It takes a Social Movement, Stupid! Lessons on how to amend the Constitution and how they apply to today’s constitutional crisis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SItZbnIat8w&t=4s

Listen to the dynamic presentation and engaging discussion.

Professor Codrington is co-author of The People’s Constitution: 200 Years, 27 Amendments, and the Promise of a More Perfect Union.   

Please share near and far.

Move to Amend
https://www.movetoamend.org/

Join a discussion with Move to Amend’s Co-Director Greg Coleridge of his year-long series on Cultural Change for the We the People Amendment

Monday, December 15: 5pm PT | 6pm MT | 7pm CT | 8pm ET

Register BELOW

The monthly series of articles explored the cultural take-a-ways from significant U.S. social movements over the last two and one-half centuries that are applicable for Move to Amend’s effort to enact the We the People Amendment.

• January - Introduction
• February - Abolition of Slavery
• March - Women's Suffrage Movement
• April - Environmental Movement - including rights of nature
• May - Labor Movement
• June - LGTBQ+ Movement
• July - Colonial Revolution
• August - Peace / Anti-Nuclear Movement
• September - Civil Rights Movement
• October - Populist Movement of the 19th Century
• November - Direct Election of Senators
• December - Conclusion: Lessons Learned / It’s Up to Us (forthcoming)

Join us!

Cultural Change for the We the People Amendment

eleventh in the series

'The Bosses of the Senate' (23 January 1889). Joseph Keppler

Many U.S. constitutional amendments have addressed adding rights that were not included in the original document, revised elections for the President or changed the balance of power between the states and the federal government. The 17th Amendment is the only Amendment that deals with the structure of Congress.

The U.S. Constitution, Article 1, Section 3, states: “The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote.” 

The effort to allow voters to directly elect U.S. senators was initially proposed during the constitutional convention by James Wilson, a lawyer from Pennsylvania who would later become one of the original Supreme Court Justices. He was the lone supporter. The framers thought that senators chosen by state legislatures would create legislators who would, supposedly, be more deliberate and independent when considering issues.

The issue resurfaced decades later as several U.S. Representatives introduced the Amendment in the early 1850’s. Future President Andrew Johnson, while serving as a Congressperson, proposed the Amendment in 1857.  

The momentum for the popular vote for senators increased during the next half-century over two issues: electoral deadlocks and corruption.

Our Right and Duty to Create an Equitable Democracy & Constitution

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Brtw5ijstfw&t=111s

Move to Amend
https://www.movetoamend.org/

Join us for an introductory workshop of our our new course

The Way Through: From Overwhelm, Burnout, Despair & Anger into Effective Action 

Monday, December 8 - 5pm PT, 6pm MT, 7pm CT, 8pm ET

REGISTER BELOW

Facilitated by Tara Ingram

Tara is the chair of Move to Amend’s Board of Directors. She is a psychotherapist in private practice in Sacramento, California where she also co-founded the Mutual Aid General Fund of Sacramento with A Radical Guide to offer financial solidarity and collaborate with local mutual aid groups. She earned her PhD in psychology and her education was grounded in a cross-discipline curriculum which included sociology, political liberation theory, and earth-based indigenous healing models. Tara is also on the National Board of Democracy Unlimited.

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We are living in incredibly chaotic times. Current problems seem more difficult than ever to resolve. Our world faces a polycrisis of urgent, overlapping, and simultaneous tipping points in all realms: environmental, economic, political, and social. This reality presents enormous challenges for concerned individuals to feel that their actions can make real, positive change. Feelings of isolation, overwhelm, and a sense of hopelessness that meaningful change is possible are very discouraging and can easily lead to burnout and feeling unable to act. This is an innovative course designed to explore this vital interplay, offering participants a holistic approach to activism that combines deep internal work with effective external strategies.

This course is designed for activists, community organizers, and anyone passionate about social change. The carefully structured program guides you through the process of cultivating personal awareness, emotional resilience, and psychological growth. The course also supports developing practical skills for organizing, advocacy, and community engagement. Join us as we explore ways to avoid getting stuck in painful emotions. Learn how to work with these emotions to transmute them into liberatory action.

