Lawrence Lessig for president (of the United States)

Northside Storm · Aug 11, 2015

Because I figured nobody else would start this thread, and it's worth discussing if you're constantly bemoaning your unicorn candidates.

Lawrence Lessig v. Citizens United

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/13/embrace-irony

In 2007, after years of failing to achieve his objectives in Washington, Lessig shared his exasperation with his friend Aaron Swartz, a computer-programming prodigy who had first contacted him in his early teens, with coding ideas for Creative Commons. Swartz had become a vigilant opponent of copyright extensions and the control of information online. He posed a pointed question to Lessig: “Why do you think the work you’re doing—copyright issues, Internet issues—is going to have any effect as long as we have this corrupt system of government?” Corruption is not my field as a scholar, Lessig replied. Swartz asked if it was his field “as a citizen.” The conversation changed Lessig’s mind. “I have no good reason not to take it up, because of tenure,” he said to Swartz. “And it kind of terrified me to imagine myself spending the rest of my life tinkering on the margins of the small arguments.”

On January, 2013, Swartz, facing federal charges for downloading millions of articles from a proprietary database, committed suicide. He was twenty-six. After his death, Swartz became an inspiration to Internet activists seeking to prevent corporations and governments from expanding their control of digital information. Lessig was radicalized by Swartz’s death. “I loved that boy like I love my son,” he said. “I’m only now understanding exactly how crazy his death made me, but it really made me crazy.”

He thought up an unusual memorial. On January 11, 2014, the first anniversary of Swartz’s death, Lessig began walking south from Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, where some of the first 2016 Presidential ballots will be cast in a primary race. Under his coat he wore a T-shirt with Swartz’s name on it. Accompanied by a fluctuating group of several dozen followers, he explained that they were walking through the state, a hundred and ninety miles, to draw attention to the “corruption that we believe infects D.C.” Lessig wanted to be “physically miserable” as an outlet for his grief, but at one point the weirdness of the idea unnerved him. He talked with Davis Guggenheim before he set out. “He asked me, you know, ‘Have I gone crazy?’ ” Guggenheim reflected on Lessig’s deepening obsession with campaign finance and replied, “There are a lot of sane people who’ve been working on this for a long time, and it’s kind of like incremental measures that add up to nothing. My money is on an insane person.”

In March, still looking skinny and windburned from the walk, which ended a few weeks earlier, Lessig recorded a TED talk dedicated to Swartz, in which he announced his next project: a super PAC intended “to win this issue, to change the way money influences politics.” That meant transforming campaign-finance reform from a cause politicians might support in the name of virtue to a cause they’d have to support in the name of survival.
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His bio:

Lawrence "Larry" Lessig (born June 3, 1961) is an American academic and political activist. He is a proponent of reduced legal restrictions on copyright, trademark, and radio frequency spectrum, particularly in technology applications, and he has called for state-based activism to promote substantive reform of government with a Second Constitutional Convention.[1] In May 2014, he launched a crowd-funded political action committee which he termed Mayday PAC with the purpose of electing candidates to Congress who would pass campaign finance reform.[2]

Lessig is director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University and a professor of law at Harvard Law School. Previously, he was a professor of law at Stanford Law School and founder of the Center for Internet and Society. Lessig is a founding board member of Creative Commons and the founder of Rootstrikers, and is on the board of MapLight.[3] He is on the advisory boards of the Democracy Café,[4] Sunlight Foundation[5] and Americans Elect.[6] He is a former board member of the Free Software Foundation, Software Freedom Law Center and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.[7]
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On August 11, 2015, Lessig announced that he had launched an exploratory campaign for the purpose of exploring his prospects of winning the Democratic Party's nomination for President of the United States in the 2016 election.[79][8] Lessig pledged to seek the nomination if were to raise $1 million by Labor Day 2015.[79] The announcement was widely reported in national media outlets, and was timed to coincide with a media blitz by the Lessig 2016 Campaign. Lessig was interviewed in The New York Times and Bloomberg. Campaign messages and Lessig's electoral finance reform positions were circulated widely on social media.[79][80] His prospective campaign would focus on a single issue: The Citizen Equality Act, a proposal that couples campaign finance reform with other laws aimed at curbing gerrymandering and expanding voting access.[79]
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His platform:

In an era when special interests funnel huge amounts of money into our government—driven by shifts in campaign-finance rules and brought to new levels by the Supreme Court in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission—trust in our government has reached an all-time low. More than ever before, Americans believe that money buys results in Congress, and that business interests wield control over our legislature.

With heartfelt urgency and a keen desire for righting wrongs, Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig takes a clear-eyed look at how we arrived at this crisis: how fundamentally good people, with good intentions, have allowed our democracy to be co-opted by outside interests, and how this exploitation has become entrenched in the system.Rejecting simple labels and reductive logic—and instead using examples that resonate as powerfully on the Right as on the Left—Lessig seeks out the root causes of our situation. He plumbs the issues of campaign financing and corporate lobbying, revealing the human faces and follies that have allowed corruption to take such a foothold in our system. He puts the issues in terms that nonwonks can understand, using real-world analogies and real human stories. And ultimately he calls for widespread mobilization and a new Constitutional Convention, presenting achievable solutions for regaining control of our corrupted—but redeemable—representational system. In this way, Lessig plots a roadmap for returning our republic to its intended greatness.
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http://republic.lessig.org/

Invisible Fan · Aug 12, 2015

Never governed.
Not rich enough.

Is he running for Green Party?

Northside Storm · Aug 12, 2015

Invisible Fan said: ↑

Never governed.
Not rich enough.

Is he running for Green Party?
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On August 11, 2015, Lessig announced that he had launched an exploratory campaign for the purpose of exploring his prospects of winning the Democratic Party's nomination for President of the United States in the 2016 election.

AroundTheWorld · Aug 12, 2015

I would vote for him. Already had a nice e-mail exchange with him in 1998.

glynch · Aug 12, 2015

Saw him on MSNBC last night. It is a gimmick though his one issue is very important. As he admits Bernie Sanders has the issue covered but vote for Lessig as he has only one issue he will talk about and he will quit office once he takes the money out of politics. Bernie has other issues also so you should vote for Lessig. Weak.

Seems like a nice guy but he he should probably stick to writing law review articles which in general are seldom read and continue pushing for taking the money out of politics in other forums.

Invisible Fan · Aug 12, 2015

Lessig is more than a one issue pony. Granted he's more about the progressive form of speech rights, the work he's done for a freer internet would be very important and ground changing on the national level.

I agree he's too much of a niche candidate, though I'd be more interested if he ran through the gauntlet that is Congress and comes out with the same voice.

SamFisher · Aug 12, 2015

Lawrence Lessig is a sharp mother****er. He has no chance of being president or succeeding in this, but still, he's sharp.

Major · Aug 12, 2015

glynch said: ↑

Seems like a nice guy but he he should probably stick to writing law review articles which in general are seldom read and continue pushing for taking the money out of politics in other forums.
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I think he's really just trying to get enough of the vote to get on the debate stage so he can promote his issue to a national audience. Not sure what that cutoff is on the Dem side or if he can reach it or not, but I assume it's in the 2-5% range.

Northside Storm · Aug 12, 2015

Major said: ↑

I think he's really just trying to get enough of the vote to get on the debate stage so he can promote his issue to a national audience. Not sure what that cutoff is on the Dem side or if he can reach it or not, but I assume it's in the 2-5% range.
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It's 1%.

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Lawrence Lessig for president (of the United States)

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