Democrats Vow to Amend the Constitution "If Necessary" to Overturn Citizens United

The U.S. Supreme Court gets only two shout-outs in the 2012 Democratic National Platform, and you will probably not be surprised to hear that one of them involves demagoguing the Court's free speech ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission. As the platform puts it:

Our political system is under assault by those who believe that special interests should be able to buy whatever they want in our society, including our government. Our opponents have applauded the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United and welcomed the new flow of special interest money with open arms. In stark contrast, we believe we must take immediate action to curb the influence of lobbyists and special interests on our political institutions….

We support campaign finance reform, by constitutional amendment if necessary.

I'm sure the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed a friend of the court brief in Citizens United urging the Supreme Court to protect the free speech rights of corporations and unions, is just ticked to have its principled defense of the First Amendment caricatured by the DNC.

Comments

[The Hammer]

At least they're acknowledging that the Constitution exists. That's progress.

[Brutus]

Like I acknowldge that toilet paper exists.

[LTC(ret) John]

They will destroy the Constitution in order to save it.

[Brutus]

I've already seen one run at CU with an amendment that was truly horrifying in its scope. It said, in a nutshell, that Constitutional rights only applied to individuals, not businesses. Think about that for a moment and ponder the implications.

[DRM]

Horrifying? How else are we going to finally shut down the New York Times?

[The Late P Brooks]

Our political system is under assault by those who believe that special interests should be able to buy whatever they want in our society, including our government.

It's a well known fact; each dollar spent on behalf of a political candidate is counted as a vote in the ballot box. He who spends the most money wins!

[Generic Stranger]

So THAT'S how Obama beat McCain!

[Auric Demonocles]

Obviously Obama money isn't special interest. He's for the people, therefore any of his spending is general interest. Therefore it's allowed. QED

[cw]

Special interests?

You mean like public employee unions, seniors, some big corporations and other parochial interests Democrats pander to?

I guess those are the "special" kind of special groups.

[Joe R.]

Democrats presumably see that sentence and think that "special interests" is the evil problem, whereas the real source of all evil in that sentence is in the very first word.

[Episiarch]

Man, TEAM BLUE really, really wants to die on this particular hill. It's amazingly stupid.

[Tulpa Doom]

It's an electoral winner, especially among the center-wing extremists.

[Cytotoxic]

Not this year. Nobody cares this year. This will become their Roe vs Wade. Something that they actually get a lot of sympathy for at first and then alienate the country with obsession and extremism.

[cw]

I don't know. Some pearl-clutching group got an anti-Citizens-United CI on the Montana ballot. And Montana is no deep blue state.

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

They forget that a Con-Amend, unlike the electoral college, does not apportion votes according to population. One state, one vote. And you've got to convince 3/4 of them to ratify.

[RBS]

Somehow I doubt they actually read that part.

[Tulpa Doom]

In stark contrast, we believe we must take immediate action to curb the influence of lobbyists and special interests on our political institutions

If it was someone associated with the BO administration in any way who wrote this, it's amazing they were able to finish without dying of laughter.

[Brutus]

They mean the bad lobbyists, TD, not the good ones that give them money.

[cw]

Cognitive dissonance is strong with the American electorate. Hell, in every democracy.

[Lyle]

Let the jackasses just try this.

[silent v]

Our political system is under assault by those who believe that special interests should be able to buy whatever they want in our society, including our government. And we should know, we sold it to them.

FTFT

[califernian]

Our political system is under assault by those who believe that non-union special interests should also be able to buy whatever they want in our society, including our government

FTFY

[Joe R.]

Our political system is under assault by those who believe that special interests should be able to buy whatever they want in our society, including our government. Now, send us money so we can win this election.

FTFY

[Sevo]

"Our political system is under assault by those who believe that special interests should be able to buy whatever they want in our society,"

Damn that mirror!

[califernian]

To be fair, this is a bunch of hot air akin to the GOP abortion plank.

The LAST people on earth who want to limit campaign contributions are the members of the USA ruling party. WTF. Who could possibly take this position seriously coming from them?

[cw]

They don't. This is just the usual, meaningless charade that, for whatever reason, seems to work on certain voters.