• Term Limits – 16 years total time in Congress
The idea of rotating representation in government finds its roots in ancient Greece and Rome where it was recognized that forces outside the will of the people – could more easily gain foothold and influence the will of government – through representatives who repeatedly sought reelection. The wisdom of just such a policy was supported by numbers of the founding fathers to include Thomas Jefferson and George Mason. And in fact up to the adoption and ratification of The US Constitution in 1789, the practice of term limits and rotating representation in Congress was the accepted practice.
In 1808, Thomas Jefferson refused a third term as President of the United States establishing precedent of an unofficial two term limit for this office. And not until FDR in 1940 was this tradition broken leading the way to the 22nd Amendment ratified in 1951 restricting Presidents to two terms in office.
Though attempts have been made over the years at the State and Federal level to prevent “homesteading” or the practice of being in Congress for life, these attempts were made prior to the US Supreme Court Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission resulting in the pervasive influence of corporations and industries in our government or what some today have termed our US “corporatocracy”.
If elected, please join me as I seek to establish a combined, maximum 16 years total time in Congress further preventing outside, large corporate interests from influencing Congressional members who are “homesteading” … ultimately returning us to a government, “of the people, by the people, for the people!”
• Repeal of Citizens United Ruling – End government for hire
In thinking about the idea of three coequal branches of government, most of us want to believe that the government and its branches are independent of outside forces. Or as stated by President Abraham Lincoln, “democracy is direct self-government, over all the people, for all the people, by all the people.” Such leadership in words and deeds has provided most Americans the sense that we as US citizens are and should always remain the only influencers of government in these United States. This right of the people was first codified by the words of James Madison in The First Amendment of The US Constitution which states, “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
No where in the Bill of Rights or elsewhere in The Constitution is there language expressing, “that government of the people, by the people, for the people” is the norm EXCEPT when large corporations and industrial lobbies gain greater power and influence – in the three coequal branches of government – than the people.
Nevertheless, the United States has come to a place in its history where in fact the Presidency, the Supreme Court and yes, the Congress are no longer independent of outside forces with each now a victim to the insidious and pervasive influence of large corporate lobbies and the dictates of the uber wealthy. There is no greater example of this outside influence than that codified by the US Supreme Court in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (558 US 310 – 2010), which held that the freedom of speech conveyed upon the citizens of the United States in The Bill of Rights equally protects corporations, unions, and other associations. However, unlike the American people who have “inalienable rights”, corporations, unions, and other associations only have those rights which are conferred upon them by the people.
Nowhere in the Constitution does it state that corporations are the same as people. As such please join me as I propose to enter the fight to overturn Citizens United removing outside, large corporate interests from government … returning the government to the people of the United States!
T Dan Baker for Congress 