Calling it a “rigged system” and vowing to fight for political reform, Harvard professor Lawrence Lessig announced he was exploring running for the Democratic presidential nomination on Tuesday.
“At the core of our democracy there is a basic inequality ... the inequality of citizens,” Lessig says in a video announcing the launch. “The core commitment of a representative democracy has been lost.”
Lessig promises to be a “referendum president" who would “serve only as long as it took to pass fundamental reform — the Citizen Equality Act of 2017 — and then I’d resign.” Hoping to raise $1 million by Labor Day, Lessig plans to make political reform, including his “Citizen Equality Act,” the core of his prospective campaign.
“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,” Lessig’s exploratory campaign website notes. “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.”
Lessig started out on the right, working as a clerk for Antonin Scalia, but drifted to the left, backing President Barack Obama and taking the public stage to call for ending gerrymandering and limiting the role money can play in politics. The Harvard professor has also been active fighting for Net neutrality and more free software. While he has moved to the left on several fronts, Lessig has agreed with many in the tea party movement about the need for a new constitutional convention, even as they clash on what it should pursue.
Currently, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is leading the Democratic primary, though U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is moving up in national polls and surveys of key states. Three other Democrats -- former U.S. Sen. and Gov. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley and former U.S. Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia--are lagging behind. Vice President Joe Biden is a possible candidate.
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