Lessig: "fixing the bankruptcy that is Congress is the first step"

[understandinglife]

For I’ve come to believe that this isn’t just one among a number of important issues. It is the issue. It is the single issue we need to solve if every other important issue is going to have a chance of being solved sensibly. The dependency of modern campaign finance is the single most important cause of the bankruptcy of Congress. Fixing this bankruptcy is the single most important reform effort that Americans face just now.

That’s not to say there aren’t other, extraordinarily important issues that America faces. Of course there are. Global warming is at the top of my list. The peace in Iraq may be at the top of yours. But fixing the bankruptcy that is Congress is the first step to solving these other issues. Without this first step, the other reform simply won’t happen.

Think of it like this: We’ve all known, or been harmed by, or harmed others as an alcoholic. We all therefore understand something about this particular dependency. One thing we understand is this. An alcoholic might face many critical problems. He might be losing his job, his marriage, and his liver. All three of those are among the worst possible problems a person could face. But we know he won’t begin to solve those problems until he deals with his alcoholism. Alcoholism isn’t the most important problem in the mix. It’s just the first problem. It’s the problem that must be solved before anything else can get solved.

Yes.

Lessig presents a cogent and accurate diagnosis of the disease that has enabled Bush and his neoconsters to commit crimes against us, our Constitution and humanity.

The addiction of Congress folk to special interest money as to maintain their access to that special interest money by being elected and re-elected, has rendered them nothing but enablers of Bush's drive toward a despotic, corporatist juggernaut.

We always knew the greatest threats would come from within and be driven by greed and quest for unconstrained power.

That is the America in which we now live.

4 November 2008 may be the last opportunity "We the People ..." have to save the America -- us -- from overt tyranny and unchecked corporatist imperialism.

Peace,
Bob

[Possumpoint]

1. Wonderful K & R

but how do you clear the rot out? Only by completely cleaning house and banning lobbying will this be accomplished. Then campaign finance reform would be required. The system is set up to defeat innovation and maintain the status quo.

[puebloknot]

2. K&R Know your thesis is right. Don't know how we'll ever accomplish ...

... what you prescribe short of a political Katrina.

You would think that what happened in the '30s in Europe would be enough to cause We the People to truly carry out that old cliche -- "Never Again." A lot of the younger generation doesn't even know what despotism *is*. They might think it's some new computer game that they will *have* to have to complete their collection, so ignorant are they of world/national history.

Perhaps there's hope in another cliche which I've heard applied to the scientific community: "Science advances, funeral by funeral." But we don't have time for a lot of state funerals.

There are, of course, many young people who have the intelligence and desire to fuel a revolution of some kind to change the world. Many would give up materiality for fairness to all. So, when I get into a frame of mind that says the problem is too big, I think about "The Tipping Point" and realize that it might take the infiltration into Congress of just a few "righteous" ones, and the virus might spread.

If 2008 doesn't work for us, there's always poetry. The spirit that has long driven this country, flawed though it may be, isn't going to die. The question is, what force will it take to keep it alive, should we not prevail at the ballot box?

[understandinglife]

3. "The question is, what force will it take to keep it alive, should we not prevail at the ballot box"

The "force" that forged the Declaration of Independence ..... nothing less. One can hope that that is the force that drives the outcome, peacefully, on 4 Nov 2008.

Otherwise, ... well, that's not something I want to ponder, now.

Thank you, my friend,
Bob