Rather than being villain turned hero, as in the television version of The Dirty Dozen – The Deadly Mission, our version of The Dirty Dozen is even more sinister. ARII’s Dirty Dozen are agents—bought by global money interests—from the three branches of American government. They are congressmen, Supreme Court justices, and presidents gone rogue. How have they defrauded us?

What can you do—you are only one person? True, but you are only “six degrees of separation,” on average, from any other person on Earth. You become powerful when you share information with your friends and ask them to share it with their friends—it becomes a global revolution. As Stephen King suggests in The Long Walk, when these “society-supported sociopaths” come, step aside, and find the strength to run…

If I couldn’t live in California anymore—and I do prefer the climate here—I would consider moving to Vermont so I could vote for Senator Bernie Sanders. With his tousled white hair and Brooklyn-cum-New England accent, he stands out, as do his common-sense, independent positions. He takes the historian’s long view on subjects important to him such as the environment, and energy policy, but the cause on which he is currently bestowing the greatest passion is the 2010 Supreme Court decision Citizens United.

It is easy to see why Senator Sanders—or “Bernie,” as he prefers—would choose this issue, which some would consider a lost cause. He has long been a champion of the average working person—not so much the billionaires. In a speech before a Senate panel July 24, he spoke in support of a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court ruling that “corporations are people and money is speech.” He is sponsoring the Saving American Democracy Amendment, which has a companion measure in the House sponsored by Ted Deutch (D-FL).

“What the Supreme Court did in Citizens United is to say to these same billionaires and the corporations they control: ‘You own and control the economy, you own Wall Street, you own the coal companies, you own the oil companies. Now, for a very small percentage of your wealth, we’re going to give you the opportunity to own the United States government.’

“The amendment would say that for-profit corporations are not people, that they are not entitled to any rights under the Constitution, that they are subject to regulation by state legislatures consistent with free press protections, and that they are prohibited from making contributions or expenditures in political campaigns. The amendment also would declare that Congress and the states have the right to regulate and limit all political expenditures and contributions.”

Underscoring the malign effect Citizens United is having on elections through SuperPACs, note the report coming out of the recent Kansas primary: “Conservative groups, including Americans for Prosperity, the Club for Growth, the Kansas Chamber of Commerce and Kansas Right to Life spent between $3 and $8 million.” Where are the billionaires in this? Kansas state Senate President Steve Morris noted that “the Koch brothers also helped fund the campaign, using Kansas as a testing ground for their ideas. ‘They said it will be an ultraconservative utopia,’ Morris said of the Kochs. ‘It depends on your definition of a utopia.’”

The result was a bloodbath for moderate candidates. “Seventeen out of 22 moderate Republican Senate candidates were defeated Tuesday, a culmination of a bitter GOP war that has engulfed the state since 2011.”

“They tried to tie our folks to President Obama even though we had nothing to do with him,” Morris told HuffPost. “They said we all supported Obamacare and that’s not true. It’s effective. The campaigns we did were positive and informational. The campaigns against us were very nasty. Evidently negative campaigning must work.”

Most voters will say that they don’t like negative campaign messages. Yet the folks that run them know that, nevertheless, they work to their advantage. To whatever extent that happens in Kansas, we will see in November. One thing for sure, there is no shortage of money, from sources that remain unknown.

“Morris… said he expects Kansas voters to reverse course on conservatives in the future. “I hope the electorate, when they see what happens with ultraconservatives, decide that is not what they want,” he said. “That takes a while, though; Senate elections are every four years.”

Bernie isn’t waiting four years in hopes of a voter reaction. He is using every means at his disposal to bring the issue to people’s attention, and people are listening. Vermont and five other states” (California among them!) “have adopted resolutions asking Congress for a constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United decision. More than 200 local governments, including about 60 towns in Vermont, have passed similar measures.”

Obviously, this is just a start. With Bernie Sanders, we need to maintain the public’s attention on this issue and keep up the pressure on government at every level, especially after the election season. “I’m proud to say the American people are making their voices heard on this issue—they are telling us loud and clear it is time to reverse the trend,” Sanders said.

What can you do—you are only one person? True, but you are only “six degrees of separation,” on average, from any other person on Earth. You become powerful when you share information with your friends and ask them to share it with their friends—it becomes a global revolution. As Stephen King suggests in The Long Walk, when these “society-supported sociopaths” come, step aside, and find the strength to run…

As governments go, the concept of “freedom” is more closely linked with the United States of America than any other nation on earth. Our nation was the first to be intentionally organized according to what has come to be known as “political science,” based on the philosophy that “certain inalienable rights” belong to every individual. The Declaration of Independence and our Constitution have served as models for countless emerging nations because these documents so eloquently express the concept of individual freedom. We have been blessed!

But early in our history, we were warned, “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” What would our Founding Fathers think of our government as it functions today?

This is the last in a series of articles, “The Perfect Storm,” focusing on threats to the basic concept of “the balance of powers,” set forth in the first three articles of the Constitution—a system of checks and balances among the executive, the legislative, and the judicial branches of government. It was developed to ensure that no one branch of government would be controlled or overshadowed by another and ultimately infringe on the rights of the people.

Our Founding Fathers, particularly Thomas Jefferson, recognized the imperative of individual choice—one man, one vote. But this principle is at grave risk today. There have ever been persons who through great ability and greed or arrogance have appropriated a greater share of wealth and political power. And such is the case today. It is causing partisanship and gridlock in Congress. It has even had its effect in the highest Court in the land. In this series of articles, we have attempted to bring attention to instances in which an individual or a group of individuals have attempted to manipulate or control segments of our government and our economy. In fact, this has been the main thrust of nearly every article at American Revolution II.

This is an election year. The stakes are high, and the competition is fierce. We are seeing the ultimate effect of the 2010 Supreme Court decision Citizens United in a nearly continuous barrage of political advertising. I, for one, would prefer to crawl into a dark hole, pull the lid over me, and not emerge until the elections are over. But no one, including myself, has that privilege. Each one of us has the privilege—the duty—to make an informed decision about who and what to vote for. And an informed decision presumes a lot of work!

I am humbly aware of how insignificant my personal contribution is. But I am not alone! If you have read this far, there is a good chance you share my concerns. (“Then there’s a pair of us–don’t tell! They’d banish us, you know.”)

Who said, “Together we can!”? It has been mocked, but the concept is solid.

And we can’t turn back now. Edmund Burke warned, “Those who have been once intoxicated with power and have derived any kind of emolument from it can never willingly abandon it.” You would think he lived here today! If nothing else, we should be motivated by fear that the corrupt and the arrogant will rob us of our freedoms and make a mockery of the ideals of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

What can you do—you are only one person? True, but you are only “six degrees of separation,” on average, from any other person on Earth. You become powerful when you share information with your friends and ask them to share it with their friends—it becomes a global revolution. As Stephen King suggests in The Long Walk, when these “society-supported sociopaths” come, step aside, and find the strength to run…