The Problem With Money in Politics - Lawrence Lessig, Harvard Law

so thank you and and welcome to the students and i'm very honored and happy to have a chance to talk this movement which in many ways begin here uh... a spread across the country and i want to start by talking about but i think that's the problem and talk about here we'd use tell a story you need to begin with an image like this once upon a time there was a place called you don't know from your ducks and because it's a secret so please don't tell anybody but my first name is actually last so i think fun of lester's and i will make fun of leftist for a moment in describing dot problem by understanding this place called leicester le celestial and looks a lot like the united states like the united states and has about three hundred million people and of those three hundred and some million people a hundred and forty four thousand are named lester so that means point zero five percent of laughter length is named lester now investors in leicester land have this extraordinary power there two elections in every election cycle election and lester land as a general election and there is a lester and in the last election molesters get the votes and in the general election also assumes over eighteen if you have an idea in some states get to vote but here's the trick to run in the general election you must do extremely well in the last election you don't necessarily have to win but you must do extremely well but this is a picture of democracy last july what can we say about less than that what we can say number one as the supreme court said in citizens united the people have the alternate influence over elected officials in leicester land because after all their is a general election but there's that john will election only after the last year's have had their way with the candidates to to run in with him at your local action number two obviously his dependence upon the lester's produces a subtle understated we might say camouflaged bending the last year's happy and number three reformer that angers the last year's is we might say uh... likely okay so that's lesson learnt there's three things i want you to understand now that you understand united states is lester united states is less it's it's also looks like this also has two elections once called the general election the other we should call the money election in the general election all citizens over eighteen if you have an idea some states get to vote in the money election itself funders who get to vote the relevant funders of the campaigns and as a less to lead to run in the general election you must do extremely well in that number and the money election you don't necessarily have to but you must do extremely well and here's the key there are just as few relevant funders in our democracy as their are lester's in leicester left bc really point zero five percent one of the numbers in this election cycle point three percent of americans point three one third of one percent of given two hundred dollars or more an election point zero five five percent of given the maximum amount to any congressional or presidential candidate point zero one percent had given ten thousand dollars or more in the election cycle point zero zero zero three percent to give it a hundred thousand dollars or more and my family statistic point zero zero zero zero four two percent for those of you doing the numbers you know that's a hundred and thirty two americans gave sixty percent of the super pac money that was lugo houston this last election so i look at this range point three two point zero one and i'm a lawyer i think it's fair for me to say it's about point zero five percent who are the relevant funders in these elections andes funders our power lester's like you can say about last earl and this is what you can say about u_s_ england of course the supreme court was wrecked the people have the ultimate influence over elected officials because they're killers eight general election but as a master land only after the finders have had their way with the candidates who wish to win in that general election and number two obviously this dependence upon the finders produces a subtle and understand camouflaged bending to keep their funders happy candidates for congress and members of congress stand between thirty and sovereignty percent of that time raising money to get to power or to get their party back into power and as they do that they develop as any of us who are they sixty cents are constantly wearing a seat on how well did you might affect their ability to raise money they become in the words of the x_-files shapeshifter sp as they constantly adjust their views in light of what they know will help them to raise money not on issues one to ten byron issues eleven to one thousand leslie byrne a democrat from virginia describes that would she went to congress she was told by a colleague quote always believed to be green and declare five she went on he was not an environmentalist and then quickly were a former that anger has the funders in our system we can say is on platelets and a sense of what is a first the united states has less to here's the second point united states is worse than western worst semester because you can imagine and left to learn deeply lester's got a letter from the government the settlers you guys had to pick who are the candidates that will run in the general election you know that lasted for every class they're black blockbusters away but not many women lustrous but it was put out detail aside for a second now lessons from every class you can imagine there have been a kind of aristocracy of us less terrorists it's at least possible we would think we need to act