Every two years or so - Americans hit the polls to elect politicians to represent us.

They key word here is: they REPRESENT us.

They don't LEAD us...we don't elect leaders - we elect representatives.

In fact, the word "leaders" doesn't even appear in the Constitution or in ANY of our founding documents.

That's because the way our government is designed - and the way our government has worked for over 230 years now - is that fundamental change starts from the ground up.

It begins with grassroots movements - with people in the street.

It never begins with politicians - it never has.

Only once a movement gets big enough - do politicians - OUR representatives - get behind it - carry the movement's message forward in Congress and push for actual legislation to satisfy the movement.

That's how women got the right to vote - that's how minorities got civil rights - and it's how - most recently - gays earned the right to openly join our military.

And ultimately - it's going to be how corporations lose their personhood rights - and how control of our nation will be wrestled away from the corporate 1% and put back under control of "We the People."

And it's the Occupy Wall Street movement that's leading the way.

To paraphrase Gandhi: first they were ignored, then they were ridiculed, then fought...and now they're winning.

Yesterday - the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to approve a resolution calling on Congress to pass a constitutional amendment ending corporate personhood.

It was an 11-0 vote.

Los Angeles joins the growing list of cities and counties that have passed resolutions fighting back against corporate personhood - including Boulder, Colorado - Missoula, Montana - Madison, Wisconsin - Dane County, Wisconsin - and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

And Congress is responding.

Democrats in the Senate have introduced two separate amendments to the Constitution - one that overturns Citizens United and gets all the corporate money out of our elections - and another one that goes all the way and ends corporate personhood altogether.

Way back in 1999, when I first wrote Unequal Protection - the first major nationally published book on corporate personhood - nobody knew what the heck I was talking about.

But Citizens United and Occupy Wall Street have catapulted it to bestseller status and put the issue before City Councils across America - on cable news television shows - and even into the halls of Congress.

Senator Bernie Sanders even quoted my writing at length during his famous 9-hour filibuster.

And we have to keep talking about corporate personhood, and keep fighting against the concept of corporations having constitutional rights...because it's wrong that they have constitutional rights and the fight against it is working.

That pedestal that corporations sit on - thanks to their personhood rights - that keeps them immune from prosecution for their crimes - is now starting to give way.

Yesterday - Representatives on the Cleveland City Council voted 18-1 to endorse the "Occupy" movement and call on Congress to start investigating the big banks for financial fraud - and maybe even throw some banksters in jail.

Attorneys General in Delaware, Massachusetts, New York, and California are pushing forward with their own investigations into Wall Street that may result in banksters going to jail.

The wealth inequality in America - caused by corporate personhood and unequal influence in our government by millionaires and billionaires who've pushed for radical tax cuts for themselves - has now come to the forefront in the public debate.

People aren't talking about debt reduction anymore like the Koch brothers want - they're talking about job creation and inequality like the 99% want - like the movement is demanding.

Even the President is now being forced to talk like a populist - as we saw recently in his speech about Teddy Roosevelt:

This is the defining issue of our time. This is a make-or-break moment for the middle class, and for all those who are fighting to get into the middle class. ...

This isn’t about class warfare. This is about the nation’s welfare. It’s about making choices that benefit not just the people who’ve done fantastically well over the last few decades, but that benefits the middle class, and those fighting to get into the middle class, and the economy...

Our success has never just been about survival of the fittest. It’s about building a nation where we’re all better off.

Talk is cheap...but it's a start.

When the parade is big enough, politicians will always jump out in front of it, hoist a flag, and declare, "This is MY parade!"

And now, the movement - our parade - has to keep it up - make sure that talk by our President - by our REPRESENTATIVES - and by our news media - is followed up by real action - by real fundamental change in America.

We need to DOUBLE our efforts!

Occupy MORE Congressional offices - MORE lobbying firms - MORE banks - MORE foreclosed homes - MORE public parks - and, like here, MORE airwaves.

For the first time in over three decades in America - corporate power is on the run.

The final section of Unequal Protection is entitled, "Let us Begin".

And I end the book with a quote from John F. Kennedy who said:

All this will not be finished in the first 100 days. Nor will it be finished in the first 1,000 days, nor in the lifetime of this administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.

Thanks to the Occupy Wall Street movement - the fight against corporate personhood has kicked into high gear.

And if the history of the past 200 years of steady progressive change in this country is any predictor of the future, "We the People" will win.

You can get all the details at movetoamend.org.

That's The Big Picture.