by Thomas Magstadt   

The question mark looming over America's future like an angry, darkening cloud is whether we can rescue this old Constitution from the depredations of time and judicial folly. To put a finer point on it, the ballot box being the foundation of every true republic, can we amend the nation's charter for the sake of protecting the sanctity of elections?

There are currently 27 amendments to the U.S. Constitution. There are all sorts of proposals floating around in the nimbus that hangs over Capitol Hill, some worth serious consideration, some idiotic. There is one, however, that is urgent.

We need an amendment clarifying 1) that only people are people; 2) that corporations and organizations are not persons within the meaning of the Constitution; 3) that the protections set down in the Bill of Rights do not, therefore, apply automatically to commercial enterprises; and, 4) that campaign contributions are not a form of "speech" but instead are subject to statutory law established by the people's elected representatives.

A recent article in Mother Jones* entitled "The Twenty Biggest Donors of the 2012 Election (So Far)" highlights the urgent need to adopt such an amendment. There are no limits as to what individuals can contribute as long as they launder the money through a PAC. It's perfectly legal. Don't expect anything to change until the absurd idea that corporations (and other organizations) are people and therefore fall under the broad protections of the 1st and 14th Amendments is dismantled. It will take an constitutional amendment to do it. We've done it 27 times in the past.

What can we do? Senator Bernie Sanders is seeking public support for his proposed "Saving American Democracy Amendment" aimed at overturning the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision. Over 178,000 citizens have signed a petition backing this amendment. Go to his website at http://sanders.senate.gov/petition.

The question is: Are we still capable of fixing anything, politically speaking, in this country? If not, this great experiment in representative government, so transformative yet flawed in its beginning, is doomed.

* http://motherjones.com/politics/2012/01/top-donors-2012-election-romney-obama-gingrich. Gavin Aronsen and Dave Gilson are the writers of record.