David Sweet: Campaign finance ruling is a call to action
On Jan. 21 the "conservative" majority on the U.S. Supreme Court found for the plaintiff in Citizens United v. Federal Electoral Commission, arguing that legislation to limit the influence of corporations on politics and that of trade unions and nonprofits as well violates their freedom of speech. That ruling frees American corporations from most campaign finance reforms, and from efforts to restrict the influence of lobbyists.
It was a bad day for California, for our county, and for American democracy as a whole. The corporate stranglehold on electoral politics, and through that on most legislation in Washington and Sacramento, has already made the "will of the people" a mockery; and this seems at first glance to make that situation permanent.
Or maybe it will turn out to have been a good day for us all. Maybe it will make responsible citizens, people who love our country and still believe in government "of the people, by the people and for the people," mad enough to move decisively at last toward getting the money out of politics altogether.
Ever since the Civil War, American politics have been a contest between a broad, bold and resourceful but poorly coordinated movement for democracy and human rights, and a narrow but purposeful, unrelenting movement for the expansion of corporate power.
The people's movement has generally been short of cash and lacked a common platform, but it has struck many a solid blow for freedom nevertheless. That's what gave us the eight-hour day, paid vacations, women's suffrage, restrictions on child labor, Social Security, civil rights, disabled rights and much more. It's what is going to give us universal health care some day, and marriage equality, and a fair deal for immigrants.
The corporate movement, always well-heeled, well-focused and in control of the media, has honed deceptive propaganda to a fine art and usually comes out on top. Nowhere does money talk louder than in American politics; and the Supreme Court majority intends to keep it that way.
But it need not, if we citizens start taking campaign finance seriously, as the Achilles heel of democracy that it is, and if independent journalists track its tawdry shenanigans closely enough to keep us informed about the real sources of the on-going corruption of our politics. There's lots that ordinary citizens can do.
One major beef is with the peculiar twist Americans have given to the idea of "corporate personhood." Corporations are "persons" everywhere, for strictly limited purposes of judicial process. Only here, however, can they claim the civil rights of natural persons. So a movement now underway would amend the federal Constitution to limit those rights to actual people. But compelling as that may be over the long run, it won't solve the corruption problem any time soon.
The California Clean Money Campaign works to bring about the public financing of statewide elections already achieved, in part, in eight other states. In June we'll vote on their Proposition 15, the California Fair Elections Act, a pilot program to provide public financing for Secretary of State races in 2014 and 2018.
But the most practical and immediate opportunity for citizens of this county to help get the money out of politics, is to "just say no" to the squandering of scarce resources on the usual disinformative round of commercials, "hit piece" mailings and yard signs in the local elections coming up this summer and fall.
We voters should get our information about issues and candidates from open public forums provided by newspapers and radio or television stations. We should hear our candidates at public meetings, confront them with the issues that concern us, and decide on that basis whether we trust them to serve us well in public office. With a bit of good will on all sides, that entire process can be carried out for free.
Local community activist David Sweet taught Latin American and world history at UC Santa Cruz for 30 years. These days he writes a monthly column for the Sentinel, works with the Community Action Board, and produces a monthly human rights program for Santa Cruz Community TV.
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