September 8, 2012
Dear members of the Securities and Exchange Commission:
I am writing to urge the SEC to issue a rule requiring publicly traded corporations to publicly disclose all their political spending.
Our country's entire history of what is called the "democratic experiment" has presumed that elections cannot be bought. We are dangerously close to allowing just that - which would make us no different from the "puppet democracies" we have abhorred.
It is bad enough that running for election requires such a huge "war chest" (a terrible name) but to allow secrecy for corporate donors opens us theoretically to the possibility of foreign interests (even terrorists) controlling our elections.
The origin of this cynical reality is the Supreme Court's "Citizens' United" decision. That is a larger issue which also must be overturned. In the meantime, your requirement of "transparency" can control for now the larger problem.
Thank you!
Sincerely,
Lucy Abbey