September 17th is the 220th anniversary of the U.S. Constitution, which defines our nation of popular sovereignty, boldly opening with three simple words, written large, "We the People." These three famous words convey responsibility equally to all people to make our own laws.

But "We the People" has never included all the people. Those in power always try to maintain power. Initially, only land-owning white men voted. It took a century, the Civil War and three constitutional amendments to abolish slavery and let black men vote. The 19th Amendment ratified in 1920 let women vote. In the 1960s, amendments eliminated poll taxes to protect poor, mostly black voters, and allowed Washington DC voters to participate in presidential elections. In 1971, the 26th Amendment established a consistent national minimum voting age.

As we removed unfair voting restrictions, the wealthiest among us nurtured better ways to control our governance. Starting in the 1880s, ironically using the 14th Amendment that abolished the legal fiction that a person was property, corporate attorneys convinced a few judges (who were previously corporate attorneys) to create corporate personhood, the legal fiction that property is a person. This gave corporations, which are artificial legal entities for owning property, some of the rights intended for freed slaves. Toiling another century, more attorneys convinced more judges to expand corporate rights to add protections from the First, Fourth and Fifth Amendments. (Legislators who were elected through the largesse of corporations shoulder the blame for allowing these decisions to stand.)

WITH THESE RIGHTS, CORPORATIONS AND THEIR WEALTHIEST OWNERS NOW EFFECTIVELY MAKE OUR LAWS. Using modern media and marketing science, voters are persuaded which candidates to elect. With gifts, campaign contributions and no spending limits on lobbyists, lawmakers are influenced. "We the People" have relinquished control of our democracy.

To regain control, we must ban corporations from politics with a constitutional amendment that abolishes corporate personhood. Corporations don't share our morality or mortality; they exist to serve the public good, and they can do that without dominating our governance. But they’ll use their persuasive powers to disagree. They’ll vilify candidates who promise to limit corporate influence. We must be strong and ignore their deluge of ads and pundits, and only vote for candidates who put "We the People" above "We the Corporations."