‘We Must Overturn Citizens United,’ Says Sanders as Analysis Details Billionaire Takeover of US Politics

https://www.commondreams.org/news/billionaires-us-democracy

44 comments

  1. With the current roster of extremists on the bench, we’re much more likely to get a ruling that *only* money is protected speech.

  2. Fuck billionaires. By nature being a billionaire means you’re a massive POS

  3. I can think of someone who had an even more succinct solution to the billionaire takeover of US politics

  4. Overturning Citizens United is often cited as a key step towards campaign finance reform. It’s a hugely important topic.

  5. First thing should be removing the power of judicial review from the supreme court, Yes naysayers I know you believe the “Constitution intended them to have that power”.

    My response to that? If the Constitution intended the Supremes to have that power it would’ve been written clearly like most other things, It wasn’t so they don’t actually have the Constitutional power they claim.

  6. I’ve been following politics since the 1980s, and I have to remind younger voters that it wasn’t always like this. Sure, there have always been ultra-wealthy people who bribed politicians, but because it used to be illegal, it happened much less often. There was a real fear on the part of both the briber and bribee that if the payoff was discovered, they could go to prison over it.

    But nowadays, billionaires flaunt their politicians like their Maybachs, luxury homes and designer pets. I wish we could go back to the old days where we’d see people being perp-walked over shit like this.

  7. Can foreign companies donate to American political campaigns? What if it’s an American company but all of the shareholders are foreign? Whose “free speech” is Citizens United protecting? If corporations are people can we start holding them accountable in the same ways people are?

  8. 100% when we look back and try to find the match that lit all of this you could argue that it was citizens united.

  9. Now we are talking. It’s probably much to late and should have never passed to begin with, but this would be step 1 for putting the pieces back together

  11. Getting Citizens United overturned would be one of the few single actions we could take as a country that would have a disproportionately positive affect.

    We are all guaranteed an equal right to free speech in this country, but when money is considered a form of speech, this disenfranchises the average person and gives the wealthy an unfair advantage. They literally have more free speech than another citizen. It’s like the rich are given bull horns to shout their demands at the government and the rest of us can only whisper.

    I think there is a strong argument that the decline of the United States over the last two decades can be directly attributed to Citizens United.

  12. Number 1 root cause of everything right now … politicians can be legally bought / flip the day after you swear them in

    And I want to double down and have Senate terms down to 3 years and SCOTUS max 6 years … just in fucking case we need to vote these scumbags out earlier

  13. Yeah, good luck with that. The corrupt, bought and paid for hacks on the bench aren’t going to rule against their masters.

  14. And reverse U.S. vs Trump. Nothing else matters until these are done.

  17. BETTER YET let’s take this time to realize all the pitfalls of our government not just now, but what it was that got use here. We need to get ALL money out of politics, create a system of debates, televised paid for by the networks with a tax break, with rules and monitors so candidates have to strictly adhere to and have to attend mandatory. Only small donations from individuals allowed, put the government back in the people’s hands. Then shore up the guidelines of who can run. Judges will no longer have lifetime appointments and will be appointed by a panel of retired judges. On the state level the panel from new Mexico would set the bench for PA. For example, the supreme court would be picked by a lottery of 13 judges…example only, no more politicians dirty works, ethics in government with teeth

  18. Citizens United officially put American politicians on the market. It needs to be undone and we have to rethink how we finance campaigns.

  19. Have we figured out yet that both the democrats and the republicans need the billionaires to fund their campaigns and that is why most of them voted to condemn ‘socialism’ because they have to protect their giant piles of money.

  21. One of the most distructive rulings in our history, and one that is contrary to 100 years of precedent.

    The Roberts Court will go down in history as one of the worst, if not the worst, Supreme Court this country has had.

  22. Citizens United is good to overturn, but it’s Buckley v. Valeo that should be revisited. That is the case that equated money with political speech, as opposed to how Justice White characterized it: something adjacent to speech. Money in politics receives the most robust First Amendment protections only because of this false equivalency.

  25. lol. True. Yet somehow so far down my list of priorities

  26. It’s been top of my Christmas list since Jan 22, 2010.

  28. At this point we don’t just need to get rid of citizens united, we need to seize and dismantle the wealth and power that billionaires are using against us.

  29. I like that thumbnail picture of Miriam Adelson. She looks like she watched Balls of Fury and said yes to Christopher Walken’s outfit, but make it albino and give me the haircut of an warlord in some corpo-dystopian 70s movie

  30. As a Dallas Mavericks fan who has boycotted the team since the Luka trade: FUCK THE ADELSON’S AND SELL THE TEAM.

  31. As a Dallas Mavericks fan that has boycotted the organization ever since the Luka trade: Fuck the Adelson’s and sell the team.

  33. What ever happened to that lawsuit against citizens united? Something about states rights and it being for corporations?

  34. I’ve been saying this for years search my comments

  36. spare some change please?…change? got any change?

  37. It’s up to Congress to fix. There is no case brought before the Supreme Court that can provide a basis to overturn the free speech argument.

  39. Not just end CU. We need to end all donations. Elections need to be publicly funded.

  40. Should never have been approved by SCOTUS. Still don’t see what it has to do with the first amendment. What a self serving stretch that was.

  41. End tax deductions for all political donations. that can be passed by a 51 vote majority in the Senate because it is a tax and funding measure and not policy based legislation.

  43. As a non-American looking in, this is absolutely crucial. Citizens United completely corrupts the electoral process and turns it into a circus spectacle for voters and an inevitable selling of souls for candidates.

  44. What if all party and campaign contributions required an equal amount to be paid in taxes for education, housing and healthcare? Folks who can afford wasting 50 dollars on political party fundraising could most likely afford 100 dollars total. Those who can afford to give billions to politics would then have to support us directly.

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