritize public good, healthy jobs, and a sustainable environment, we need to get involved, hold them accountable, and engage as active citizens every day-- not just on voting day.

Join up with your Unit or Local organization today. Join a committee which works on an issues you care about, host a community event to share information, write letters to your congresspeople and local newspapers to share your opinion. There are an infinite number of ways to get involved and once enough of us do, we can make our government function so that it really is by the people, for the people. Then, we can refocus on getting back to working for our local communities. To solve today’s pressing problems, we need a government working for us, instead of big business. And, what CSEA is basically looking for are partners in good government.

-Ove Overmyer