in the good of last around it's our job it's our purpose it's our role they look up to us lester's to help them take the best candidates who will run but in our land in this land in u_s_a_ land the lester's for the lester's because the shifting coalitions uh... ensures that comprise the points zero five percent are formed on the basis of whatever issue is just over the horizon so if it's climate change legislation you know it's called companies and oil companies and the price a significant portion of the lessons its health care you know it's insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies and doctors to form a significant component of the left is whatever the issue is whatever the issue that has to be blocked whatever reform needs to be stopped you can read back from that and understand makes up the lester's and when they gathered together and make their contributions they are not asking for legislation in the public interest they're asking for legislation in their interest so in this sense united states is worse than last one and finally point number three whatever one wants to say about last july in our land and our version of lesser landing u_s_a_ landis conflicting dependents on last year's versus the people is corruption corruption now i don't mean it's brown paper bag corruption with cash secretly to members of congress i don't mean it's rob would waive its corruption where people are engaging in criminal acts and i'm willing to stipulate but complaints i have has no criminality attached to it all unwilling to assume everything i'm describing is perfectly legal perfectly legal but even if it's perfectly legal it is still corruption relative to the baseline that are free birth dates are framers give us what they called a republic and by republican and today representative democracy by representative democracy is madison described in fred was fifty two they managed by government that would have a branch that would be quote dependents aparna the people alone system of government at the poll they have the government u_n_ slide to school with a balances with them because the people and the government an exclusive dependency exclusive dependency and so would the public would be found five at exclusive dependency but here's the problem congress has evolved a different dependents no longer depends upon the people alone increasingly dependent upon the funders embarrasses me dependents to it is and conflicting dependence upon the people alone personal funders are not this is corruption corruption of the design that was to be this constitutional democracy now this corruption has an effect its first the fact is that americans believe because of that mexican arkansas right to believe this but this is a separate question which is focused on what americans believe americans believe money buys results in congress quotes unquote seventy per cent of americans according to a poll we conducted for the book i published last fall at that point has been higher democrats republicans that i guarantee you before the republicans took control of the house in two thousand times just as many republicans and democrats so here it is folks the one thing we americans all believe buys results in congress we deploy number two that belief erodes trust in the institution cuts a_b_c_ in new york times found last year that nine percent of america had confidence in congress mine percent now we should put them in context is certainly the case that is certainly the case at the time of the american revolution higher proportion of americans had confidence in the british crown men who have confidence in our congress and that means the point of the three this erosion arose cheesy ira's participation in the system rock the vote which in two thousand eight organizing turned up a large number of young voters in history of voting in america we still have the numbers from this election founded that into doesn't intend a significant number of their young voters would just like to show up so called and asked them why and the number one reason by far to one of the second has reason was no matter who wins corporate interest will still have too much power and prevents changed and it's not just kids the vast majority who could have voted in two thousand intended not god in part at least because of this belief and even in this election forty percent did not vote impart at least i suggest because of disbelief corruption and these targets consequences okay so it was the solution to that corruption there's a systemic problem here it is that the funders are not the people there's a systemic solution to that problem it is to make the funders the people to give them away give them away and and it makes it sound like i mean to give congress of land and nobody would take congress i don't mean that but i mean that congress manuel to fund their campaigns at least without selling their souls and thereby without ilya meeting america and the one way and i think the only way to do this is default in the and firmly and loudly gal we believe insistent funded campaigns know what is that uses systems a small dollar funded campaigns and it needs right now they're systems for candidates get up popped into a world where they agreed to take small dollar funded contributions only and the system amplifies those contributions to make it so they can win the campaigns never taking large contributions from anybody there many versions of this does matching grant proposal that systems tages arizona or neighbor connecticut connecticut adopted their system in its first years seventy eight percent of the elected representatives were elected using the system where they took small contributions only never had to take any large contributions