Return Government to the People

As long as money is allowed to influence elections without limit, laws will be written to benefit those with money. The overwhelming majority of Americans do not have the ability to influence elections with anywhere near the effectiveness of a single large campaign donation. And so they are without a voice.

Our representatives must be made to answer to each of us equally, not based on how much we can contribute to their campaigns.

We are fortunate to have freedom of speech and expression in this country. But there are reasonable and defensible limits to that freedom. You cannot scream "fire!" in a crowded movie theater, unless there really is a fire. You cannot sit in front of a school handing out pornography. You can not invent and publish lies about someone. So we should add another: you cannot make unlimited expenditures to influence a political election.

Furthermore, Corporations should not be considered people. To do so is to grant them rights without responsibility. Unless someone finds a way for a corporation to serve jail time if they commit a crime, be drafted in a time of war, or show up for jury duty every two years, a company is clearly not a person. And where is the corporate "death penalty"?

To restrict corporate "speech" is not to infringe upon anyone's individual right to freedom of speech or expression. Every individual would still be free to speak and express as they wished. But the duplicate right that corporations enjoy would be removed. Since the Supreme Court astoundingly and obscenely ruled that corporations are people, it will take a constitutional amendment to change this.

Therfore, we demand an amendment to the constitution which does the following

(A) clarifies that the bill of rights applies to individuals, not to corporations, and;
(B) individual political contributions are limited to 1% of the previous year's median annual income, per election (about $500 in 2011)