Educational Media Reviews Online

The community organizers in We the People 2.0 are, literally, sick and tired. Environmental damage in their communities has imperiled the health of their families and neighbors. Their attempts to pressure their local and state governments failed. Now they’ve turned to a radical solution, one that if it succeeds could have a far-reaching, seismic, revolutionary impact on American politics. And the documentary barely explores it.

We the People 2.0 highlights the stories of communities that have banded together to oppose drilling and pollution in their towns – and in nearly every case, they get nowhere. Through anecdotal evidence, the film makes a compelling case that environmental laws, regulations, and protection agencies favor large corporations with the knowledge and resources to navigate them instead of citizens trying to protect themselves. Community organizers are outmatched at every step with little recourse.

The documentary focuses on a suggested solution called a “community rights law” or a “community bill of rights,” a local law that would assert a community’s authority to control their own land, reject corporate involvement, and proclaim rights for nature itself. It challenges the authority of local, state, and federal governments and the Constitution. Such an expansion of local power would have a tremendous, incalculable impact on American politics. The interviewees openly compare their movement to American Revolution and declare that America is no longer a democracy.

But We the People 2.0 barely addresses the implications of that, introducing the idea and then leaving an enormous hanging question. Community rights laws will have to fight through the courts. The documentary’s subjects brush off the issue, like one person who off-handedly says "this is not a legal issue but is actually a political question." The film calls this movement “the Second American Revolution” but doesn’t look at its path forward. The message feels incomplete. In fact, at times, We the People 2.0 plays more like an ad for the law firm that is promoting community rights laws rather than an examination of civics.

The examples of local communities advocating for change are instructive, but for declining to explore the incredible political issues it raises, this film is not recommended.