Lawrence Lessig Makes the Case for Bipartisan Reform to Achieve Less Corrupt Democracy that Advances the Public Interest
By BETH SCHULMAN on POGO, December 14, 2011
"The great threat to our republic today comes not from the hidden bribery of the Gilded Age, when cash was secreted among members of Congress to buy privilege and secure wealth. The great threat today is instead in plain sight. It is the economy of influence now transparent to all, which has normalized a process that draws our democracy away from the will of the people".
In a 2010 Daily Beast commentary Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig, identifying himself with the “Coffee Party,” and Mark McKinnon, prominent GOP strategist and co-founder of No Labels, assert there is “transpartisan” agreement that Congress is broken:
"[W]hat we do agree on is that the institutions of government in Washington have become corrupt, held hostage by well-funded special interests. It’s no wonder that only 17 [at this writing, more like 9 %] percent of the American public in a recent Gallup survey said they had a favorable opinion of Congress. American voters believe, and rightly so, that corporations, labor unions and moneyed special interests have a chokehold on politicians.”