Because this is HN I can say "It's both!" and, hopefully, people won't bat an eye at that.
But let's talk about where you're spot on. Lessig sucks at rhetoric. Most liberals do. It's the one point where I feel shame at being a liberal.
If you take a look at his blog post, it's all about money. The only words that talk about the problem are "fundamental change." And while "change" can work as a rhetorical grounding, it is overplayed, and he's not using it well.
No he needs to demonize the opposition and create a sense of unity in his community of supporters. To one degree or another this is how all political change happens.
Here's what I'd do.
Buying our Freedom.
Abraham Lincoln, when faced with the impossible evil of Slavery, sought not war, but peace. He sought to buy the freedom of slaves, to pay fair for the freedom of men. Today we are faced with the equally impossible evil of democracy bought and sold in the halls of washington. Corporations hold enslaved our senators and congressmen and they do it through money. Campaign contributions, superpacs, the corruption of greed grips our government, and government for the people has become degrading servitude to big money.
Lincoln and the good people who believed in freedom and unity for this country were eventually forced into war, but first there was the attempt at reason, at working with those who purchased and survived on evil. Today we are on the same path. The evil of money entwined with politics cannot stand. It divides this nation into have's and have nots. It deprives the average man of his vote and gives it to the rich man. History will judge the evil of this time as a sad chapter in American history, just as we judge the period of slavery, but before History can pass judgment we must act.
Today we will attempt reason, and the language the corrupt understand. We will raise money. We will spend money. And we will do this in defense of democracy, not to control it, but to free it, and give it back to the people.
The men and women in washington do not want to be slaves to big money. No one does. But they have no champions, they have no defense. We will be their champions and we will rise up to protect them. We will raise money, and we spend money as a hammer large enough to smash their chains.
In the next month we will raise such money and spend such money as to show "big" money where power in America really lies. It is in the hands of the people, and the hands of the people are reaching out to take their government back.
In one month we will raise $1 million dollars. Donate now to show them. In 5 months we will raise $5 million dollars. Donate now to free our democracy. And in two years we will raise an army of dollars such that Congress can once and for all throw off its chains. We will buy our freedom, we will have our freedom, or, if forced to it by greed of rich men, we will fight.
The other route I'd go is more libertarian (not not particularly partisan) -- "commerce is too important to allow it to get corrupted by politics" level-playing-field of American myth, and talk about the arms race where once one business interest resorts to seeking political influence for business advantage, all of them have to, even if they don't want to individually.
Then maybe temper that with something about how people need to be able to stand for their own moral compass/conscience on issues of politics, and only by keeping huge and loud monetary interests out can we hear their individual voices.
This line of argument is weak because in real dollars spending money to buy a politician is cheap. It's actually a very well leveraged dollar to contribute to a politician who can regulate your rival. Maybe if you brought in an analogy to nukes? Sure there's this great weapon out there called "regulation" but we don't want corps wielding it against each other, it's just too dangerous. If they must fight they should fight with conventional weapons in the consumer market. ... Not great but I think that's in line with what you're saying.
But let's talk about where you're spot on. Lessig sucks at rhetoric. Most liberals do. It's the one point where I feel shame at being a liberal.
If you take a look at his blog post, it's all about money. The only words that talk about the problem are "fundamental change." And while "change" can work as a rhetorical grounding, it is overplayed, and he's not using it well.
No he needs to demonize the opposition and create a sense of unity in his community of supporters. To one degree or another this is how all political change happens.
Here's what I'd do.
Buying our Freedom.
Abraham Lincoln, when faced with the impossible evil of Slavery, sought not war, but peace. He sought to buy the freedom of slaves, to pay fair for the freedom of men. Today we are faced with the equally impossible evil of democracy bought and sold in the halls of washington. Corporations hold enslaved our senators and congressmen and they do it through money. Campaign contributions, superpacs, the corruption of greed grips our government, and government for the people has become degrading servitude to big money.
Lincoln and the good people who believed in freedom and unity for this country were eventually forced into war, but first there was the attempt at reason, at working with those who purchased and survived on evil. Today we are on the same path. The evil of money entwined with politics cannot stand. It divides this nation into have's and have nots. It deprives the average man of his vote and gives it to the rich man. History will judge the evil of this time as a sad chapter in American history, just as we judge the period of slavery, but before History can pass judgment we must act.
Today we will attempt reason, and the language the corrupt understand. We will raise money. We will spend money. And we will do this in defense of democracy, not to control it, but to free it, and give it back to the people.
The men and women in washington do not want to be slaves to big money. No one does. But they have no champions, they have no defense. We will be their champions and we will rise up to protect them. We will raise money, and we spend money as a hammer large enough to smash their chains.
In the next month we will raise such money and spend such money as to show "big" money where power in America really lies. It is in the hands of the people, and the hands of the people are reaching out to take their government back.
In one month we will raise $1 million dollars. Donate now to show them. In 5 months we will raise $5 million dollars. Donate now to free our democracy. And in two years we will raise an army of dollars such that Congress can once and for all throw off its chains. We will buy our freedom, we will have our freedom, or, if forced to it by greed of rich men, we will fight.
Donate now.