This free program was curated and designed by Move to Amend, the coalition working to dismantle corporate personhood and the influence of money in politics. The program was developed as part of our commitment to our values of community and continued learning.

Tara will introduce the course (link HERE) and guide participants “the way through” transforming our personal feelings into positive individual and/or collective action.

Cultural Change for the We the People Amendment

tenth in the series

The Populist movement of the late 19th century was the largest democratic mass movement in U.S. history. The movement included several parallel but independent organizations of farmers in the South, Midwest and High Plains. The movement later included urban working people across the country

Among the social movements covered in this series, the Populist movement is the least recognized (dare I say “popular”) and understood. Few can name any of its organizers, strategists or speakers (William Jennings Bryan doesn’t count, as explained below). There are no Populist movement holidays, postage stamps, detailed descriptions of its activities in high school history books, or even legitimate recognition of its lessons (positive or negative) incorporated in democratic activist organizations.  

The movement’s relative invisibility can be explained by several factors. First, it was largely a rural movement that was the most active in a part of the country (i.e. the Midwest and South) not associated with the mass social movements. Second, it occurred during a period of U.S. history that was dominated by the rapid rise of industrialization and urbanization.  And maybe, most significantly, its goals of creating an authentic bottom up democracy and bringing the corporate state under popular control through democratic politics, a democratic society grounded in mass dignity, was not going to see the light of day in our dominant corporate culture, which includes reformist non-profit democracy organizations.

Move to Amend supporter Patrick McKercher has produced an important and timely documentary:

American Oligarchy: Five Fights

https://vimeo.com/1129606502

Narrated by Peter Coyote, the 39 minute documentary tells the story of the five times We the People have organized to defeat attempts to end our democracy, and what we can learn to meet the current crisis.  It uses the playbook of Hungary's Victor Orban to understand Trump’s second term – the sixth crisis we face. 

The 5 previous threats and the current one are

Watch the excellent program at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnrbyYaH6yU

Cultural Change for the We the People Amendment

ninth in the series

The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s in the South was a continuation of the earlier Abolitionist Movement. Its major achievements were the enactment of the post-Civil War 13th, 14th, and 15th “Reconstruction Amendments” to the U.S. Constitution which abolished slavery, established equal protection and due process under the law, and guaranteed voting rights for Black men.

Panel presentation and discussion at the
Next Systems Studies Convergence

September 4, 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtsy91iCGKM&list=PLrFE8GFuZltEcMb0JntddjsEpMqS10ozd&index=14 
 

This panel includes John Mulkins, Luke Pickrell, and Greg Coleridge as they discuss democratizing the U.S. constitution, with background on our history as a democracy, the undemocratic features of the constitution, what can be done to democratize our constitution, and what can participants do to further the conversation.

Presented by Move To Amend

See all the Convergence sessions at   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUT4Q3RTbFE&list=PLrFE8GFuZltEcMb0JntddjsEpMqS10ozd&index=1

In solidarity, 

Greg, Margaret, Katie, Alfonso, Jessica, Jason, Tara, Cole, Shelly, George, Daniel, Kelsey, Jennie, Keyan, Michael & Alfonso.

P.S.  We are living through a constitutional crisis. Every generation has the opportunity to define history. Together, we must act and do our part to create a Constitution that affirms justice, a livable world and an authentically democracy Your support makes this vision real. Join us with a gift today!

Constitution Day is next Wednesday, September 17. 

The United States Constitution was signed on September 17, 1787 by 39 delegates at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. It replaced the Articles of Confederation as the document defining the new government. Educational programs are provided by publicly funded educational institutions and federal agencies to celebrate the day.

Those programs provide only superficial and slanted views. While there were many elements of the original U.S. Constitution that were indeed revolutionary and democratic, many others affirmed top down control, ingrained property rights over human rights and excluded a majority of the population. We, the People did not – and still do not – include ALL the People.

Social movements for more than two centuries have forced the adoption of amendments and established a culture that led to Supreme Court decisions that included some rights of groups who should have been originally included in the founding document.

