By Jim Leach, Nina Turner and Jeff Clements

No matter which of the presidential candidates had prevailed in last month’s election, America continues on a perilous path toward plutocracy, a government of and for the rich and powerful. Power rapidly is concentrating into the hands of billionaires, global corporations, and secretive Super PACs. Large donors receive control of state and federal offices, and concentrated money is perverting justice and equal representation. We must end this.

As a Republican, a progressive Democrat, and an independent, we join together to ask all Americans to support the 28th Amendment to our Constitution to win effective government and equal rights for all Americans. No one else but the American citizenry can do this, and no half-measures that fail to address our constitutional crisis can set our course right.

Make no mistake, we do face a constitutional crisis, not just a “campaign finance” problem. The dangerous lack of balance, fairness, inclusion and trust in our political system in large measure results from disastrous decisions by a divided Supreme Court, including Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. In Citizens United, the court decreed that corporations, unions, and billionaires have a “free speech” right to spend unlimited money to decide elections and policy, and they are doing so with a vengeance.

Billions of dollars of “speech” now dominate our system, and most of the money comes from far less than 1 percent of Americans. This is the money that decides who runs, who wins and who governs. In this system, most Americans become second-class citizens, told to choose between unpleasant sides or merely be spectators to the fights between competing factions of the donor class.

This is a dangerous breach of our national covenant. Our American promise is that every one of us, no matter how poor or how rich, is an equal citizen. Our basic equality lies at the heart of our democracy. When that promise is broken, is it any wonder that Americans get angry, check out, or turn against those who either created this problem or cannot begin to solve it?

We can fix this if we limit the deployment of money power that now runs our elections and government. According to the Supreme Court, though, we are not allowed to limit that money power. If the court’s decision is correct, our democracy will fail. If the vast majority of Americans who disagree with the court about the role of money in our democracy are correct, we must overturn the Court’s mistake. To do that, we need a constitutional amendment.

The 28th Amendment will limit concentrated money in elections, end the corrupt pay-to-play lobbying system, and keep corporations in business, and out of crony politics.

Money isn’t speech, it’s power. The 28th Amendment will give free speech rights to all Americans, not just those few who now “speak” so loudly with money and corporate clout. The 28th Amendment will secure the rights of all Americans to participate and be represented equally, regardless of wealth; one person, one vote.

This is not a partisan issue. On election day, millions of voters in Wisconsin, Ohio, California and Washington had a chance to vote on ballot initiatives to support the 28th Amendment. They all passed, no matter whether the voters were mostly Republicans or mostly Democrats. In Wisconsin, 18 communities passed 28th Amendment resolutions at levels of support ranging from 65 percent to 91 percent.

More than 740 cities and towns have joined 18 states in passing similar resolutions, and these resolutions work: Hundreds of Representatives and Senators are now on board, and know we must act to win the 28th Amendment before it’s too late.

In early October, each of us participated in the first-ever National Citizen Leader Conference in Washington DC, which was presented by American Promise, a non-partisan organization bringing Americans together to win this fight. Only weeks before the contentious election, we joined 300 citizen leaders from 40 states, national business, faith, civic and political leaders, including both Republican and Democratic members of Congress, in deliberations about the 28th Amendment.

We listened to each other, we learned from each other, and we were inspired by so many Americans, regardless of party, who are committed to putting our country and our people first.

Constitutional amendments are not easy. They require national deliberation, debate and hard work. Often, they require the citizens of America to correct powerful justices of the Supreme Court. Indeed, Americans have won seven previous constitutional amendments to overturn wrongly decided Supreme Court decisions about everything from state’s rights to equal citizenship for African-Americans, from the right of women to vote to the elimination of the poll tax.

Now, we will do this again with the 28th Amendment. In doing so, we will accomplish a historic American feat, heal our divides and renew our national promise. Please join us.

Nina Turner, a Democrat, is a former Ohio state senator. James Leach, a Republican, represented the people of Iowa in Congress for three decades. Jeff Clements, an independent, is an attorney and the president of American Promise.