DISCLOSE Act
DISCLOSE Act
Take back our elections
Recently there was a voter registration drive on the Big Island, which was very successful (WHT). Supposedly, voting is a way of strengthening our democracy. However, special-interest money is flooding the 2012 elections and is threatening to drown out the voices of voters.
The reason for this is the conservative Supreme Court ruling of Citizens United 2010. Citizens United was a landmark Supreme Court case in which the court held that corporations were citizens and they could freely express themselves.
Chief Justice John Paul Stevens wrote a dissenting critique of the ruling. Stevens wrote that corporations were not citizens (which to most rational citizens is a no-brainer) and that giving them free speech (letting corporations spend as much as they liked in elections) “threatens to undermine the integrity of elected institutions across the nation. The path it has taken to reach its outcome will, I fear, do damage to this institution.” He wrote: “A democracy cannot function effectively when its constituent members believe laws are being bought and sold.”
Stevens and many other political commentators saw that this landmark ruling would cast a very dark shadow on voting and our democratic institutions. And we are seeing this now. Most state election races are losing their sovereignty. The rich are donating millions to super political action committees to defeat local candidates. We now have state-based elections being decided by outside interests (who paid for the 24/7 Lingle TV station)?
However, there are state-based initiatives calling for a constitutional amendment to affirm that corporations are not people and money is not speech and to take back our democracy and state sovereignty.
Now the movement has moved nationally, nine senators introduced the DISCLOSE Act of 2012, S. 3369, which would require corporations, unions and other groups (like super PACs) that spend more than $10,000 to disclose their political spending.
It was blocked this week by conservatives in the Senate; urge your senator to support the DISCLOSE Act.
Tlaloc Tokuda
Kailua-Kona
4th of July
Parade spoilers
We love a parade big or small, especially 4th of July, but all the campaigning politicians spoiled the Kailua-Kona parade.
The fireworks display was great.
Larry and Marcia Winn
Kailua-Kona