I’ve been approached by petitioners for Planned Parenthood and Green Peace near the REI Flagship store or on the street near The House of Commons (a great place to buy Lapsang Souchong tea) in the 15th and Platte area of Denver. Today I was approached with a new one:
Petitionista: Would you like to sign a petition to help get money out of politics?
Me: I don’t know.
Petitionista: Are you familiar withCitizens United? That’s when the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are people!! and they can give unlimited amounts of money, anonymously, into politics. I’m trying to help get this on the ballot for the 2012 election.
Me: So, does this work on getting all money from all groups out of politics, like corporations, unions, and so on, out of politics? Or just corporations?
Petitionista: Right now we’re just focusing on corporations.
Me: So, unions seem fairly one-sided on which end of the political spectrum they give money to, so your petition is to block unlimited campaign contributions by corporations, but leave unlimited contributions to unions that give to only one side?
Petitionista: Yes. We’re only focusing on blocking corporations, not unions.
Me: I’m not signing your petition. It seems like a very dangerous thing to try to allow unlimited funding from only those who are on one side of political issues.
