Lessig2016

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Published on Aug 10, 2015

82% of Americans believe the system is rigged. Before we listen to more politicians’ promises, we must find a way to un-rig that rigged system. Here is our plan. https://lessigforpresident.com/the-plan/

There is one issue we must address first in the 2016 election…

Four years ago, Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks told Netroots Nation, “There is only one issue in this country,” and he was referring to the corrupt funding of public elections.

That corruption is part of a more fundamental inequality that we’ve allowed the politicians to create: we don’t have a Congress that represents us equally.

Every issue — from climate change to gun safety, from Wall Street reform to defense spending — is tied to this “one issue.” Achieving citizens equality in America is our one mission.

A Plan to Restore Citizen Equality

Step 1. First, we need to raise enough to mount a credible campaign in the Democratic Presidential Primary. We’re doing that in the Internet way: kickstarting a campaign, with a goal we must hit to keep the money that’s been pledged. If we hit that goal, then Lessig will run.

Step 2. With funding in place to run a real campaign, Lessig will dedicate himself full-time to running for president. He’ll focus on the early Presidential Primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina, but also travel across country to press for citizen equality. If he garner 1% in three national polls in the weeks leading up to the debates, he will appear alongside the other Democratic candidates for the nationally televised Presidential debates.

Step 3. Lessig will make fixing this corrupt system by achieving citizen equality the central issue in the Democratic Primary debates. If he can win those debates, rise in the polls, and win either the New Hampshire Primary or the Iowa Caucuses, then he will be one of the top candidates running for President. Even if he doesn’t win, his participation in the Democratic debates gives us the chance to connect our system of corrupted equality to every issue that matters. We can make the politicians face this truth, and give us a way to fix it.

Step 4. Once sworn into office as the President, Lessig will use every power of the office - and the mandate of the election - to get Congress to pass the Equal Citizens Act of 2017 9https://lessigforpresident.com/the-act/). When it does, he will sign it, and submit his letter of resignation on the same day. After he resigns, the Vice President will become President, and we will have taken the most important step toward a Congress that is free to represent us since Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence.

One Mission: https://lessigforpresident.com/one-mission

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 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.

This 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 Joe
or someone 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.

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