Citizens United is Making Us Sick
It’s been six years since the Supreme Court ruled 5–4 in favor of the landmark case Citizens United v. FEC, which peeled back all limits on corporations’ campaign spending and claimed these wildly unregulated expenditures as freedom of speech.
If you’re someone who believes in the right for your vote to count, a ruling like this is enough to make you sick. The increase in outside spending by corporations has been undeniable, huge, and is still growing. This year, Super PACs, political action committees which can accept unlimited amounts of money under the CU ruling to sway elections, have reported $412 million in spending to the FEC. And it’s only April. In 2012, this number capped out at $609 million. (Check out these charts that the Washington Post cranked out for more on how Citizens United has increased spending.) And while the numbers in unregulated campaign spending are soaring, the most troubling might be the increase in money given through nonprofits and some LLCs, called Dark Money, where disclosure of who is donating to them is not required. (Super PACs have to disclose anyone who gives more than $200.) In 2006, it was $5.2 million. In 2012, post ruling on Citizens United that number totaled $300 million. You feel a little sick, right?
But unfortunately that twinge in your stomach signifying the incredible injustice you feel about this unregulated shit storm of big donor spending isn’t the sickest you can get from big money.
Citizens United paves the way for corporations to control not only elections but legislation. Legislation that impacts our lives. And could impact the food that ends up on our table. Or our neighbor’s table or on that person’s table in Kansas, who we don’t know but we certainly don’t want to see harmed. As Big Ag, oil & gas, and free trade agendas are greased with money, we become increasingly vulnerable to legislation like the Dark Act that nearly passed the Senate last month. Legislation that would deny us the right to know what we are feeding our families. This act, coined Deny Americans the Right to Know by its detractors, would have made it difficult for states to regulate GMO labeling as well as continue the obscuring (and obscene) voluntary labeling practices via indirect methods such as 800 numbers and QR codes. The system right now is NOT set up for us to be informed and educated.
And it is not set up for us to eat and become healthier. Farm and food workers experience some of the worst working conditions under poverty pay; small, local food businesses face predatory competition from big giants; we, as consumers, lack information about what is in our food; and we face a system that subsidizes cheap and unhealthy food.
Our food system is not working. And Americans are not happy with it.
A recent poll discussed last week at the Consumer Federation of America’s National Food Policy Conference shows that sixty percent of us don’t like our food system in general, because those making our policy care more about profit than our health, we think, and are maintaining “subsidies that help keep junk food cheap and drive up health problems like obesity, diabetes and even cancer.” And we want to be educated. Polls show that ninety percent of Americans want their food labeled GMO/non GMO, and four million Americans have signed a petition asking the FDA to require it.
We also want the money that gets in the way of us being healthy out of elections too. A poll in June of 2015 showed that eighty four percent of Americans, regardless of their party affiliation, want money out of politics.
The public sentiment is clear. So why don’t we have the policies that reflect the consensus of our communities?
In a post Citizen’s United America, our voices have been overshadowed by legislation enabling those with money to increase their influence on who we elect to office and how we live our lives. The decision stands in the way of progress on all of the critical issues of our generation: food justice, income inequality, mass incarceration, guns, health care, and climate change. Our wellbeing is being sponsored by a system that is designed to make us sick, hold us back, and keep us quiet.
But this week, we are taking it back.
This week, people from around the country will be coming together across issues, communities, and party lines to demand equal representation and a fair democracy. It is expected to be the largest demonstration of non violent, direct action in this century, and it will represent the power of people over profits. CTZNWELL will be joining 60+ organizations and thousands of people from around the country at the U.S. Capitol to participate in a massive sit-in (and possibly arrest) to call on Congress to take immediate action against money in politics. As advocates for the wellbeing of all people, it is our belief that our practice must include participating politically through protest and resistance when our democracy is caring for the highest bidder rather than the people.
This is a critical moment for our country. One that is calling us to be bold, speak up, come together, and take action for what matters most. In the face of big obstacles like money in politics, we must take big risks. And that is exactly what we are doing.
For our nation’s health and the wellbeing of all people.
#peoplenotprofits #votewell #democracyspring
On Tuesday April 12th, CTZNWELL and community leaders will be reporting live from the protest to talk about how money influences politics and what we can do about it. Join in: bit.ly/votewell2
