Lessig2016

See http://lessig.tumblr.com/post/126415513087/lessig .

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.]