this post was submitted on 14 Feb 2025
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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.

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[–] RufusFirefly@lemmy.world 39 points 6 days ago (2 children)

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.

immediately get rid of the gerontocracy (Schumer, Pelosi), regroup, find a leader with some balls and declare open warfare on Republicans.

to be fair, this is probably exactly what republicans want to be able to pull the entire curtain down.

[–] Bosht@lemmy.world 29 points 6 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] TheKMAP@lemmynsfw.com 1 points 6 days ago

Read the article.

[–] andxz@lemmy.world 21 points 6 days ago

Way too little, way too late.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 26 points 6 days ago (2 children)

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.

[–] CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml 6 points 6 days ago

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.

[–] Azal@pawb.social 1 points 6 days ago (2 children)

I mean... that was literally one of the things that Hillary ran on. So... your timeline checks out.

[–] glitchdx@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Azal@pawb.social 1 points 6 days ago

Pretty much. I just always like to point these things out as there's a nice bit of revisionism amongst the left on "We want this, why didn't the dems give it to us" while people don't show up and vote for them, then cry they didn't show up because "Dems are as bad as republicans." Which frankly is as bad as the right on their revisionism.

The 16 election was an attempt to take down Citizens United as well as bring up the Trans Pacific Partnership. The TPP was specifically trying to get the other Asian countries to lock out China in trade to reduce its power. But the right wingers thought "No we want to be hard on China" pulled out of it, and basically left China to look at all the other Asian countries who didn't have a partnership with the US and bring them to heel.

Citizens United came about in 2010, during the Obama administration, and specifically that same year Republicans had gained majority in the House, creating a divided congress that meant no laws could get through, especially an anti-Citizens United bill. An executive order isn't going to fix this one.

The Left falls into the same fallacy as the Right, they want a strong leader who can "solve all the problems." Problem is the Right is really good at it because it's really their authoritarian style. The part that pisses me off is the Right is also really good at showing up at the polls when they matter even if they hate the candidate, as long as it moves the needle one step over to their side while the Left keeps having a lot of voters be all or nothing.

[–] GroundedGator@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Only at the end to try and court Bernie supporters. Before that she was mostly silent and won the primary with corporate money.

[–] Azal@pawb.social 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] GroundedGator@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

I was a Bernie and Hillary voter as well. I also failed to convince a number of other Bernie voters that they had to support Hillary.

She held too far center for too long and a lot of Bernie voters didn't trust her or the party. Hell, even when she announced a push for an amendment in her first 30 days I didn't buy it would happen but I also knew we needed to keep Trump out.

Really I still didn't trust the party. I still don't think we have enough progressives and will still do what we need to keep corporate donors happy above the voting public.

Money is speech and it has the loudest platform.

[–] Freefall@lemmy.world 12 points 6 days ago

To late, but DO IT!!

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 20 points 6 days ago (5 children)

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...

[–] Anti_Face_Weapon@lemmy.world 13 points 6 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Jumpingspiderman@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

The GOP will just lie and blame everything on "radical leftists". Which don't really exist in the US.

[–] Anti_Face_Weapon@lemmy.world -1 points 6 days ago

Some will. But if 1% of the right see this and either become demotivated or change sides, that is enough to swing entire elections.

[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 11 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Ron Paul used to introduce doomed bills like this all the time. It's not expected to pass. It's to reveal the owners of other legislators.

Even some Democrats will vote against this bill. Every one of those legislators work for the corporations - not for us - and need to be replaced.

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Which, ultimately, does nothing as voters have the memory of a goldfish.

[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 3 points 6 days ago

We do, but that still does something. I only look up their voting records once I've got the sample ballot in my hands.

[–] pulsewidth@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Check the comments, 75% of the people here don't believe the simple fact that the Democrats have not had a supermajority to pass such an amendment since 1979, 30 years before the infamous Citizens United win at the Supreme Court became the current interpretation of law.

They don't know that the legislation discussed in this post has been brought to vote multiple times by Democrats over the years under different names, and that this is just the latest instance.

They just want to complain that Democrats 'don't do anything good when they have power, and wont even try when they know they cant win' - handwaving away reality.

They just want to complain that Democrats ‘don’t do anything good when they have power, and wont even try when they know they cant win’ - handwaving away reality.

it's literally the meme of

lemmy: "you're not doing anything"

GOV: "i am literally doing everything"

lemmy: "you're not doing good enough"

GOV: "i'm literally the best in my field trying the best i can with good results"

lemmy: "well it's still not good enough"

GOV: "find me a better solution then."

[–] eugenevdebs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 6 days ago

So this will pass and we're all wrong?

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 4 points 6 days ago

The biggest issue is that Dems get rich from this shit too. Even if they had a massive majority it wouldn't pass.

this might actually work if this goes through the states in the midterms, might be a little bit too early for that to happen, but i guess we'll have to see. I would entirely expect this to be 100% possible to get passed, it just needs support.

finally something actually based, this would be such a good amendment.

[–] Jumpingspiderman@lemmy.world 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)

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."

[–] leadore@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Nice idea, but you're a decade late and billions of dollars short.

OTOH, it has always been important to keep introducing bills showing what you stand for even when they have no chance of passing, which (theoretically) builds public support over time (by getting press coverage and talking about it in interviews and on the campaign trail). For example Repubs have introduced bills to kill all or parts of the ACA over 50 times since it was passed, and they do that with lots of other issues--they just push and push and push their agenda regardless of whether it can pass.

But Dems don't. It's hard to take this effort by Dems seriously when the first time they've attempted to do this is only after the effects of the Citizens United ruling have come to full fruition. I know the only time they've had the majority again since the ACA was passed was the first half of Biden's term and they did get some good things done during that time. But the idea is to relentlessly try to do what you're sent there by your voters to do. So I guess it's a ... start?

[–] Quadhammer@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

Why would SENATE REPUBLICANS be against an AMENDMENT named WE THE PEOPLE???

[–] Gointhefridge@lemm.ee 170 points 1 week ago (17 children)

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.

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[–] fbn@slrpnk.net 108 points 1 week ago (3 children)

would have been more useful when you had any kind of power to get a bill passed, but thanks anyway i guess

[–] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 78 points 1 week ago (22 children)

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.

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[–] Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 69 points 1 week ago (11 children)

So they throw this impossible task out there, something they can put all their energy and rhetoric into which will ultimately not bear results in my lifetime, and they can say see I was fighting against this tyranny.

This is such a bald-face transparent PR move I hope everyone sees it for what it is.

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[–] Chocrates@lemmy.world 61 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Jfc. They and both houses of Congress multiple times since Citizens United and didn't do shit. Bringing it up now, when it won't even get through Congress, let alone the states, is a fucking distraction

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[–] Pacattack57@lemmy.world 52 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (8 children)

I hate to say it but proposing a constitutional amendment is just virtue signaling at this point. There isn’t a snowballs chance in hell this passes even with 100% democrat support.

I appreciate the thought and effort but put forth legislation that actually has a chance at passing.

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[–] VeryVito@lemmy.ml 47 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Good, but why the hell didn’t they do this when they had control of Congress?

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