SKIP THE INAUGURATION

If corporate stooges close to the Obama campaign get their way, President Obama will spend the first day of his second term at lavish parties sponsored by multinational corporations like Bank of America, General Electric and Coca-Cola.*

Why would President Obama want to start his second term by cozying up to these profit-hoarding, progress-thwarting corporate antagonists and the same CEO hucksters that are daily distorting our democracy with legions of lobbyists and million-dollar propaganda campaigns?

President Obama should start his second and final term as a fighter for the people — NOT as panderer-in-chief.

Urge President Obama to refuse corporate contributions for his inauguration.

Corporate contributions are being considered, according to The Wall Street Journal, because the political mega-donors that politicians typically hit up to help pay for inauguration day fanfare are feeling “drained” after spending so much during this year’s record-breaking, $6 billion election.

But the fact is, an inauguration without excess fanfare and without funding from corporations or the ultra-rich will do just fine.

A corporate-sponsored inauguration — which, coincidentally, will fall on the third anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s infamous Citizens United ruling — would fundamentally undermine the Obama administration’s efforts to rein in the damage caused by that decision.

Public Citizen’s Craig Holman, a longtime expert on the corrupting influence of corporate money in politics, warned in The Wall Street Journal that allowing corporations to pay for Obama’s inauguration would “essentially codify this idea that corporations should be financing politics.”

To his credit, President Obama refused corporate money for his first inauguration back in 2008.

It was the right decision then. And it’s the right decision now.

Tell Obama: Don’t allow your inauguration to be bought by Corporate America.

SIGN THE PETITON:   ACTIONCITIZEN