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Keeping Lessig out is serving the interests of the political elite though and (again) is a reflection on the interests of the DNC, part of what Lessig's entire

by qrendel 11y ago

Keeping Lessig out is serving the interests of the political elite though and (again) is a reflection on the interests of the DNC, part of what Lessig's entire spiel is. The issue isn't that he can't raise enough money to start a campaign, or that he probably wouldn't win in the end, it's that he's not given equal consideration by being kept out of the debates and given only token speaking time at the convention. I can certainly understand the rational self-interest for them in doing so (i.e. controlling the image of the democratic party, giving Hillary a better chance in the general election through more speaking time now, less chance of his hurting another runner's campaign by doing well in a debate), but that doesn't mean it's good for the democratic process - it's just another way of controlling it so that people are only allowed to vote on a couple of pre-approved candidates who barely differ in any meaningful way.

jacobolus 11y ago
Nobody is “keeping Lessig out” of getting involved in the political system. He’s just trying to do an end-run around the standard process (or more realistically, just wants a platform for his message and has no intention of becoming president), and the DNC thinks it’s a waste of their time to humor him. Last year he pulled his “Mayday PAC” stunt which spent $10M or whatever mostly raised from a bunch of silicon valley VCs, and basically accomplished nothing. Another analogy: This is sort of a similar circumstance to people with no connection to the mainstream scientific community who are convinced they have invented a perpetual motion machine or developed a Theory of Everything or proved P=NP (or whatever), but then don’t get time or attention from mainstream scientists. Occasionally they turn out to be neglected geniuses whose work is rediscovered decades later, but most of the time not. The DNC has a limited amount of resources, their debates have a limited amount of time, and there’s no advantage for the DNC or the Democratic party in general in letting anyone who can raise $1M get on their debate stage, and significant risk in letting someone like Lessig in to grandstand about how “corrupt” or “untruthful” their other candidates are. There are some other candidates who are also not serious contenders at this point (Webb, Chafee, perhaps O’Malley), and letting them into the debates is also sort of pointless, but they are career politicians with some skin in the game who can at least be trusted not to cause a scene.

by qrendel 11y ago

jacobolus 11y ago

Nobody is “keeping Lessig out” of getting involved in the political system. He’s just trying to do an end-run around the standard process (or more realistically, just wants a platform for his message and has no intention of becoming president), and the DNC thinks it’s a waste of their time to humor him. Last year he pulled his “Mayday PAC” stunt which spent $10M or whatever mostly raised from a bunch of silicon valley VCs, and basically accomplished nothing. Another analogy: This is sort of a similar circumstance to people with no connection to the mainstream scientific community who are convinced they have invented a perpetual motion machine or developed a Theory of Everything or proved P=NP (or whatever), but then don’t get time or attention from mainstream scientists. Occasionally they turn out to be neglected geniuses whose work is rediscovered decades later, but most of the time not. The DNC has a limited amount of resources, their debates have a limited amount of time, and there’s no advantage for the DNC or the Democratic party in general in letting anyone who can raise $1M get on their debate stage, and significant risk in letting someone like Lessig in to grandstand about how “corrupt” or “untruthful” their other candidates are. There are some other candidates who are also not serious contenders at this point (Webb, Chafee, perhaps O’Malley), and letting them into the debates is also sort of pointless, but they are career politicians with some skin in the game who can at least be trusted not to cause a scene.