SOURCE: Persagen.com, 2020-09-10
This page last modified: 2023-09-18 21:16:09 -0700 (PST)
COMMENTARY (Persagen.com). Here I briefly collate and summarize some material relevant to dark money nonprofit influencers, and constitutional reforms that both attempt to loosen and tighten that influence.
The catalyst behind much of the modern campaign finance reform effort is the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. FEC - which overturned the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) of 2003, commonly known as McCain-Feingold.
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 310 [Supreme Court of the U.S., decided 2010-01-21], was a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States concerning campaign finance. The Court held that the free speech clause of the First Amendment prohibits the government from restricting independent expenditures for political communications by corporations, including nonprofit corporations, labor unions, and other associations.
... The ruling effectively freed labor unions and corporations to spend money on electioneering communications and to directly advocate for the election or defeat of candidates. In his dissenting opinion, Associate Justice John Paul Stevens argued that the Court's ruling represented "a rejection of the common sense of the American people, who have recognized a need to prevent corporations from undermining self government."
...The ruling had a major impact on campaign finance, allowing unlimited election spending by corporations and labor unions and fueling the rise of Super PACs. Later rulings by the Roberts Court, including McCutcheon v. FEC (2014), would strike down other campaign finance restrictions. Studies show that the Citizens United ruling boosted the electoral success of Republican candidates. ...
Wolf-PAC is an American nonpartisan political action committee formed in 2011 with the goal of adding an "amendment to the United States Constitution to ensure balance, integrity, and transparency to our national system of campaign finance." Wolf-PAC argues that Congress is too corrupted by big money and special interests to adequately address campaign finance reform, citing sources ranging from personal experience to a well known Princeton study. The organization works nationwide with state legislators using the state initiated convention procedure [Article V Convention to restore free and fair elections], seeking to propose an amendment to fix the influence that big money and special interests have over the American government.
The founder of Wolf-PAC, Cenk Uygur, is a co-founder of Justice Democrats. The highest priority of Justice Democrats is to effectively eliminate the role of money and conflicts of interests in politics. In addition, Justice Democrats advocates for the reinstatement of provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and a ban on gerrymandering for partisan gain. Several members have voiced support for a constitutional amendment aimed at removing money from American politics.
Common Cause is a "watchdog" group that opposes and actively lobbies against modern-day efforts to call a Article V Convention to propose amendments to the United States Constitution by both progressive and conservative groups; e.g.:
the progressive political action committee Wolf-PAC to limit large monetary donations to political candidates parties and groups; and
the conservative advocacy group Citizens for Self-Governance's Convention of the States, initiative, which is backed by some Republican politicians and attempts neoliberal constitutional reform.
For a more detailed account of how Common Cause thwarts Wolf-PACs efforts, see "Runaway convention" theory, ongoing conflict with DNC and Common Cause.
A convention to propose amendments to the United States Constitution, also called an Article V Convention or "amendments convention" - called for by two-thirds of the state legislatures - is one of two processes authorized by Article Five of the United States Constitution whereby the United States Constitution may be altered. Amendments may also be proposed by the Congress with a two-thirds vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
To become part of the Constitution, an amendment must be ratified by either - as determined by Congress - the legislatures of three-fourths of the states, or state ratifying conventions in three-fourths of the states. Thirty-three amendments to the United States Constitution have been approved by Congress and sent to the states for ratification. Twenty-seven of these amendments have been ratified and are now part of the Constitution. As of 2020, the amendment convention process has never been used for proposing constitutional amendments.
In recent years, some advocates have argued that state governments should call for such a convention. In 2015, Citizens for Self-Governance (CSG) launched a nationwide effort to call an Article V Convention - through a project called Convention of the States - in a bid to rein in the federal government.
As of 2019, CSG's resolution has passed in 15 states.
Similarly, the group Wolf-PAC chose this method to promote its cause, which is to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. FEC. Their resolution has passed in five states.
In 2015 Citizens for Self-Governance (CSG) launched a nationwide effort to call an Article V Convention, through a project called Convention of States, in a bid to rein in the federal government.
The President of Citizens for Self-Governance is Eric O'Keefe, who helped manage neoliberal billionaire David Koch's 1980 bid for the White House. The Convention of States project launched in 2015 with a high-dollar donation (2014: $500,000) from the Mercer Family Foundation. Billionaire hedge fund manager and Republican Party patron Robert Mercer is the principal benefactor of Donald Trump's "Make America Number 1" super PAC, and a major funder of organizations supporting right-wing political causes in the United States such as Steve Bannon's "Breitbart News" disinformation organization.
The Convention of States movement has also received support from the DonorsTrust fund.
Mark Meckler - the President of Citizens for Self-Governance, and the Convention of States - was a co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots.
Jim DeMint, a past-President of The Heritage Foundation, became a senior advisor to Citizens for Self-Governance in June 2017. According to DeMint,
"The Tea Party needs a new mission. They realize that all the work they did in 2010 has not resulted in all the things they hoped for. Many of them are turning to Article V."
Aside. In early 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Citizens for Self-Governance adopted a new focus: "reopen movements" [COVID-19 protests in the United States] with a goal of limiting the federal government's abilities to force precautionary health and safety precautions. CSG operates an online campaign called "Open the States," which collects donations and helps protesters organize.
Opponents of Citizens for Self-Governance's efforts to call a convention to propose amendments to the United States Constitution include conservative groups the John Birch Society and the Eagle Forum as well as George Soros.
Liberal advocacy group Common Cause has been a vocal opponent of the CSG's Convention of the States
"There is nothing to prevent the convention, once convened, from proposing additional changes that could limit or eliminate fundamental rights or upend our entire system of government."
Cumulatively, the summaries above - supported by other information curated on Persagen.com - support a disturbing conclusion that various groups [Common Cause | Citizens for Self-Governance | Citizens United | ...] and individuals [chiefly but not limited to Charles Koch] are pushing a neoliberal agenda to preserve the status quo, i.e. dark money influence on U.S. politics and policies enabled by Citizens United v. FEC - exemplified by Charles Koch's five-decade effort to privatize the U.S. Postal Service.
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