LOD: Amendment, Voters Not Dollars

You are going to hear more about this throughout the next year: growing consensus among reformers that an amendment is needed to the US Constitution to affirm the rights of real people over inert objects, e.g., corporations. John Bonifaz, a wizard on the subject provides this op-ed column with some of the context. The Occupiers already have identified Citizens United and corporate political spending as enemies of the 99%. Polling also shows broad support . . . but an amendment is obviously a difficult, multi-year campaign. Meanwhile, related to another Democracy NC issue, here’s another story of an elderly citizen, this time a white woman in the North, who is being told to pay up for a birth certificate and court papers in order to vote. The NAACP and Legal Defense Fund issued a report today on the scope and damage of the voter ID mania that spread across the nation this year. The evidence of people being barred from voting may eventually make the US Supreme Court revisit its pro-ID decision in the landmark Indiana case – but the delay and disenfranchisement are inexcusable.