Say You Want A Revolution? Larry Lessig Says Change How Political Campaigns Are Funded-Starting Now

http://www.alternet.org/activism/say-you-want-revolution-larry-lessig-says-change-how-political-campaigns-are-funded



In the Q&A with AlterNet’s Steven Rosenfeld, Lessig’s explains his fighting fire with fire strategy. He says the campaign finance reform community has backed the wrong remedies for decades. He says Democratics missed their chance to make real reforms when it had that power. And he said why he’s optimistic that Americans—if given a change and pathway—will break the cycle of corruption that starts in fundraising.

Steven Rosenfeld: Let’s start with the basics. How much has the MayDay PAC raised? How close are you to raising the next $5 million by July 4 th?

Larry Lessig: The total so far is just over $3 million. I don’t mean $3 million in this cycle (June). In this cycle we are just over $1 million. So we’ve got a long way to go to get to five. We’re trying to pull together a lot of things to make that possible. It’s obviously a tough challenge.

SR: If you don’t get to the $5 million mark do you still go forward?

LL: We’re definitely going forward with something, because we’ve got resources to do a significant amount already. One of the things that I am surprised about is although we set this up as a contingent funding campaign, 40 percent of the contributions have come from people who have clicked the box that says ‘even if you don’t meet your goal, keep my money.’ So think we will be in good shape ro do what we’re trying to do.

SR: You have thousands of small donors and half-dozen big donors—mostly Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. What do the big donors expect?

LL: If we win, if we’re successful, the ultimate goal that they have is to reduce the influence of money in politics. So they should expect that they will have less power. But these are people who believe that the power in the system that they have right now is not doing the system or them much good. They’re spending money to reduce their influence, which is some kind of self-sacrifice, but it’s not a very big sacrifice with how little the government is able to achieve.