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Lawrence Lessig, Scholar And Reformer, Announces Quirky Run For President

Lawrence Lessig, Scholar And Reformer, Announces Quirky Run For President

A law professor known for his activism in the realms of digital rights and campaign finance reform has announced a run for president — and it’s unusual.

In what he’s calling a “referendum campaign,” he’s running on a single-issue platform with the sole purpose of radically transforming the political process — and with the stated intention of handing over power to others once that’s been accomplished.

Lawrence Lessig, a Harvard Law professor who has written eight books on topics such as the intersection of digital culture and the law and the influence of money in politics, is aligned with the Democratic Party, although he has said that there’s no way the party will be able to enact reforms without fixing how policies get written in America.

In another atypical move for a candidate, he said that if he didn’t raise enough money and support to continue his campaign, he would return the money to donors and bow out of the race. His target: $1 million by Labor Day, roughly four weeks after his announcement.

After that, Lessig’s team “will crowdsource a process to complete the details of this reform,” according to his website, and shape it into proposed legislation by January 1.

As he toldThe Washington Post, “Until we find a way to fix the rigged system, none of the other things that people talk about doing are going to be possible. We have this fantasy politics right now where people are talking about all the wonderful things they’re going to do while we know these things can’t happen inside the rigged system.”

As part of his platform, he told the Post that, if he were to win, he’d serve only as long as it took to pass a certain number of government reforms. After that, he says, he would resign to be succeeded by his vice president, selected for having a set of ideals aligned with the Democratic Party. In an interview with Bloomberg Politics, he explained that this “would create a mandate that is more powerful than any mandate possible in our political system.”

Lessig’s campaign issue (singular) is the Citizen Equality Act of 2017, a collection of reforms proposed by other legislators and experts, which would change the role of big money in politics and alter the way Americans vote.

According to his campaign website, the Citizen Equality Act would consist of three parts, each “designed to restore citizen equality” through representation.

The first part would revolve around voting reforms, giving each state the power to create official public websites for online voter registration. Under this proposal, Election Day would become a national holiday.

The second — equal representation — would end gerrymandering, the process of redrawing districts to favor one political party based on past voting behavior, and enact “ranked choice voting,” where voters would be allowed to rank candidates in order of preference.

The last part, what Lessig terms “Citizen Funded Elections,” is the reform that has received the most support and criticism. Donald Trump has been able to run for president because his considerable independent wealth allowed him to buy his way into the race and remain there without backing from the usual interest groups and oligarchs. Most politicians depend on big bankrollers to finance their campaigns, essentially making small donors irrelevant and squeezing them out of the process. Lessig’s proposals would provide tax credits for campaign contributions, and offer matching donations from a nonpartisan fund; this would create greater transparency, he says, and impose strict limits on lobbying and the “revolving door” of jobs between lobbyists and legislative staffers.

In a piece titled “Why I Want to Run” published on The Huffington Post, he wrote that while the type of candidacy he is proposing is “implausible,” his ideas — reforms he calls “the most important moral issue of our time” — aren’t: “The system is rigged. Sensible change cannot happen until it is unrigged. Any campaign that makes un-rigging just one issue among many cannot achieve the mandate fundamental reform will require.”

Image: Lawrence Lessig, constitutional law scholar, is just as unconventional a presidential candidate as Donald Trump. Screenshot via Lessigforpresident.com

Lawrence Lessig Launches ‘MAYDAY’ SuperPAC For Campaign Finance Reform

Lawrence Lessig Launches ‘MAYDAY’ SuperPAC For Campaign Finance Reform

Political activist and Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig is taking a leap into the political money game, with the specific intention of reforming campaign finance laws by 2016.

On Thursday, May 1, Lessig launched the MAYDAY Citizens’ SuperPAC, a Political Action Committee that will seek contributions from small donors concerned with putting an end to America’s slide toward plutocracy.

“The ultimate aim is to spend enough to win a majority in Congress committed to fundamental reform by 2016. We’ve spent the last year gaming out how much that would cost. I think it is feasible and possible — if we can take these first steps successfully now,” Lessig wrote about the project on his blog.

The project will be funded similar to a Kickstarter campaign: Lessig claims if small contributions total $1 million after one month, a large donor will match the amount. If the PAC raises $5 million in the following month, another wealthy donor will match that amount. The small donors will only be charged if the goals are hit.

It’s a leap, Lessig admits, but it’s a political cause with near-universal appeal. In fact, Lessig is counting on small donations from across the political spectrum. “Our polls show that more than 90 percent of Americans believe it’s important to reduce the influence of money in politics,” Lessig recently toldMoyers and Company. “And that’s true for Republicans as much as Democrats and Independents. This is just a universal view.”

Lessig’s commitment to align America’s left and right on this issue has been a constant throughout his career. Lessig, who serves on the advisory boards of Creative Commons and the Sunlight Foundation, was also a strong supporter of the Occupy Wall Street movement. In 2011, prior to the first tents being pitched in Zuccotti Park, Lessig penned what The Atlantic called the movement’s “handbook”: Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress — and a Plan to Stop It. As a shock to the leftist “Occupy” movement, in December 2011 Lessig called for Occupy Wall Street to join forces with the Tea Party

“Those people have the same recognition of corruption in the system,” he said. “Think a few steps ahead and build the movement that could change America.”

Today, Lessig is optimistic about the influence his new project can have on U.S. elections.

“It is impossibly hard to imagine raising $1 million in 30 days, even as a contingent commitment (meaning, you only get charged if we hit the goal),” Lessig wrote. “I get that. But we’ve got to try. For if we succeed, we can change the story of this democracy; we can give people a sense that we can actually claim it back. And we can build a momentum, I believe, that no billionaire’s SuperPAC could defeat.”

Photo: Joi Ito via Flickr