democrats and republicans alike in new york city has a similar system which now might become the model for the whole of new york state their tax credit systems like oregon to give people the ability to contribute small dollars to kill the candidates who take small contributions and then get a credit on their taxes that they're about your proposals first proposed by bruce ackerman indian errors i describe this proposal in my book republic loss which i call the grant in franklin project where everybody gets a fifty dollar voucher they can give to any candidate or part of it to any candidate to agrees that the or she will find his or her campaign with vouchers only plus contributions of up to a hundred dollars from any citizens so grants fifty frank one hundred and i think most importantly now we have the proposal introduced just this week the american inti corruption cracked which has a tax credit to find a voucher program of a hundred dollars to make it so candidates can opt to take small dollar contributions and have an extraordinary resource and sorts for those small contributions or other proposals the trap them all together congressman sarbanes from maryland has a proposal called the grassroots democracy act which has been matching fund proposal it has a tax credit proposal and has a pilot for the voucher proposal all in one prized package market but he should be systems funds from the bottom up each of them is the aiming to reduce the gap between the finders and the people and each of them has as its objective to reverse the extraordinary inequality that exist in our system now with the top one percent have ten times the per capita influenced at the bottom ninety nine percent house to aspired to be ideal which is at the center of the way we allocate votes which is person one that is what's innocent funded campaigns needs only citizens fund campaigns and all citizens fund campaigns and in three hundred if we had a system where candidates took small dollar contributions only and we all could believe as we desperately want to believe that whenever congress did something praising it was either because they are too many democrats or because they were too many republicans but not because of the money because we would have removed that cynical assumption from the only possible way to interpret congress does because we would have made it so that the funders all of us okay now the question dot mca constantly presented when people like me and others hundreds of others push this kind of proposal is is it even possible to imagine congress embracing such an idea is it even possible and there are moments when i wonder whether it even possible this man made me the most cynical i could possibly be about this this is jim cooper democrat from virginia there has been in congress for as long as about twenty other members uh... of congress he sent me when i was interviewing him for my book you have to understand capitol hill has become a kind of farm read for chemistry k street with a lobbyist work movement was members in staffers and bureaucrats had an increasingly common business model a business model focused on their life after government life is lobbyists so fifty percent of the senate between nineteen ninety eight and two thousand four according to public citizen left the senate to become lobbyists forty two percent of the house as united republic calculated just last spring the salary increase for those they tracked as they moved from the house to be coming lobbyists was one thousand four hundred and fifty percents pretty good business model even in washington sona system where everybody depends upon the system surprising so that their retirement is set to their kids can have their education pay so that there are two other vacation houses at least have something to support the mortgage so the system can survive how is it possible that we can imagine attacking that cancer which is this beltway through valmeyer selves because he is the fact cancer does not cure itself it does not cure itself and it won't be too hard by dinky little reforms tiny little ideas tinkering crumbs at the table they're being proposed by people who think we chose to a tiny little switch we'll magically change the system instead what it needs is a movement unlike any we've seen since the civil rights movement or the progressive movement taking on a corruption greater than anything we've seen since we out stitched george okay now we have an opportunity for them it's a kind of gift it was a gift given to us riled up unlikely institutions they don't give memphis this place the supreme court it's a gift given to us in the form of opinion called citizens united verses the federal election commission opinion that help corporations have an unlimited power to spend whenever they want independent of political campaigns to promote or oppose any political candidate that opinion sparked extraordinary outrage across the country outrage which was across the political spectrum so the washington post a week after the plane came out of town the eighty four percent of democrats oppose the payment uh... eighty one percent of independence and seventy six percent republicans outrage at the idea that corporations that have this role in our political process and that probably reach translated into inspiration as extraordinary range of new organizations like moved to mentor of free speech for people org ninety-nine rice begin to brace this cause and joining all sorts of organizations that have been around for much longer than this opinion demanding vat this decision the reversed at and in the process in the process of these organizations taking up this cause millions have been recruited to this cost millions and many of the people in