Summary
House Democrats, led by Rep. Pramila Jayapal, introduced the We the People Amendment to overturn Citizens United, aiming to curb corporate influence in elections.
The constitutional amendment asserts that constitutional rights apply only to individuals, not corporations, and mandates full disclosure of political contributions.
Jayapal cited Elon Musk’s massive campaign spending and subsequent financial gains as proof of the ruling’s harm.
Advocacy groups praised the move, calling it necessary to combat corporate power and dark money in politics, but Republicans have not backed the proposal.
Do not waste time talking about a non-starter.
You need 290 votes in the House, you have (at most) 215. You need 75 Republicans to flip.
If, miracle of miracle, that happens, it goes to the Senate where you need 60 votes to end a filibuster, you have (at best) 47. You need 13 Republicans breaking rank to end cloture + 7 more to pass it.
Then it goes to the states for ratification, you need 38. In 2024 19 states went to Harris which means you need all of them +19 Trump states.
Yeahhh…
The thing is, at the very least this forces the Republicans (and for that matter Democrats) to pick a side on the issue.
Citizens United is extremely unpopular with the Republican base, as it is with the Democrat base. If a Republican voter sees that their Congress person voted to maintain citizens United, they might be upset.
The GOP will just lie and blame everything on “radical leftists”. Which don’t really exist in the US.
Some will. But if 1% of the right see this and either become demotivated or change sides, that is enough to swing entire elections.
would have been more useful when you had any kind of power to get a bill passed, but thanks anyway i guess
Stow that shit. This is exactly what they need to be doing. They need to make the argument to the American people that they have better ideas and a better plan for America, and then create a voting record for Congress so they can beat them in the next election. Of course it won’t pass, but if they give up without even trying, then the Nazis can act like they are the only option.
This is one of the single biggest changes we can make to our current electoral system.
Should’ve done this in 2021. This could’ve changed the 2024 election entirely.
What did they do in 2021 instead?
Probably nothing else going on really. They’re just lazy and fat off corporate cash piles, obviously.
Nothing. That’s the problem. Democrats are so afraid to play an opposition party cause it will negatively affect party leadership and top donors. They want the status quo and are more than likely benefiting from the Trump regime in many ways.
Make no bones about it: top Democrats have been complacent with a hostile takeover of the US government because it is benefiting them.
Progressive Democrats and party newcomers are seeing this reality. They tried to play the game for a bit but got burned like Bernie did. Some democrats are finally growing a backbone to stand up against geriatric party leadership.
Democrats make an opposition move
This is because Dems won’t make an opposition move
That would have been useful and a great idea over a decade ago.
Now it’s just “let’s do this” and nothing will happen. Its too late.
Yeah even if they did actually repeal it, which they won’t, it’s really closing the stable door after the horse has bolted at this point IMO.
Because with the current administration, you can say it’s illegal to accept money from so-and-so, and they’ll just go “fuck you” and do it anyway and nobody will will stop them or bring consequences, so … yeah. This is kind of doing time, not talking time.
I mean… that was literally one of the things that Hillary ran on. So… your timeline checks out.
As we’ve seen though, a woman cannot win against a racist sexist nazi shitbag in the united states.
Don’t at me (as the young people say), I voted for the woman.
Only at the end to try and court Bernie supporters. Before that she was mostly silent and won the primary with corporate money.
Y’know what, I’ll bite. It’s been long enough I can’t definitively say whether it came up before or not.
But that’s a point though, she did move her policy to that of the ones that the Bernie supporters and they still snubbed her and we got Trump.
So in that we made sure the Left didn’t have a seat at the table because they didn’t bother to show up right after showing they had the numbers and ability to do so, and we got a billionaire man-baby who sucks up to other billionaires and fascist regimes. Good trade.
I say this as a Bernie voter, but my national vote was still for Hillary. Citizens United and the Supreme Court were on the line, I told other leftists it was on the line, I was told I was overreacting… so call me fucking Cassandra.
