Larry Lessig Launches Presidential Bid to Reform Campaign Finances and Then Resign | Alternet

Larry Lessig, the Harvard professor-turned-constitutional reformer who for years has been publicly banging his head against our corrupt campaign finance system is forming an exploratory committee to run for president.

In a three-minute YouTube video posted Monday, Lessig said that an “intervention” was needed to break American political culture’s addictive dance with rich donors, that “hack[ing] the system” was the only way it could be destroyed and democracy restored.   

“Most Americans think the way we fund campaigns in America is crazy and corrupt,” Lessig began. “Did you know the number of relevant funders in campaigns today represents a tiny fraction of one percent of the population? The consequence of that system is a democracy that’s responsive to those funders only.”

Lessig is making a serious critique, but then turns to a novel remedy that invites ridicule: running for the White House and promising to resign after Congress enacts sweeping reforms. His video quickly puts the blame on Congress and then calls on people to help him blow up the system.
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“Imagine someone ran for president with the single promise to remain as president until Congress acted to end this corrupt and unequal system by enacting fundamental reform to fix it,” he said. “And when that happened, this referendum president, really just a trustee for the people, would step aside, and the elected vice president, a kind of president-in-waiting would step in.”


Larry Lessig Launches Presidential Bid to Reform Campaign Finances and Then Resign | Alternet