Campaigns

Revoking Corporate "Free Speech"

One of the core beliefs of ReclaimDemocracy.org is that our Constitution's Bill of Rights exists to protect the rights of living human beings and their voluntary associations exclusively. Yet since the late 1800s, federal judges have ignored the fact that corporations go unmentioned in our Constitution, and created a broad array of "corporate constitutional rights. Their arguments claim that corporations are legal "persons," entitled to the protections of our Bill of Rights.

We've established the web's most comprehensive resource on corporate personhood to both explain and organize to reverse the process by which corporations seized the legal rights of human beings -- a long-term struggle we are committed to leading to fruition.

In 2003, we used the Supreme Court case of Nike v. Kasky to challenge corporate "free speech" privileges and engage a national audience in rethinking such ill-gotten privileges. Now we're building a campaign to erode and, ultimately, revoke the Supreme Court-created "right" of corporations to influence (and even run their own) ballot initiatives that dates to 1978's First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti ruling.

We are using high-profile battles in Utah and Colorado, among other places, to broaden awareness of this outrageous usurpation of citizens' power and build toward the long term goal of reversing Bellotti. Our campaign plans and many background materials are posted here. Our proposed Constitutional Amendments address this and other long-term goals.

The Citizens' Debate Commission

The nationally televised presidential debates are the single most influential forum for most Americans to inform their views on presidential candidates, and offer a rare opportunity to hear candidates' ideas unedited and in context. To our national disgrace, these debates have been controlled since 1988 by a front group of the Democratic and Republican parties that lacks any public accountability -- The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD).

During the 2000 election cycle, we had considerable success in raising public awareness of the illegitimacy of the CPD. That campaign led us to the necessary work of displacing the CPD with real debates that will serve democracy. In 2004, ReclaimDemocracy.org catalyzed and co-founded the Citizens' Debate Commission (CDC), now supported by dozens of civic organizations from all over the political spectrum. Our ultimate goal of replacing the CPD with genuinely democratic debates will take some years to accomplish, but even in the first year the CDC helped force important changes that have moved the events from the sound-bite battles of recent years to more substantive debate. Our October 2004 E-mail update reported on some of those improvements.

Additional information: op-ed on the need for real debates * the CDC plan * 2004 endorsements for the CDC * Documentation of the exclusion of critical issues from debates under CPD control * CDC website * all our web pages on the debates.

Critical Thinking Curriculum Project

ReclaimDemocracy.org has raised awareness of commercialism and corporate propaganda encroaching into every pocket of daily life. In addition to our articles, primers, and presentations, we seek to bring such awareness in classrooms -- to tomorrow's citizens. Our Critical Thinking Curriculum (no new materials currentl,y being produced until we find a new volunteer or obtain funding for staff time) helps teachers nurture critical thinking skills in students of all ages, beginning with media literacy.

By helping our kids to learn how to determine the source of the messages they receive through a variety of media, they become savvy media users. They learn to challenge ideas presented to them through news stories, advertisements, textbooks and more.

Some of our related articles on this topic are available online. See Branded: Corporations in Our Schools and Selling Out the Smithsonian.

Breaking New Perspectives into the Mass Media

Our ongoing efforts to bring our message to the masses have resulted in op-eds by ReclaimDemocracy.org staff appearing in the nation's most prominent newspapers -- papers like the Washington Post, Newsday, The Chicago Tribune, La Opinion (the nation's largest Spanish language paper) and dozens more. We continue our success in reaching our target audience through insightful writing that gets to the democratic root of the issues making headlines. Our outreach also consistently involves talk radio and occasionally televised talk shows.

Examples include: forewarning the public of the corporate agenda for commercializing public lands; re-framing the debate on campaign finance and other electoral reforms; and calling for true accountability for corporate crime and criminals.We invite you to contact us regarding adapting these articles and others for use in your local or regional media outlets

Volunteer opportunities: We always seek to work with skilled writers and researchers interested in reaching a broad audience.

Past/Ongoing Accomplishments

Before ReclaimDemocracy.org was staffed, our director launched a first-of-kind model in Colorado, the Boulder Independent Business Alliance. BIBA helped locally owned, independently operated businesses to succeed, ensure continued opportunities for entrepreneurs, and strove to reverse the trend of losing such businesses to national chains.

We subsequently helped spread the successful model nationally, helping three other communities to start Independent Business Alliances (IBAs) before it became clear that the effort required more focused attention. Much like the Citizens' Debate Commission, we spawned the American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA) to fill a role that merited a singularly-focused organization. AMIBA has since helped seed at least 18 more local alliances and maintains a vital communication network among these community-level efforts, while working to enhance national consciousness of the importance of community-based businesses. Find out more at AMIBA.net

Volunteer opportunities: community organizers, grant writer/fundraiser.