Cultural Change for the We the People Amendment

[eighth in a series]

The United States. has been involved in 11 wars and 175 non colonial military conflicts (and counting) in its 249 year history since claiming independence from Great Britain on July 4, 1776. Today, the U.S maintains roughly 750 military bases and installation in 80 countries worldwide. There are very few years in U.S. history when its military was not engaged in armed conflict somewhere in the world.

Perpetual state-sponsored violence from the colonial era to the present day has been responded with perpetual organized movements of people for peace and against wars and colonization. This history is too exhaustive to examine in detail. Thus, this examination will focus on cultural lessons learned from peace, anti-war and anti-nuclear weapons movements beginning in the early 20th century. 

📣 Billionaires have the megaphones. We have the people — but we need to be LOUDER.

Move to Amend has a bold mission: pass the We the People Amendment (HJR 54) to end corporate constitutional rights and the false doctrine that money equals speech. Right now, we need to break through to a much bigger audience.

Many issues will never be fully resolved until this one is. We’re fighting dozens of battles: climate collapse, authoritarianism, income inequality, safe food, preserving social and economic safety net programs, gun safety – but none of these can be fully won while corporations have constitutional rights and unlimited money buys political power.

If you’ve lucky enough to have a 401k retirement plan offered by your employer, beware. Private equity and cryptocurrency interests want a big piece of it.

SUMMARY

What are we talking about?

Private equity (PE) refers to firms that make monetary investments from wealthy individuals, pension funds and university endowments in companies that are not publicly traded.

Cryptocurrencies are a form of digital currency (also called “digital assets”) that allows people to make payments directly to each other through an online system that is not controlled by any one person, organization or nation state.

What happened? 

Donald Trump signed an Executive Order on August 7 that would allow 401k workplace retirement funds totalling $12 trillion to invest in private equity firms and cryptos.

How did this happen?

Private equity corporations and cryptocurrency exchanges and their respective billionaire owners and investors donated massive sums in the 2024 political election - targeting Trump and pro-crypto Congressional candidates.

Why did this happen?

Private equity and cryptocurrencies pushed hard for these changes, to be sure, to increase their profits, but in the case of cryptos, to gain credibility. 

What can we do about it?.

If you have a 401k, communicate to your employer that you don’t want a nickel of your hard earned retirement fund invested in risky, opaque and expensive ventures.

Support enacting  HJR54, the We the People Amendment.

Labor is the only organized group that has consistently stood for worker's rights over corporate rule. Scores of economic, social and political justices have been championed by individual workers and organized working people who are members of labor unions -- sometimes working alone and other times in coalition with other organizations representing those who have been historically oppressed. 

Shaker Heights Democracy Day - September 8

In 2016, Shaker Heights voters passed, with an 82% “yes” vote, Issue 95 in support of a 28^th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, stating that:

• Only human beings, not corporate entities have constitutional rights, and
• Money is not speech, so money spent on elections can be regulated.

RSVP BELOW

Move to Amend’s effort to end political corruption and create justice and democracy by passing the We the People Amendment was among THE most important and repeated messages at the national Money Out of Politics rally on July 27 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.

A nearby lightning-strike and monsoon-like rain one hour into the rally led the National Park Service to cut short the event – but not before 3 people spoke, including MTA Co-Director Greg Coleridge.

Read Greg’s speech HERE

July 27th, Washington D.C. (and Nationwide) - March for Integrity 

Move to Amend is proud to partner in the March for Integrity on July 27, a nationwide day of action led by the Money Out of Politics Movement. 

The massive rally in Washington, D.C. and across all 50 states will demand an end to lobbyist gifts, congressional stock trading, and big money in politics - and to call for the passage of the We The People Amendment. More info on how to Pledge to March and join a local action here.

A Move to Amend representative will be among the speakers at the DC action.

Cultural Change for the We the People Amendment

[seventh in the series] 

The American Revolution was the first time a European colony gained independence. The new nation, based on the principles of a republic, inspired many successive revolutions across the globe. 

There was widespread acceptance, if not support, for the British monarchy in the beginning. The King or Queen was not only the head of government and the Church of England and had command of one the most powerful military forces in the world, but benefited from the widespread belief that they possessed the “divine right” to rule.