GRITtv: Lisa Graves: Put Corporations in Their Place

In the recent Citizens United case, the Supreme Court struck down critically important laws regulating corporate influence on elections and public policy. We oppose this radical decision by these five unelected men to rewrite the First Amendment and give corporations the inalienable free speech rights of human beings. Huge corporations like Goldman Sachs and AIG will be able to use their enormous wealth to run campaigns against any person who might oppose their agenda. The corruption of lawmaking we've already seen by the big insurance companies, the big banks, and the big oil companies show that this decision will make things worse in our democracy. It's wrong to give corporations the same rights as people. A corporation isn't really a person. We cannot sit on the sidelines and let this decision ruin our democracy. The Constitution is our national charter and belongs to us. Given the gridlock in Washington, I don't think any good legislation fixing this can pass the Senate. The only way to restore the primacy of the people is to amend the Constitution. We should protect the sacred rights of human beings to freedom of speech. We need to make clear that money isn't the same as speech, in order to ensure fair elections. And, we have to put corporations back in their place. It?s hard work but we've got to start somewhere. -- Lisa Graves is the publisher of SourceWatch.org, which writes the history of the people, companies and front groups trying to shape public policy.