Lawrence Lessig appeared at the top floor of the National Press Club building in Washington on Thursday to launch the first phase of Change Congress. I listened directly in front of him in the front row, and I was pleased to see all of the tech geeks who showed up for his talk, because they have a lot of untapped political power.
For me, the most crucial part of Lessig’s presentation was his argument that in Congressional elections, procedural matters trump policy ideas: In his mind, voters would do well to focus not on specific policy proposals of candidates, but rather whether or not candidates
- reject contributions from registered lobbyists or political action committees,
- support the abolition of earmarks,
- support reform to increase transparency in Congress,
- and support public financing of public elections.
Lessig believes that so-called “institutional corruption” in Congress is presently so strong that good policymaking will remain extremely difficult until Congresspersons begin to carry out the above actions in greater numbers. The aim of Change Congress is to give voters who agree with this thesis the tools to more easily identify candidates who are likely to act against corruption in Congress.
Photo by Matt Billings