Senate Republicans Choose Money Over Democracy

About two hours ago, in a vote against popular democracy, the Senate blocked a Constitutional Amendment — which has been branded the #Democracy4All Resolution — that would’ve (1) overturned Citizens United, and thus (2) lead to a radical curtailment of money in politics.

Citizens United is a 2010 Federal Supreme Court Decision that, among many other things, ruled that campaign spending is protected by the Freedom of Speech Clause under the First Amendment, and, therefore, Congress can’t place regulations on campaign spending by groups independent of candidates (e.g., SuperPACS, corporations, labor unions, etc.).

In short, the decision opened the floodgates for money into politics, the implications of which are best illustrated here, courtesy of Vox.

(Here’s a more nuanced explanation of the decision.) 

The resolution blocked today — S.J. Resolution 19 — would’ve curbed the amount of money in politics by doing two things:

1.  Allowing Congress and State Governments to place limits on campaign spending by candidates AND outside groups (linked above)
2. Dictating that corporations are NOT people in an electoral context

In order to ensure the constitutionality of the resolution, the bill also clearly indicated that it does NOT intend to abridge the Freedom of the Press Clause under the First Amendment.

(The entire bill is linked above.)

The vote to proceed — or, the vote for cloture — was taken strictly along partison lines, with 54 Democrats voting to advance the amendment and 45 Republicans voting against proceeding; one Democrat — Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) — was absent, and thus didn’t vote. While the amendment was given the nod by a majority of the Senate, it lacked the 60 votes necessary to avoid filibuster and, in turn, move to floor for debate and vote.

It’s worth noting: if the bill would’ve had the votes to overcome the filibuster, because the bill is a constitutional amendment, in order to pass the Senate and make its way to the House of Representatives it would’ve required 67 votes (two-thirds of the entire Senate).

Beyond all of the technical, procedural jargon, one thing is clear: concentrated capital will continue to dominate American politics.