this room are responsible for that extraordinary activity of recruitment an awakening has led america to recognize exactly what the problem here is this is incredibly important it will be remembered this movement as the first steps of the most important progressive movement we see in america in a hundred years as the first steps has the beginning because the steps can be the end to that movement this framing this framing alone or money is not speech is the first steps these means the idea of calling upon congress to pass a resolution to to pass an amendment the first step of brilliant first step because what these means dead was to build the recognition in america that something must be done and we saw the product about recognition in paul that was conducted by gallup in july of this year when he got past the americans to be the priority from expressive and on that list of ten priority number scoop on that list was reducing corruption in the federal government number two eighty seven percent of americans identify this issue and of course the one thing came rob logo eventually when thinking about randy duke cunningham they weren't thinking about bribery or criminal behavior what they were thinking about was the unbelievable amounts of money in the political system the sort of recognition which this movement had me salient of course we turn to the actual political campaigns that issue was invisible neither obama nor romney on their web page even mentioned this issue and indeed it is the only issue on the top ten which was not mentioned anywhere in the political campaign and more troubling me it's the first time in as long as we can see where an issue on that top ten list was not at the center either of the democrats or republicans platform for addressing the issues america things need to be addressed so this is measure of your success a success you should be proud of it and you should celebrate but now we need to ask what's next what's next what are the next steps for this movement what's the message what are the means for it's my view that they must involved they must evolve this message most of all here's the point this change his attack on that cancer must bean fundamentally cross partisan idoney bipartisan kinda cool they are we all agree with each other we don't agree with each other but i mean it cuts across partisan lines because there's been one time in american history where we have attempted a fundamental reform like this that was not cross pardons them that was a hundred and fifty years ago and the context of a civil war is that every other major movement to change the fundamental way in which government functioned was essentially crossfire's in a world where we're calling for an amendment that requires thirty four states to join with particularly since the join with us we cannot win if the issue is polarized if the nation is divided about this question and what that means is we have to learn to speak so the other side came here speak city other side came here and at this i was reminded after talking to a friend who studies the history in civil rights movement that there's a parallel and the civil rights movement if you think about the civil rights movement at the end of the nineteen fifties in the beginning of the nineteen sixties the fundamental struggle the movement had was how to get people to show up to turn out to express their anger and frustration with the existing injustice of the american system into demanded change and there are two schools the school associated with malcolm x_ it said the way to get them to show up is to tell them to be incredibly angry to be furious and to demand the changes which hundreds of years ago should have been granted to african-americans and to use whatever means including if it came to a violence to demand the streak and in response to that completely possible at the time seemed eminently sensible recommendation for how to bring about into me in the changes that african americans were entitled to martin luther king had a different kingsley was look looking at twelve percent for fourteen percent of america sharpened dimensions at fourteen percent of america is not good enough instead he counseled a movement that could speak so that the other side creek here not speak with violence where his wife saw violence they would shut their eyes includes there here's a demand the violence then but speak through non-violence so that one whites from the north side african-americans be beaten up and bitten by dogs and not respond with farmers who have to stop it was something here and understand so the other side can hear adhere to smite you we need a certain discipline here discipline in this movement a discipline that makes it possible so that we speak so that the other side in this debate thing here what we're saying to so here are the ways events the first thing is to recognize what the power is that we have now the child in america i think that the really interesting division in american politics his between the left side of the right side i think interesting division in american politics is between the inside the outside inside the kind of world inside-the-beltway in washington d_c_ many outside the rest of america and when you listen to what they talk about and contrast that to what the rest of us talking about it suggests remax very famous book washington is from mars and we are from her now the point to recognize is that these outsiders how certain politics following nigel cameron we just call it to be kind of geeky excel politics exo politics and the actual politics is not politics of politicians at the politics of citizen politics citizens demanding that their politics change citizens were not congressman wannabes were