You don’t save democracy by finding a way to ban political speech. A group of folks in Bend is calling for just that sort of government crackdown on speech. They again asked the Bend City Council on Wednesday night to put a measure on the local ballot to support a constitutional amendment to rewrite speech.

The council didn’t vote, but three seemed supportive — Jodie Barram, Jim Clinton and Doug Knight. Three were against — Mark Capell, Victor Chudowsky and Scott Ramsay.

We agree one of the the biggest steaming messes of American politics is the influence of money. Of course, people have concerns about that and the ability to be heard.

The Citizens United decision by the U.S. Supreme Court has become the target. The court ruled that independent political expenditures by corporations and unions get First Amendment protection and cannot be restricted by the government.

The Move to Amend group nationally and in Bend supports an illusory fix that would do two things. It would declare that rights in the Constitution apply only to human beings and not corporations or limited-liability companies. It would also say that political campaigning is not free speech.

We are not at all so hasty to begin the unraveling of the First Amendment.

It’s further unnerving — but perhaps not surprising — that the language on the website makes it clear the ban would apply to companies but is not so clear about prohibiting unions from pouring in the bucks.

And experience tells that every effort to limit campaign spending is met by a corresponding dash through the loopholes and a new series of limits on campaign spending. Money finds a way.

The better answer to the influence of money in politics is to show the influence of money in politics.

Require disclosure and transparency. Require as much immediacy in that reporting as is reasonably possible.

Don’t ban speech in a quixotic quest to save democracy.