Seems like they realize repubs are winning the ‘get rich taking bribes’ game so hard it’s erasing America. Seems like it’s bad enough to alienate donors? Edit: a word
Pelosi also got rich taking bribes. Only socialists like Sanders and AOC actually fight for us
Do the people in these comment sections not grasp how Constitutional amendments work?
It requires two thirds of the Senate. Which Democrats have not had in the past half century.
That is why Democrats didn’t try it when they had a majority. Because it would not work.
People really just want an excuse to blame Democrats for everything.
It’s far more complicated than that to get an amendment passed including a route that doesn’t require Congress.
Second, there is value in trying things that will fail. It sends a signal to the citizenry that this isn’t acceptable. This can be a good just as much as it can damage their reputation. In my opinion, the Dems need to rebuild a reputation that is connected to the people in some meaningful way. I don’t get the sense that Democratic leadership see that as the core issue
We didn’t have 4/5 of state legislatures when we had Congress.
If they don’t get that it isn’t acceptable now, nothing is going to convince them.
I don’t get why failing even more would make the Democratic Party look good.
Doing something that resonates with your base and, frankly, most Americans, could help. I can’t help you beyond that.
Yeah, the sole reason they’re suggesting it now is because they know it’s too little too late. It will go nowhere and we all know this, them Dems will be like ‘oh but we tried!’ Fucking useless.
Instead of throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks, immediately get rid of the gerontocracy (Schumer, Pelosi), regroup, find a leader with some balls and declare open warfare on Republicans. It’s not like there isn’t any ammunition.
Exactly, the conservatives have spent the last 40 years gradually doing exactly this and the Democrats have spent the last 40 years denying that reality and laughing off the right wing, talk show type populists while they slowly took control of the GOP and the court system.
Yes. Suture up that corpse.
Yep, now that it’s far too late and the damage is done and they don’t have a majority.
Wouldn’t it be nice if they did shit like this when they were actually in power?
It would fail the vote either way, as a constitutional amendment requires a supermajority vote - and there has not been a supermajority in the Senate since 1979. Which was the last time the Democrats successfully put through an amendment, before anyone further complains they do nothing with power when they get it.
Depending on how jaded you are this is either a stunt, or the particular (left-leaning?) Democrats involved in tabling the legislation are trying to raise the issue their constituents have asked them to. Either way it’ll force the Republicans to show their hand and all vote against it.
Yeah it would have forced the republicans to show their hamd back when democrats did control most of the government too Maybe a bit more trying things that would ‘force the republicans to show their hand’ would have been useful when something actually could have been done about it. Everyone knows the republicans fucking hand now.
Everyone knew the Republicans ‘hands’ back before the federal election too - they haven’t suddenly switched their platform or policies. Nothing has changed. You make it sound like there was vaguery in the leadup?
Just a whole lotta rubes who voted for Republicans after listening to people like Joe Rogan and Elon Musk are finally having the penny drop that they’ve been conned.
Gosh, if only someone had told them once or twice in the last decade that Donald Trump is a multiple-convicted world famous conman and fraud. Damn Democrats!
So why do this now? Doing it back when they had power would have been a lot more meaningful. Or actually doing literally anything to improve peoples lives. But doing it now is just an entirely empty gesture to try to win back peoples support that they dont deserve in any way.
Oh gee, another Dem exercise in futility. What a bunch of feckless losers.
“Guys the system isn’t broken, just one more big tweak and it’ll be fine again, pinky promise.”
Good, but why the hell didn’t they do this when they had control of Congress?
No party has been anywhere near that level of “control” for a very long time.
OK, but trying would have let them know where the weak links are, where to put pressure in the future. Same goes for Dobbs. Even if they failed to secure a federal right to abortion in the legislature, having the voting record would have been a powerful tool to use against DINOs – “Shape up, or loose your funding”
That they never even tried means Democrats are just not interested in strategically working towards success.
Do this and keep doing it until it works. This isn’t a moonshot. It’s normal, sensible change. Everybody shut your fucking mouths with all this secondary “it isn’t going to work now” bitch energy. Get behind the shit you want, loudly.