represented wannabes citizens who want to have the freedom to go back to their life but recognized the need to stand up for a week for a month for a year or five years and shake the insanity out of their government and there are many instances many examples of this over the past fifteen years and i think they're increasingly frequent these waves of open-source energy the bubble up and have an effect and begin to define what this movement could be people move on in nineteen ninety eight is the first of these went to berkeley programmers look up from their computer screens and recognize that the united states congress is considering in teaching a man because he lied about having sex and they said what the hell what the hell there are real problems that america needs to address this team's way down that list way down that list and so they started the movement that gathered signatures from new york people within a couple weeks from democrats and republicans alike with that censure the man and move on and that movement appearing out of nowhere shocked washington enforced washington to reconsider the craziness but it's swept over the inside i think the tea party the grassroots component of the tea party movement not the beltway tea party people but the grass roots to party movement was a similar excel political movement that bob about using weapons self described as the open-source energy of the internet to rally people behind there cause i think the occupy movement was an excel political movement which manifested itself was created solely by the way which people noticed unrecognized and followed the online activity that made them salient and significant i think extraordinary movement to stop the ladies craziness emanating from this part of the country to regulate what's called quote piracy on the internet a bill which when it was introduced chris dodd the head of the motion picture association of america you know that's the same chris dodd was senator from connecticut promised he would never become a lobbyist he's the guy i'm talking about head of the motion picture association of america said he had sixty six cents signatures in the senate to support this act and yet within a couple weeks after an extraordinary met uprising including wikipedia shutting down for a two-day for a day and hundreds of thousands of telephone calls to capitol hill telling them to stop so far was withdrawn this is a kind of power it's a ground up power its news from from the geeky community think it's canoe but if it's hope if there is hope for this movement i think it is in this excel politics but here's the problem back some politics too much in this excel political movement is fundamentally polarize like everyone like politicians like the political parties like the media like that dot o_ r_ to try to rally s they practice his business model polarization they recognize their managers recognize may profits the more they divide pots the more they teach us to hate them the more they rally as to the loyalties our side the more they profit from cause the more they destroy the possibility that we can work with outside to bring about the change we need we produced what we could call the reading and culture polarized and very very cool now to answer and i think is to begin to focus on the right message on the right now so let's focus first on the message there is way talking about this problem that everybody can asunto from the left in the right that's the focus on this route the routers corruption this picture the way our government functions my view it is only aki unite unite people as diverse as these and beads it is my view that this frame-up will not unite people from the left in the right instead that's at the core and in pushing this topic war we've been given another guest now based even called air but by steven covey as lawyer in a team that he worked with and pulling this together that is the and they reckoned anti-corruption act which as you pour through it you will recognize that to be an extraordinary collection of changes that if implemented fundamentally reshape the corruption of washington so there's a provisional basically shuts down the farley four k st there's a position to approve supervision that creates this unfunded campaigns building on the idea of alturas funded through tax credits as a provisional it fundamentally changes and challenges citizens united building an ideal observation that i made in my book stinson republic lost and its fundamental enhanced transparency they've built on the insides of the sunlight foundation to make it possible for us to understand what they're doing and why they're doing it and how much time they're spending raising money and ordered to do it this package is what i mean by ball not puny reform it is this kind of bold reform not the purely reform that we should be pushing because in my view this to change the way this system functions so that's the message a message for us to focused on corruption used for to method that the wolfpack has embraced ten sitting over here the wolfpack has embraced there's been enormous success in this progress towards petitioning our government to do the right thing we're at the letters was in the former resolutions resolution say something like your congress please kill yourself please pretty please please please please those letters get files sometimes they get filed in a circular filing cabinet my suggestion is we need to think about how we can packed with more consequence more consequence and actually article five the provisional our constitution enables us to amend the constitution because they have enough for how we could act with more conference because when article five of spurs drafted the only means by which it