title:  Five States Have Now Voted To Circumvent Congress To Eliminate Citizens United (VIDEO)
text: If there s one thing most progressives   both Bernie and Hillary supporters   agree on, it s that Citizens United needs to go. In fact, most Americans   nearly 80 percent   agree that Citizens United needs to go. You d think that would be all Congress needs to propel them to do the right thing, but unfortunately, thanks to the very Supreme Court decision everyone hates, Congress won t do anything about it. There s too much money involved. The states, though   that s another matter. Five have already voted to reverse the decision and you can bet that more are coming soon.This year, over a billion dollars will be spent electing just the president. Millions will be spent on down ticket candidates. Much of this money is coming from PACs and Super PACs, with donations from corporations and billionaires. The money goes right into the coffers of candidates, who in turn give the money to media outlets who inundate us with ads. Everyone wins except the American people. Neither the media nor the politicians complain, mostly because they don t want to bite the hands that feed them. So, it s up to grass roots movements, and the grass roots will win out.The cliche is that the way to fight fire is with fire. That s what an organization called WolfPac is doing. They have opened a pac that is designed to get rid of Pacs and Super PACs. Here s what they want to do:To restore true, representative democracy in the United States by pressuring our State Legislators to pass a much needed Free and Fair Elections Amendment to our Constitution. There are only 2 ways to amend our Constitution: (1) Go through Congress (single digit approval rating) or (2) Go through our State Legislators via an amendment proposing convention.Wolf PAC believes that we can no longer count on our Federal Government to do what is in the best interest of the American people due to the unfettered amount of money they receive from outside organizations to fund their campaigns. We point to the failure of the Disclose Act as rock solid evidence that this would be a total waste of our time, effort, and money. We also point to the recent decision by the US Supreme Court to not even hear a case filed by Montana claiming it did not have to abide by Citizens United, as proof that state legislation is not a sufficient measure to solve this problem. We believe that we have no choice but to put an amendment in the hands of our State Legislators, who are not, at this moment in time, completely blinded by the influence of money, and might actually do what 96% of the country wants   take away the massive influence that money has over our political process.The list of states that have jumped on board is hardly surprising. It started with Vermont, the one state brave enough to elect a Democratic Socialist as a senator. In 2012, Vermont passed a joint resolution proposing a constitutional amendment saying that only people are people and that corporations are just made up entities. Then came California, the largest state in the country. Then came New Jersey and Illinois.The latest to join the call for a constitutional amendment if Rhode Island. In a unanimous vote, the state of Rhode Island became the fifth to take matters into their own hands.Here s the video:And more from The Young Turks:Sure, this is a drop in the bucket. A constitutional amendment needs to be ratified by 38 states and there aren t 38 blue states in the country, but that might not matter. People are sick of our elections being purchased by the highest bidder. People are sick of billionaires having a much larger voice in our democracy than anyone else. People are sick of the constant barrage of political advertising. The only people to lose out of turning corporations back into non-people are corporations and the politicians whose pockets are being lined.Featured image via Alex Wong with Getty Images. 