In 1967, Democratic Senator Eugene McCarthy entered the Primary,
here in New Hampshire, to challenge his own party's sitting President,
because he feared the most important moral issue of the time, the Vietnam War,
was going to be invisible in that election.
In four months, McCarthy went from almost nothing in the polls
to almost beating Lyndon Johnson in the Primary.
And the one issue that no one wanted to talk about
became the one issue that no one could ignore.
At the core of our democracy, there is a basic inequality.
Not the inequality of wealth -- though that is a problem --
or the inequality of speech -- though some think that a problem too --
but the inequality of citizens.
Jefferson's truth that "All men are created equal"
has become Orwell's meme, that "some are more equal than others."
And with this change,
the core commitment of a representative democracy
has been lost.
This inequality shows itself in a thousand ways.
It's why we must even say: "Black lives matter."
It's why Congress bends over backwards
to benefit those who fund their campaigns.
It's why a huge proportion of us don't waste our time voting.
It's why the system, as Elisabeth Warren puts it,
is rigged.
Rigged to block reforms that most Americans would benefit from,
rigged to help the very few:
those with the money to fund the politicians' campaigns.
We need to challenge this rigged system like MacCarthy challenged the war.
We need to make fixing it the first priority
of the next President and next Congress,
because until it is fixed, no sensible reform is even possible.
Yet though every major candidate in the Democratic Primary for President
has acknowledged this corruption,
so far every one of them just puts it to one side,
as if without fixing the rigged system first,
we could get climate change legislation
or sane limits on guns;
as if without changing the way campaigns are funded first,
we could reform Wall Street,
or take on the insurance companies;
as if this corruption were just a detail,
something to be solved "in the long run";
as if fixing democracy by achieving equality
were something that could just wait.
It can't wait.
It must end now.
We need a campaign that's more than yet another partisan squabble.
We need a campaign for a referendum,
a referendum that speaks our mandate clearly,
ends this inequality and corruption,
give us a government free from the money,
give us a Congress free to lead.
So here is the idea we're going to test:
a Referendum President,
a candidate who runs for President making a single promise,
that if elected, he would serve as long as it takes
-- but only as long as it takes --
to pass fundamental reform to finally achieve citizen equality.
Once that reform is passed, this President would step down
and the elected Vice-President would become President
to fill out his term.
The candidate is the referendum.
The campaign is for that referendum.
So I am asking you
to help me crowdfund a campaign for a Referendum President,
so we can give the next extraordinary President
-- whether Hillary or Bernie or Jo or some one else --
a Congress that can represent us and a Congress that is free to lead.
And if we hit our funding target
and the leading candidates in the Democratic Primary
do not commit to making this fundamental reform
the first priority of their administration,
then I will enter the race as a Referendum candidate.
I would tie every issue in the campaign
-- from climate change to student debt --
to this fundamental corruption.
I would make citizen equality central to this election.
And if this referendum won,
its mandate would be as powerful as any that's possible
within our political system.
This would be the clearest peaceful rally for equal democracy
in our lifetime.
This won't be easy, I get it.
And no doubt, there should be someone better than me.
I have tried to recruit them
and if someone better known credibly commits to making this run,
I would happily step aside.
This campaign is not about a person, it's about a principle,
an American principle that we must reclaim:
that all are created equal
and that a Democracy must respect us all as equals.
Please give whatever you can and more importantly,
please share this as broadly as you can,
because with the Net, we can change this election,
and if we do, we will change every election that comes afterwards as well.
This is our shot to make Democracy possible.
We need to take it now.
[You can make this possible lessig2016.us]
[Lessig 2016 Equal citizens first.]