could the amendments could be generated was buying congress proposing amendments in some clever sol said in the constitutional convention he wait a minute with congress is the problem liz has a good point so in addition to congress proposing amendments article five in better procedure by which the states can call on congress to call convention convention which proposes amendments which might be other amendments are only valid if three fourths of the state's thirty eight states ratified now there to characteristics of this mccandless way a proceeding that i think a central first in his cross partisan because people can be calling for a convention for any reason they want and that is a strong conservative movement calling for a convention to address the problems of back to the problems of balanced budget ideas that i don't have much sympathy for but i do have sympathy for the idea that we need a way to address questions that isn't controlled by congress and it is also the only procedure that has actually in our history worked to peacefully bring about a fundamental changes in the way the government structure now you can say never before have we had a convention that's true but we can close wants there was a hundred years ago nineteen eleven when the senate was still appointed by the legislatures congress was called upon to fix the senate because people perceive dot to be the court the corruption inside of the system and congress refused to fix the senate by refusing to send an amendment that could be ratified to change the way the senate was elected and when the movement to call a convention was one shot of the number is needed to call a convention congress was terrified and congress' terror quickly change their refusal into an agreement to send out to the states an amendment that would eventually bt amendments that would make the senate elective so that very process of bringing about to the movement for a constitutional article five convention forced the change inside the system that those who pushed that convention wanted and in this process every new states the calls that passes a resolution calling on congress to call for a convention is one step closer to there being a convention every new states is consequence has consequences for the potential that is needed to bring about the pressure necessary to force that cancer to be to work so this is the method that i think we need to increasingly consider to talk about openly and to discuss and debate and recognize there are questions it raises i get but we need to move in of all to address those questions before going to have a strategy that ten in the end with so your *** have a slogan the magnet slogan writing but here's the slogan excel politicians of the world we have to unite behind a back-and-forth james with an article five convention there it is a case not quite a bumper sticker yet meeting between about nine ocwen a bumper sticker yet but this is the work we need to push to understand how architecture these architecture's of changes can be the next of this incredibly important movement still need to stand with us and had the uh... mark the honor of going to announced that in new hampshire earlier in this week to talk to and some climate change plans well problem of money u_n_ their field and i had to start by her confessing to them that you know that this is controversial house still my hero here and uh... and i and show them this clip from had talked about u_n_ talk to you or balls and usual yahoo laws beloved really low levels beatles immediately you're your unanimous we won't need you anyone you're well he u_n_ form it and he he in it lead the market it i've never been to an event that impressed me more and then invent the climate change scientists talking about the statement client that change because as we sat there and focused upon the fact that indeed the problem was much worse than we thought who turned out al gore and his filmmaker games guggenheim who's in the room here were apologists because they describe it good joking of course threadbare drive to they describe it in a way it turns out not to be as profoundly threatening hazards reflecting on the fact that we're not making progress on this fundamental for me the most fundamental issue indeed after two thousand eight when both candidates ran saying this was a priority two thousand twelve happened and neither candidate mentions the issue incredibly depressing and then as i sat there and i thought about every other that we think of as important getting health care system that works and we could afford gang reform on wall street that doesn't make are economy vulnerable to the gambles of the richest people in our society finding a way to address the fundamental back crisis that will burden our children and our children's children and our children's children's children came back to this democracy chris this democracy trespass and what the hell are we doing this democracy christ's i don't think of it so much as the democracy crisis i think of it as the republicans this is the crop crisis of living in leicester land crisis of living in leicester went and we were warned about the scripts and frankly was carried back from a constitutional convention seventeen eighty seven in stockton street in philadelphia where woman she said mister franklin what have you rocked franklin said he republican on him if you can't keep the republic representative democracy a government dependents apartment the people we've not kept republic we have lost and we must *** we find a way attacked to get it back and how to a certain discipline to a charity about movement class movement needs that disciplined and charity now if we're gonna stop insanity is destroying thank you very much