The policies that will help disentangle the corporate tentacles from our government.

1. Shareholder Protection

Corporate America shouldn’t be able to use your retirement savings or other investments as its political war chest. When you own stock in a corporation, you own the corporation – and you should have a say in how it spends your money. The Shareholder Protection Act (H.R. 2517, S. 1360) would let shareholders, not CEOs, decide whether and how corporations spend money to influence elections.

2. Disclosure of Political Spending

Transparency will enable the public to hold activist corporations accountable. The Securities and Exchange Commission should require publicly traded companies to disclose their political spending, and President Obama should issue his executive order requiring disclosure of election spending by government contractors.

3. Public Financing of Elections

The Fair Elections Now Act (H.R. 1404, S. 750) would enable candidates to run competitive campaigns on small contributions matched by public funds, leaving them no excuse to chase after campaign cash from lobbyists and wealthy special interests.

4. Constitutional Amendment

Ultimately, we need a constitutional amendment to tell the Supreme Court that corporate spending is not the same thing as free speech by real people. Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) — who used to work for Public Citizen — and Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) have shown leadership on the issue, introducing an amendment in the House (H.J. Res. 78).

People will look back at this event and see it as the beginning – the turning point when the people demanded that the country move from militarism and war to diplomacy and cooperation; from funneling money to the wealthiest 1% to sharing the nation’s prosperity among each of us; and from environmental degradation to the planet’s renewal. It is our responsibility to get this Nation on the right track. You need to be part of this.