Weak democracy

The Jan. 19 column by David M. Shribman (“Citizens United Has Transformed Politics”) carefully highlights the weakening of our democracy that has occurred since the 2010 Supreme Court decision. Our government is run mostly by a few hundred individuals who control billions in Super PACs, by illegal foreign money, and by secret “dark money” campaign spending. The solution is a constitutional amendment to curb this trend.

Two national polls found that a majority of Americans see political corruption as our country’s most serious issue. Most Americans — 66% of Republicans and 85% of Democrats — back a constitutional amendment to set limits on campaign spending and contributions. A resolution for this reform has been introduced into each body of Congress. Although this is a crosspartisan American issue, it has not been able to get Republican support.

After the Citizens United decision, Republicans have benefited more from dark money than Democrats. But in the 2018 election cycle, liberal dark money groups outspent conservatives by almost 2-to-1. For the 2020 elections, Democrats again are predicted to spend more than Republicans. It will benefit both parties and all Americans to solve this problem.

Americans of all political ideologies have the opportunity to take power back from the wealthy elite by joining the movement for a constitutional amendment to get big money out of politics. All candidates for every office — federal, state and local — must support a constitutional amendment to put an end to political inequality. If they do not support this, they should not have our votes. Insist that our candidates commit to promoting an amendment if elected.

ELLEN GREENE BUSH

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