President Obama, who famously used his 2010 State of the Union address to rip activist Supreme Court Justices for removing longstanding barriers to corporate control of the political discourse, did not mention the Court's wrongheaded Citizens United decision in his 2012 State of the Union address.
That was concerning.
Not just because the president's support is needed to expand the campaign to amend the Constitution so that its clear free speech rights are afforded citizens, not corporations. But because this is a moment when it is essential to explain how Wall Street is using its "money power" to thwart the will of the people when it comes to debt and deficit debates.
As the country stumbles toward sequestration, powerful forces are seeking to take advantage of the wrangling. Hoping to capitalize on popular frustration with the fighting in Washington, the failed proponents of a far deeper austerity than sequestration would impose, Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, are back with a new plan to hack away at Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
They are advancing failed ideas, which have already been proven by the bitter experience of European nations to stall growth and increase unemployment.
They are advancing failed ideas that have already been rejected by the America people, who voted in the 2012 election against candidates endorsed by Simpson and Bowles and against the most prominent American champion of austerity: House Budget Committee chairman and defeated Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan.
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Yet they are being heard because of a massive new "Fix the Debt" campaign, which is already spending tens of millions of dollars on advertising and lobbying to repurpose Simpson-Bowles as the only answer to what ails the economy. With financial backing from the nation's wealthiest CEOs, they are not just advancing an agenda. They are speaking to elected officials as individuals with the power to direct vast resources toward the cause of re-electing or defeating favored contenders.
In the Citizens United era, when corporations and CEOs can spend as they please to influence elections, that's a powerful threat.
And Obama should address it.
We know the president is aware of the threat. We know that he sympathizes with those who would amend the Constitution to address the money power. Indeed, during the course of the 2012 campaign, Obama indicated that he was supportive of an amendment.
After he won that re-election, however, there were fears that Obama and the Democrats had decided that, while they might not always be able to match Republican spending, they could hold their own.
Reformers launched a campaign to get Obama to use his 2013 State of the Union address to formally "call for a constitutional amendment to get big money out of politics."
A petition on the White House website -- initiated by John Bonifaz and the group Free Speech for People, and supported by People for the American Way, Demos and Avaaz.org -- declared: "Our democracy is broken, flooded by money from corporations, billionaires and SuperPACs that put their interests over those of the public. From big banks sinking our economy while blocking real reform to the NRA preventing sensible gun safety measures, big money forces are corrupting our politics.
Since the US Supreme Court has ruled that corporations and wealthy donors have the right to spend unlimited money in our elections, a growing popular movement is now calling for a constitutional amendment to reclaim our democracy. Eleven states and nearly 500 cities and towns have joined this call. We petition President Obama to use the State of the Union to call for a constitutional amendment to reduce the influence of money in our political system and restore democracy to the people."
The petition attracted more than the 25,000 signatures required to get a White House response. Indeed, it eventually attracted close to 40,000 signatures. But the State of the Union address came and went without mention of Citizens United or the amendment.
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