February 9, 2012
Securities and Exchange Comm.
Dear Securities and Exchange Comm.,
"The Greatest Threat to Democracy is Hypocrisy! Seek Truth! Speak Truth!" Tim McMullen
The impact of lax regulation and deregulation of corporations has led not only to the devastation of our economy, our physical and social infrastructure, our political system, and our moral standing in the world, but with the Citizens United decision by a partisan and activist supreme court that created its current majority by intervening unconstitutionally in a federal election, we now face the complete subversion of our democratic process in America.
A part of that erosion has already been witnessed in the unprecedented, partisan congressional gridlock that has prevented any meaningful attempts to protect the rights of workers, women, immigrants, and minorities.
In a thorough lapse of logic and common sense, the Supreme Court, in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, has decreed that despite the obvious and clearly stated will of Congress and the American people on both sides of the political spectrum, publicly traded corporations can conceal expenditures of shareholder funds on politics.
Fortunately, because of existing regulatory authority, the Securities and Exchange Commission has the power and the legal authority to require publicly traded corporations to publicly disclose all their political spending.
Specific information about how shareholders' money is being used to influence candidates, campaigns, and legislation needs to be transparent and easily accessible to stockholders and the public in order to have an informed electorate, to maintain a legitimate market-based economic system, and to prevent corruption, undue influence, and outright malfeasance of corporations and economic institutions. Such disclosures should be posted promptly on the SEC’s web site.
I repeat my motto: "The Greatest Threat to Democracy is Hypocrisy! Seek Truth! Speak Truth!"
It is not hyperbolic to suggest that the fate of our democracy may very well be in the hands of duly authorized regulators.
I thank you for your attention to this most pressing matter, and I encourage you to do the right thing for the American people.
Sincerely,
Tim McMullen