SEATTLE, March 3: As the pink of sunset lingered beyond the rain-lashed Olympics, an outbound freighter coasted across the darkling water with lights twinkling, and I shouldered my way through wind-driven raindrops like bullets to gain the canopied stoop of a spacious photographer’s studio on the waterfront. The Deco yellow and red neon of the circling P-I globe were lit on a rooftop across the street, blazing defiance at the onrushing shades of evening as I opened the door to the “After Citizens United” workshop presented by MoveOn’s Seattle Council.
Participants speak in the MoveOn CITIZENS UNITED training - Photo copyright 2011 by Larry Neilson
The 2.5-hr program was led and facilitated by two members of the Council’s Election Reform subgroup, Tiffany and Craig. The evening focused on finding effective ways of communicating the unfair, undemocratic advantage given by the Citizens United ruling to the moneyed elite. The most effective approach was said to be deep listening to the other party, finding what is dear to them, and making a personal connection. Then one can help the other connect the dots and see how the abuse of corporate power affects us personally.
After some study, Craig and Tiffany believe that pursuing a constitutional amendment would be the best long-term approach to overturning Citizens United. This is obviously a long-term objective and will require a major education of the public; better said, a re-education of people to vote in their own interest. And not be taken in by the smear tactics and distractions drawn from the well-worn GOP playbook. In the meantime, it is possible to make examples of corporate bad actors by revoking their state charters. This is no simple matter either, but is not even in the same time scale as the amendment process.
They hoped the attendees would consider becoming part of an ad hoc speakers bureau to give talks on the issue. And that we could all benefit from further study of the tangled issues involved, but even more by practicing an elevator speech and learning how most effectively to communicate common interests with people from a range of backgrounds.
On Thursday March 10, Washington Public Campaigns will be presenting a Public Forum at Kane Hall Room 220, UW. Beginning at 7, the statewide program will be moderated by Enrique Cerna of KCTS-9 and will include a panel and questions on the constitutional amendment strategy and its ramifications. The program begins at 7 p.m. Craig made a pitch for attendees at the event next week. All sixteen of us pledged to go.
Role playing at MoveOn CITIZENS UNITED workshop in Seattle - photo copyright 2011 by Larry Neilson.
The evening concluded with two 2-to-3-person role-plays aimed at giving us experience in recruiting people to work on the campaign, become advocates or “evangelists” for the amendment, or become part of our ad hoc speaker’s bureau. Working from a list of a dozen pressing national priorities, participants picked one to concentrate on for each conversation. After each conversation, the partners shared about their experience with each other, the point at which the advocate connected to the prospect, or not.
Craig Salins remarked that Citizens United, with its knot of associated concepts of corporate personhood and free speech rights would inevitably erode democracy if allowed to stand. When talking about the troubles confronting Americans on a range of fronts, we should make that point with a concrete image that people can easily grasp, he said. The image was of a farm work party spread around the land all doing their own projects, when one comes across a huge stump with live roots that were deeply grown. Then all the team gets together to root out the stump and , if necesary, to remediate the site. Salins added that the legal fiction of corporate personhood is highly suspect and legally vulnerable, citing the surprise decision against corporate interests handed down by the Supreme Court only last week. It is to influencing public opinion and legislators we should look, however, not the courts.
Parting at 9, we determined to redouble our efforts to tear down the precedent-shattering Citizens decision, and cultivate roots-up democracy in its stead.
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Resources mentioned in the workshop included:
March 10 Public Forum – sponsor Washclean.org
de Graaf and Batker, What’s the Economy For, Anyway? – Bloomsbury Press
George Lakoff, Don’t Think of an Elephant
Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
David Cay Johnston, “Who ‘Contributes’ to Public Workers’ Pensions?”
Johnston, Interview, DN! 3/3/11 – Note especially passage about corporate taxation
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