Good morning. It is Saturday, May 23rd. I'm Ali Velshihan. I want to begin this hour with a simple question that many of you have been screaming at your TV screens for some time now.

To whom does this democracy, whose 250th anniversary we are celebrating this year? To whom does this democracy, whose 250th anniversary we are celebrating this year,

to whom does this democracy actually belong?

Same question raised earlier this month by the Hawaiian Republican State Representative

Kanani Suza as she opened the floor debate on a bill that effectively bans corporate spending on elections

in her state. If you haven't seen Suza's speech, you absolutely should look it up and watch it.

Here's a clip.

Hawaii is not waiting for permission. Not following the lead of others, we are leading. We are making history

by restoring a fundamental truth. Power belongs to people, not corporations, especially political power.

For too long, we have lived with a legal fiction, that a corporation can stand

shoulder to shoulder with a human being in the political arena, that it can spend without limit,

influence without accountability, and project a voice so powerful that it overwhelms the very people

our Constitution was written to protect. But here in Hawaii, we are not bound to accept that

outcome as inevitable. This is a very big deal. Hawaii just did something remarkable and genuinely

historic.

It passed a bill into law with near-unanimous bipartisan support that effectively

bans corporations from spending money to influence state elections, and it did this by

redefining what powers a corporation actually has.

Hawaii Governor Josh Green signed it on May 14, making Hawaii the first state in the nation

to take on Citizens United and doing so in a way that no state has done before.

This is good news because it's a model that at least a dozen other states are working on following.

Obviously, you know the story of Citizens United, but it's worth repeating.

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