Work to keep politics ‘free and fair’

Last spring, I was flipping through Facebook and came across a remarkable group of cross-partisan volunteers called Wolf-PAC. After getting to know some of these incredibly dedicated Americans from all walks of life, I knew I had to join and help with their important work, which aims to eliminate the influence of big money in politics.

Since I moved to Hawaii 10 years ago, I have enjoyed both learning from and working with fellow political activists, young and old. In Hawaii, most of our state lawmakers are extremely responsive to their constituents, and I am received very cordially by nearly every member of our state Legislature when I meet with them about our cause.

However, since the devastating Citizens United ruling that allows unlimited amounts of money to be donated to politicians’ campaigns, many national members of Congress have become obliged to spend the majority of their time trying to obtain big-donor endorsements.

Many are beholden to special-interest groups and industries such as big pharma, insurance companies and sadly, the gun lobby. This makes them much less responsive to their constituents’ real needs and concerns as they pander to donors.

The influence of money on our federal government is a non-partisan issue, one which repeatedly polls among Americans’ biggest concerns. This powerful influence on the decisions made by our federal legislators undermines the will of the people and must be viewed as a grave threat to our democracy.

But what can we do about it?

The most common answer you hear is along the lines of “work through Congress to pass a constitutional amendment that requires elections to be ‘free and fair.’ ” Free of the corrupting influence of big money in politics, and fair enough that you don’t have to be a millionaire or know one in order to run for office. But do we really believe that our national legislators are going to risk their careers by biting the hands that are now feeding them so splendidly? That won’t happen anytime soon, if ever.

Fortunately, our Founding Fathers provided us with another way to amend the U.S. Constitution that allows us to bypass our dysfunctional Congress to make amendments (in this case, an amendment to limit the influence of money in politics).

This process has been initiated many times in the past, and would take place at a limited-topic amendment convention as described in Article V of the Constitution. Despite some groups’ unwarranted concerns about such a convention, it actually would have no power to change the Constitution directly. The convention only proposes the amendment, which would then have to clear the extremely high bar of being ratified by three-quarters of state legislatures (38 states) in order to become part of the Constitution.

Additionally, this convention would definitely be limited to one specific topic. It is important to know that process was used to initiate nearly half of the current amendments to the U.S. Constitution, including four of the last 11 amendments. Five states — California, Vermont, Illinois, New Jersey, and Rhode Island — have already passed the Free and Fair Elections resolution, the same one that will be introduced in the Hawaii Legislature this session.

Eric Schrager is a 30-year Navy veteran resident from Ewa Beach, volunteering as an organizer for Wolf-PAC Hawaii.