{"id":291894,"date":"2017-01-26T23:11:07","date_gmt":"2017-01-26T22:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/billionaires-are-tampering-with-our-constitution\/"},"modified":"2017-01-26T23:11:07","modified_gmt":"2017-01-26T22:11:07","slug":"billionaires-are-tampering-with-our-constitution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/billionaires-are-tampering-with-our-constitution\/","title":{"rendered":"Billionaires Are Tampering with Our Constitution"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When you think of America\u2019s great constitutional minds, names like\u00a0Madison, Jefferson, Washington, and Franklin come to mind. And, of course, Abbott.<\/p>\n<p>Wait, who&#8217;s Abbott?<\/p>\n<p>Last year, Texas Governor Greg Abbott revealed that he&#8217;d penned <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.motherjones.com\/mojo\/2016\/01\/texas-governor-wants-add-nine-new-amendments-constitution\" target=\"_blank\">nine new amendments<\/a><\/em> to the U.S. Constitution. His proposals amount to a bill of sale, effectively transferring our national government from The People to The Plutocrats.<\/p>\n<p>His &#8220;tweaks&#8221; would outlaw government actions that restrain corporate abuse of workers and consumers, while also preventing future Congresses from meeting crucial public needs such as health care, voter rights, and restoration of our national infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>However, Abbott isn&#8217;t the force behind this tampering with our constitution.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_32860\" style=\"width: 598px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-32860\" src=\"http:\/\/otherwords.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/alec-constitution-koch-democracy-600x400.jpg\" alt=\"alec-constitution-koch-democracy\" width=\"588\" height=\"392\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Photo: thegirlone \/ Flickr)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>A group called the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC \u2014 at the direction of billionaire GOP donors Charles and David Koch and their corporate cohorts \u2014 wrote Abbott&#8217;s bill of sale. Back in 2010, ALEC\u2019s board of directors approved a resolution calling for a constitutional convention to enact the corporate humbuggery Abbott is now pushing.<\/p>\n<p>Convening a convention, permitted under Article V of the Constitution, is a dream of those seeking an American plutocracy, and ALEC is spearheading a hodgepodge of right-wing groups that are close to succeeding.<\/p>\n<p>At the convention, they&#8217;d attempt to rewrite our nation\u2019s fundamental governing document. The changes would enthrone the &#8220;moneyed corporations&#8221; that Jefferson and other founders abhorred as destroyers of America\u2019s democratic possibilities.<\/p>\n<p>It takes 34 states to convene a constitutional convention, and <a href=\"http:\/\/inthesetimes.com\/article\/18940\/alec-balanced-budget-corporate-constitutional-convention\" target=\"_blank\">28 states have already passed resolutions<\/a> to do exactly that. The ALEC\/Koch consortium is now targeting 11 others.<\/p>\n<p>Absurd? Of course.<\/p>\n<p>Even the former-head of the right-wing Eagle Forum, Phyllis Schlafly, said before her death that this push is &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.slate.com\/articles\/news_and_politics\/politics\/2016\/01\/_liberals_and_conservatives_are_teaming_up_to_call_a_new_constitutional.html\" target=\"_blank\">a prescription for political chaos<\/a>.&#8221; To keep up with ALEC, go to\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.alecexposed.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">www.ALECExposed.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/otherwords.org\/billionaires-are-tampering-with-our-constitution\/\">Billionaires Are Tampering with Our Constitution<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/otherwords.org\">OtherWords<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This piece was reprinted from <a href=\"http:\/\/otherwords.org\/billionaires-are-tampering-with-our-constitution\/\">Other Words<\/a> by <a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When you think of America\u2019s great constitutional minds, names like\u00a0Madison, Jefferson, Washington, and Franklin come to mind. And, of course, Abbott. Wait, who&#8217;s Abbott? Last year, Texas Governor Greg Abbott revealed that he&#8217;d penned nine new amendments to the U.S. Constitution. His proposals amount to a bill of sale, effectively transferring our national government from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2523,"featured_media":291895,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-291894","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2523"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}