This week on Constitution Day, American Promise President Jeff Clements and Cheryl Crawford, executive director of MassVOTE, co-wrote an op-ed in the International Business Times highlighting the historical importance of Constitutional amendments, and the need to pass a 28th Amendment to restore the promise of an American republic based on equal rights, human liberty and effective self-government.
“American Promise is committed to an audacious goal: to bring Americans together to ratify a Constitutional amendment, an amendment that will secure the equal rights of every American to free speech and real representation, and end the domination of unlimited, concentrated money that prevents solutions to every big problem in our nation,” Clements and Crawford write.
So far: 20 states and more than 800 cities and towns have passed resolutions calling for this amendment and 11 current and former presidential candidates have signed the American Promise pledge supporting it along with more than 250 other candidates for elected office. But amending the Constitution is no small feat, and among the opponents of the amendment are well-funded, politically powerful organizations, corporations, special interests, and big unions.
A cross-partisan majority of everyday Americans, though, overwhelmingly support a Constitutional amendment to get big money out of politics, including 66 percent of Republicans, 85 percent of Democrats and 70 percent of independents. And real change starts with the American people. This Constitution Day, all of us at American Promise ask you to commit the cause of our time, passing a 28th Amendment to protect the integrity of our elections and reclaim our government from big money.