Colorado Knows How to Rally

By: Katie Fleming

January 23, 2012 0 Comments

Grannies raging? This makes me so happy.

Oh dear, what can the matter be?
Big money is killing democracy;
We’re fed up with the Fat Cat’s hypocrisy…
We need to Move to Amend.

The Supreme Court’s decided that big corporations
Can donate to candidates all through our nation.
Elections now are an abomination!
So we need to Move to Amend.

That’s a snippet of one of the songs the Denver chapter of Raging Grannies sang on Friday at a rally to protest the second anniversary of Citizens United, the Supreme Court decision that obliterated whatever protections we still had against Big Money in our elections.

400 people came to the Capitol. Colorado Common Cause, Move to Amend, Moveon.org, and CleanSlateNow.org came together for the rally. Our own Elena Nuñez addressed the crowd. She told us that the time is ripe for our movement to get money out of politics. She announced Amend 2012 to Coloradans. This is a new Common Cause campaign to build the movement toward a constitutional amendment that will

make clear that corporations shall have only the privileges bestowed upon them by their charters; by state and federal law; and the inalienable rights of the real people who are their shareholders or members. Further, the amendment shall clarify that money is property, it is not speech, and that in order to ensure that all citizens, regardless of wealth, have an opportunity to express their views to their follow citizens and to their government on a level playing field, the amount of speech than any one citizen may purchase with their property should be limited to levels that do not overwhelm other citizens.

Events were held all across the country this weekend to protest what will surely turn out to be some treacherous terrible twos. At two years old, the Citizens United decision has had just enough time to filter through the awareness of corporate America. They’re realizing just how much influence they can wield – legally – with a few million dollars.