New Campaign to ‘Legalize Democracy!’

For the first time, a national coordinated campaign unites to revoke corporate personhood.

After a long process of re-evaluating and updating our approach, ReclaimDemocracy.org is re-emerging to play a critical role in making 2010 a breakthrough year for the Democracy Movement. To accomplish this, we’re helping build the broadest coalition yet to confront and revoke runaway corporate power –the Campaign to Legalize Democracy, which unites many of our long-time allies with dozens of organizations that have evolved to recognize the necessity of this approach.   I’m more optimistic than any time since founding this organization a decade ago that we can make concrete progress toward our vision of amending the U.S. Constitution to revoke the illegitimate doctrine of corporate personhood.

Thank you to all of you who have made previous donations to our work, which have been vital to our effectiveness in raising consciousness about the root issues of corporate dominance for millions of Americans. Now, for the first time in two years, I ask you to invest in the work of Reclaim Democracy with a year-end contribution.

The Blessing of Disillusionment: A Teachable Moment
The Campaign to Legalize Democracy will debut publicly the day the U.S. Supreme Court announces a ruling in the potential landmark case, Citizens United v Federal Election Commission. Despite enormous anger over public subsidies, systematic credit card rip-offs, and more, it’s widely expected the Court will give corporations even greater power over our government by allowing company funds to be spent in efforts to elect or defeat political candidates. If this happens, we will work quickly to channel anger where it needs to go: amending our Constitution.

And after campaigning to bring “change” to Americans that included public health insurance and taking on Wall Street, President Obama and Congress have demonstrated they either are unwilling or unable to challenge the power of pharmaceutical, insurance, and financial corporations to correct our nation’s most urgent problems.

We don’t celebrate this failure, but we recognize the opportunity created by this disillusionment. When people believe in illusions, they are not receptive to confronting reality. One year ago, millions of Americans believed democracy could thrive and some of our worst crises improve if we simply elected Barack Obama and shifted control of Congress. ReclaimDemocracy.org spent the past decade declaring who’s elected matters less than changing structure and revoking the power of corporations and money over government. We now see signs that a critical mass of Americans is open to this reality–it’s a teachable moment and our greatest opportunity yet.

ReclaimDemocracy.org started, perhaps, at the most challenging time possible. As we began working for systemic change that revokes the illegitimate “rights” of corporations, the Bush Administration was creating a seemingly endless flow of anti-democratic policies and actions that, understandably, provoked more defensive campaigns than ever in our history.

The time now is ripe to change that paradigm, capitalize on this tipping point and realize goals you and I have held. The core action of the Campaign to Legalize Democracy is advancing Reclaim Democracy’s long-standing call to amend the U.S. Constitution and revoke corporate personhood (final language will vary from ours).

Your contribution today will allow us to seize this teachable moment and engage many more citizens in working toward realizing the democratic republic promised in our original Declaration of Independence.

In the coming months, we will:

• Move the content of our 10-year old website — the most thorough collection of information on corporate personhood, corporate speech and related issues — to a completely new site that will utilize modern technology to facilitate citizen action as well as education (we also are seeking a volunteer to set up a content management system for the new website and blog).
• Focus greater energy on radio, TV, op-eds and other media channels to spark nationwide debate on the Amendment to revoke corporate constitutional “rights.”
• Work with our allies in the Campaign to Legalize Democracy to build the broadest U.S. pro-democracy organizing in generations.
• Provide tools and direct support for citizens ready to initiate community education and organizing.

Why two years since our last funding request? Because we value your trust and our integrity. Last year we lacked a plan which we were confident would truly advance democracy. Rather than raise funds simply to perpetuate our organization, we stepped back to ask core questions like whether Reclaim Democracy was necessary and, if so, how it should change in light of 10 years’ experience, new technology, etc. We operated entirely on volunteer work for the past 20 months and will continue to do so for at least several more, putting all available funds into campaign work and capacity-building.

Breaking from the time-consuming work of fundraising and questioning our worth offered clarity and focus. I now ask you invest in our work with a year-end contribution.

While we again will add staff this year, as always, Reclaim Democracy operates with the leanest budget possible, maximizing the impact of every dollar you contribute. I look forward to reporting on the progress your contribution enables in 2010 and beyond. Please donate online or by sending a check, which puts an additional 3% or so to work instead of going to giant financial corporations (address below).