re: #162 The Vicious Babushka

My fightiness won first, so I decided to attack him.

Also, this just happened.

Harvard Law Professor Crowdfunds $1 Million, Launches Presidential Bid

Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig met his self-imposed goal of crowd-funding $1 million by Labor Day, and Sunday on ABC announced he’s running for the Democratic nomination for President.

Lessig, an activist with a grassroots following among some progressives, says he’s running on a singular platform — the Citizen Equality Act of 2017. It would expand voting access, ban gerrymandering and institute campaign finance reform.

“I think I’m running to get people to acknowledge the elephant in the room,” Lessig said Sunday on ABC. “This stalemate, partisan platform of American politics in Washington right now doesn’t work. And we have to find a way to elevate the debate to focus on the changes that would actually get us a government that could work again, that is not captured by the tiniest fraction of the one percent who fund campaigns.”

As NPR’s Peter Overby reported last month for our It’s All Politics blog, Lessig’s presidential bid —and campaign strategy — seems to be a long shot.

“The plan sidesteps the biggest growth area in political money: superPACs and so-called social welfare organizations that raise unlimited sums for “independent” efforts to promote candidates. This unregulated money, some disclosed and some anonymous, is constitutionally protected by recent court decisions, including the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling in 2010.”
This latest entrant brings the number of candidates on the Democratic side up to six.

Should Lessig beat the odds and win the White House, he would not be there very long, if things go according to his plan. Once the Citizen Equality Act is signed into law, he’s vowed to vacate the Oval Office and hand over power to his vice president.