RECLAIMING DEMOCRACY Featuring David Cobb and Jeffrey Clements
Channel: argusfest
Date: 15/11/2014

Two leaders of the American Pro-Democracy Movement discuss the devastating impact that “Corporate personhood” has on our small “d” small “r” democratic republic, and what WE THE PEOPLE can do to take back the political power that has been stolen from us by Global Corporations and the moneyed elites.

The event was hosted by Colorado Move to Amend and filmed Monday, October 27, 2014 at the Mercury Cafe in Denver, Colorado

https://movetoamend.org/
http://corporationsarenotpeople.com/

DAVID COBB is National Projects Director of Democracy Unlimited. He is a lawyer and political activist. David has sued corporate polluters, lobbied elected officials,  run for political office himself, and has been arrested for non-violent civil disobedience.  He truly believes we must use ALL the tools in the toolbox to effect the systemic social change we so desperately need.

David was born in San Leon, Texas and worked as a laborer before going to college.  He graduated from the University of Houston Law School in 1993 and maintained a successful private law practice in Houston for several years before devoting himself to full time activism to achieve real democracy in the United States.  

In 2002 David ran for Attorney General of Texas, pledging to use the office to revoke the charters of corporations that repeatedly violate health, safety and environmental laws. He did not win the office, but the Green Party of Texas grew dramatically during his campaign from four local chapters to twenty-six. In 2004, he ran for President of the United States on the Green Party ticket and successfully campaigned for the Ohio recount. 

JEFFREY CLEMENTS is co-founder and chair of the board of Free Speech for People, a national non-partisan campaign to overturn Citizens United v. FEC, challenge excessive corporate power, and strengthen American democracy and republican self-government. He co-founded Free Speech For People in 2010, after representing several public interest organizations with a Supreme Court amicus brief in the Citizens United case. Jeff has served as Assistant Attorney General and Chief of the Public Protection Bureau in the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office. As Bureau Chief, he led more than 100 staff in the enforcement of environmental, healthcare, financial services, civil rights, antitrust and consumer protection laws. In private practice, Jeff has been a partner at Mintz Levin in Boston, and in his own firm. Jeff also has served in leadership capacities on numerous boards, including that of the Portland Water District, a public agency responsible for protecting and delivering safe drinking water and ensuring proper treatment of wastewater for 160,000 people; Friends of Casco Bay, an environmental organization he co-founded with others to protect and enhance stewardship of Maine’s Casco Bay; and The Waldorf School in Lexington, Massachusetts. In 2012, Jeff co-founded Whaleback Partners LLC, which provides cost-effective capital to farmers and businesses engaged in local, sustainable agriculture. Jeff graduated with distinction in History and Government from Colby College in 1984, and magna cum laude from the Cornell Law School in 1988. He lives in Concord, Massachusetts with his wife and three children.