While I appreciate the effort by Senator Sanders to overturn Citizen's United with a constitutional amendment, and I believe firmly, as Digby notes in the link, that devotion to this cause would be about as important of a movement as liberals could undertake, we are absolutely kidding ourselves that this amendment will ever be anything more than a pipe dream.
It takes a two-thirds majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate to move an amendment forward. We couldn't manage 60 votes in the Senate for a measly Public Option in the healthcare debate, and we're going to get 67 for this amendment? And 350 (approximately) votes in the House? Of course, two-thirds of the state legislatures could call for a constitutional convention to propose the amendment, but it has never happened in the country's history and considering the conservative strain running through the south, this isn't likely to be the amendment to be the first.
So smart ass, you're probably wondering, what do you propose? Simple: attack it like religious right has attacked abortion. Sue, sue, sue. If corporations are indeed people, they should have no more rights or privileges than the rest of us. Start with tax deductions--if a corporation is a person, they should get no more deductions than you or I. When a corporation is charged with a crime, they should have to stand trial as any other person would. If convicted, shut down the corporation. If a person is convicted of a crime and sentenced to prison, he or she doesn't get to keep going to work. The possibilities are endless.
My guess is, after a short while of being treated like an actual person, minus the privileges they're accustomed to, corporate America would be begging to be only a business entity once more.
Peace,
emaycee
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