Lessig 2016 - A Referendum to Restore Democracy

nnat two sixty seven 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

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 something about a problem too but

the inequality of citizens Jefferson's truth all are created equal has

become Orwell's medium some are more equal than others and with this change the

core commitment of a representative democracy has been lost nnj

nnj nnj this inequality shows itself in a thousand ways it's why we must even

campaigns it's why a huge proportion of us don't waste our time voting it's

why the system as Elizabeth Warren puts it is rigged rates 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

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 candidates in

the democratic primary for president has acknowledged this corruption so far every one of them just

put said to one side as if without fixing the rig 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 wallstreet or

take on the insurance companies as if this corruption were just a detail something to be solved quote

in the long run and quote as if fixing democracy by achieving equality

for something that could just wait it can't wait this must and 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 and that this inequality and corruption give

nnj so here's the idea we're going to test a referendum president

long as it takes but only as long as it takes past fundamental reform to finally achieve

fill out his term the candidate is the referendum a campaign that is for that