Molly Ivins Constitutional Amendment Model Outline
I. Public funding of Federal Elections.
II. Enforcement of Constitutional Amendment by the National Convention and States
Conventions Committees.
III. Free public airwaves during primary and
general elections.
IV. Abolishment of Corporate Personhood
precedents (1886), and all subsequent
rulings that gave corporations
constitutional rights.
With permission from her estate, and to honor a departed
proponent of campaign finance reform, an individual who
has demonstrated extraordinary intuitive and spiritual
insight, an ombudsman for the American people whose
satirical newspaper columns held political vices and abuses
up to public ridicule, we would like to name our
constitutional amendment for that late and great American
hero, Molly Ivins.
Section I. PUBLIC FUNDING OF FEDERAL ELECTIONS
1) Public funding of campaigns will be mandatory. Specific
expenditure limits will be developed for each state’s
unique condition, for congressional, senatorial, and
presidential elections. These expenditure limits shall be
created and governed by the states conventions, an
independent election regulatory body, which shall have the
sole and absolute power to adapt these rules as conditions
require in their states, and that those adaptations over
the years are included in the wording and intent of our
constitutional amendment. Any perceived or real misuse or
violation by state conventions, of constitutional
amendments law, or intent of law, can only be appealed to
the national convention. The national convention shall have
the sole and absolute power to rule on any state convention
conduct or decision. National convention decisions are
absolute.
2) Individuals must conform to set limits of private money
they solicit, or personally contribute, to:
a) A set number of seed money contributions in amounts
no larger than $100.00.
b) A set number $5.00 qualifying contributions to show
that they have a broad base of support.
3) Qualifying individuals receive a publicly funded debit
card, a grant of a specific amount, with which to pay all of their primary campaign expenses:
a) The winners of primary elections receive additional
grant funds for the general elections, but not until
that pre-scheduled campaign begins (one month for
primary campaigns and two months for elections
campaigns).
b) Third and fourth party candidates shall receive
smaller public funded debit cards in their
primaries, but their primary winners shall receive
an equal public funded grant amount for the general
election.
Section II. NATIONAL AND STATE CONVENTIONS
Our Constitutional Amendment creates national and states
legislative bodies. Ad hoc States Convention Committees
shall be created. Those States Convention Committees shall
be wholly comprised by qualified individuals selected from the general population.
A National Convention Committee shall be created. This
National Convention Committee shall be wholly comprised by
qualified representatives from a coalition of national
social organizations and other national non-governmental
organizations.
A regulatory commission for the enforcement of our
constitutional amendment shall be comprised of members from
the State and National Conventions Committees. This
commission shall replace the Federal Elections Commission
as the federal regulatory body governing elections and
election law. They shall have the absolute power for
investigation, subpoena authority, indictments, judgment
and punishment of offenders, replacement of legislators and
senators, banishment of political parties, and confiscation
of personal, private, corporate, and media assets, for all
unlawful conduct, as prescribed by federal law. They
protect our constitutional amendment by enforcing
constitutional law.
Section III. PUBLIC AIRWAVES, FOR THE PUBLIC GOOD, FOR PUBLIC ELECTIONS
The use of public airwaves for the public good is of
greater benefit to our society than the use of public
airwaves for profit and propaganda. Nothing wrong with
profit. There is an inherent conflict of interest when a
corporation owns public airwaves, disseminates propaganda
to influence public opinion, and profits from that
influence. Such conduct needs to be regulated. This element
of our constitutional amendment shall regulate such
conduct, for such conduct harms society. State and
National Convention Committees shall regulate media
coverage during election cycles.
Our public airwaves must be free and dedicated to informing
our society, so that society can make informed decisions
for the public good. A critical factor in reducing
election cost will be the establishment of free public
airtime and print-column space for campaign advertisements,
during specific periods of both primary and general
elections.
Those periods should be the last month of primary
elections, and the last two months of general elections.
The cost of Public Funding for federal elections is estimated to be about $6.00 per person of population for each election cycle, or $1.8 billion nationally (estimated per 2004 statistics).
The costs of Public Funding for federal elections, with
free public air time, may be less than $2.00 a person for
each election cycle, or less than $600 million nationally (estimated per 2004 statistics).
Section IV. ABOLISHES PRECEDENT
“Corporate Personhood” precedent is abolished (1886
Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad), and all
subsequent rulings that gave corporations Constitutional
Rights.
Let us review our reasoning:
1) The existing federal elections campaign financing system
is corrupt and harmful to our Society.
2) Our federal Congress has had many opportunities to reform
it. It has not.
3) We the People have the right and the duty to reform
federal elections campaign financing, by directly
legislating a federal campaign finance law.
4) Our legislative amendment needs to be a constitutional
amendment.
Let us observe the simple and unambiguous wording of
existing constitutional amendments and copy that process.
Our constitutional amendment should be written in
brief declarative sentences of absolution, promoting order not
chaos.
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