We are the 79 percent

As I'm sure everyone is aware, 2012 is an election year. In just a few short months, we'll be positively mired in political lawn signs, attack ads and all other kinds of propaganda-all of which (and here's the rub) costs mon­ey.

Money in politics has become a hot topic in the past few months, and it seems to me that the lack of coopera­tion by our representatives and legal ex­perts in addressing this particular concern is unacceptable.

A recent poll conducted by MoveOn.org revealed that 79 percent of Americans polled (which includes 72 percent of Re­publicans and 75 percent of Independents) believe that "it's important that a candidate commit to reducing the influence of corpo­rations over elections." The very suffrage of individual citizens is under attack and has been for years. The polls show that we now are part of a constituency that recognizes that.

So why the shameless stalling and side­stepping by those that we elect? Is there some kind of brainwashing that takes place within hours of taking office? No, probably not, but there is an established legal prec­edent that essentially equates campaign contributions and massive expenditures by corporations to our First Amendment right to free speech. In the U.S. Supreme Court decision Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the court ruled that corporations and unions have the same po­litical speech rights as individual citizens.

It isn't hard to see where this becomes problematic. If I have $100 and you have $1 million, whose opinion matters more to career politicians endeavoring to secure their paychecks for another term? Whose money can buy more attack ads that mis­inform and divide the public? If money equals speech, how is that in any way eq­uitable considering the highly disparate so­cioeconomic climate that we live in?

Furthermore, in the Citizens United de­cision, the court made the erroneous as­sumption that corporations' influence over and privileged access to politicians "will not cause the electorate to lose faith in our de­mocracy."

Occupy Wall Street (you all knew I would come to this eventually) is the physical manifestation of, if not a lack of faith in our democracy, at least the acknowledge­ment that there are some serious flaws in its implementation. I've been to marches and demonstrations in both New York and Bos­ton, and for all the hype about revolution and class warfare, there are just as many protesters who are simply disgusted with the amount of money in politics, because while money is definitely not speech, it does often translate into votes.

It's time that we, as the 79 percent of citi­zens who disagree with current practices in Washington, demanded change from our representatives. Overturn Citizens United. Make it harder for corporations to buy leg­islation. Work on ways to viably finance campaigns using public funds, and in do­ing so prevent the kind of juvenile mud-slinging that we see in super PAC-financed propaganda. Let's try using individual votes as political currency, not dollars.

Kathryn Krause is a junior diplomacy ma­jor from Auburn, N.Y.. She can be reached at kathryn.krause@student.shu.edu.