Melanie Stansbury: “16 years ago today, the Supreme Court decided in the Citizens United decision to put our democracy up for sale. I am…”

“16 years ago today, the Supreme Court decided in the Citizens United decision to put our democracy up for sale. I am here today to say, Mr. Speaker, that democracy is not for sale, and it is time to get big money out of politics, to end Citizens United, and to hold this administration, this Congress, and this judiciary accountable. That is because what we have seen is the fundamental erosion of our democratic system, and at the rotten root of it all is the influence of big money in politics. That is because Citizens United opened the door for corporations and billionaires to dump untold sums of money on to our elections anonymously and calling corporations people. Mr. Speaker, corporations are not people. The American people are whom we represent. It is not the corporations, not the billionaires, not the wealthy donors, and not the individuals who are trying to buy and sell our democracy. We know that right now corruption and the buying of elections are having a profound influence on what we are seeing in this country. We are watching as a United States President is selling the United States out from under the American people. He is offering pardons for millions of dollars to his friends and letting dangerous individuals back on to the streets. These are individuals who have committed white-collar crimes all for the very cheap sum of giving him a few million dollars or a few billion dollars in his cryptocurrency.”