Re:On the wikileak-ed emails from Tanden on Lessig
by dcposch on Thursday October 27, 2016 @09:29PM
(#12812226)
> Congress is not uniquely problematic because members of Congress have to raise money. Everyone has to raise money. Larry Lessig has had to raise money many times in his career.
I bet Lessig has never spent four hours cold-calling wealthy potential donors even once, let alone every single weekday for years at a time.
An academic like Lessig may have to write grant applications every few months.
Legislators, both state and Congressional, are uniquely problematic. Few jobs are so constantly dependent on the favor of wealthy donors, and none are in as good a position to repay their generosity, usually in subtle and indirect ways, once in office.
There are two reasons that members of Congress have to spend so much time raising money.
First, there are strict limits on federal campaign contributions. Candidates can only get up to $2,700 from each person per cycle, and no money from organizations at all. Nonprofit guys like Bill McKibben or Grover Norquist can land $100,000 in one meeting. It will take a federal candidate at least 37 individual donors to get the same amount.
I'm not saying the limits are bad. I think they are good. But they have side effects.
Second, people don't want to give money to politicians, so it takes a ton of time and energy to get even small donations.
And here is where Lessig and others have been so counter-productive. They think they're making the sort of subtle argument that you describe. They think they're firing people up for action. But what they've actually done is promulgate 2 simple messages: 1) Money In Politics Is Bad, and 2) The System Is So Broken You Can't Win.
Both these messages discourage their fans from engaging effectively in political and civic institutions--thereby making things even worse for themselves. Lessig told all his fans that money is bad and politics is unwinnable... of course he's having trouble creating a political movement!