You are, of course, correct. Let this be a lesson to me on drinking and quick Wikipedia searches.
Conventional wisdom roundup:
A vote for Sanders is a wasted vote that weakens Clinton. A vote for Lessig is a wasted vote that only serves to weaken Sanders or Clinton.
Fact:
Weāre 13+ months before the election.
Whenās a good time to be discussing fundamental change to our political system?
If we put all our eggs in the Sanders basket and he is roundly rejected so will campaign finance reform.
What if instead we have a candidate that we know will not make it out of the primary but will press a single issue hard enough that the issue, not the candidate, cannot be ignored?
Look at the Republicans, their debates might be a clown car, but ideas (for better or for worse) are being bounced around.
Itās easy with a monoculture of gay/woman/furāner hate, taxation = slavery and dominionism.
Thereās plenty of that in Clinton-voter Democrats (Kim Davis material) but ideally we would not appeal to these persons. Win at all costs leads to shittier dems.
Thereās plenty of dislike for Congress being bought and paid for, tooā¦ If only that issue was the cornerstone of a party platformā¦
Who???
All of which is silenced when tiny American flags are waved, so hardly a bipartisan concern.
I looked it up myself. I didnāt think it was as short as 11 months and was prepared to correct this the other way!
If Lessig just wants a platform to push his issue on, the Republicans have more debates. He should switch and run for their nomination. Iād fully support him doing that.
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Iām not sure that Cory understands politics. From his post: āThis is especially urgent now, because Joe Biden is likely to enter the race soon, and will likely take the field when he does.ā Buh-what? Biden has played coy for months now about what his intentions are; the greatest likelihood is that heās a stalking horse to draw off some of the potential Anyone But HRC support from Bernie Sanders. Most of the polls that show Biden being potentially competitive come with the caveat that he really hasnāt been scrutinized closely so far because, you know, heās not actually running; heās thrown his hat in the ring twice before, and not done well, in no small part due to his propensity for putting his foot in his mouth.
No, I think that this is more due to Lessig being one of the digerati, as with another BB bloggerās support of Drew āFarkā Curtis for Kentucky governor.
@doctorow : " ā¦ will Sanders stand up for him?"
Cory, how about asking Lessig to stand up for the grassroots movements that surround and support Bernie Sanders?
Lessig refuses to understand our plan to work symbiotically with Bernie to unseat obstructionist Republicans and bluedog, establishment Democrats after Bernie is elected.
When Lessig moronically decided to attack Bernie Sanders and claim that Bernie āhas no plan to governā after being elected, Lessig burned a lot of bridges.
Cory, Lessig needs to shut his campaign down or run as a Republican. Acting as a potential spoiler in favor of Hillary against Bernie in a tight race is incredibly counter-productive.
Lessig needs to learn our grassroots plan. Until he does that and also admits he misspoke on his bullshit attack on our movement and Bernieā¦ I wouldnāt piss on Lessig if he was on fire.
In the meantime, this weekend we had yet another grassroots rally with over twenty thousand packed into a venue for Bernie. Outside in the cold, thousands more who couldnāt fit into the venue sat and watched the live video feed.
Lessig should read this article below about the event. Sanders reiterates (as heās explained time and time again) that our movement isnāt just about him. Itās about our grassroots movements and Bernie working in concert to truly reform our government from the inside and outside.
Bernie Sandersā āTrue Believersā Pack Boston Campaign Event
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Youāre pointing to how he raised $1 million? Dude. Thatās proof he isnāt remotely near a serious candidate.
He failed to convince even 1% of the electorate to give so much as a
dollar each to him. Rightly so, since he claims heād resign if he won. I
like him as a legal writer, but there is no reason anybody should take
him seriously as a presidential candidate.
Gee, your using campaign wealth as a requirement for letting him have the same access to news media as other candidates has almost convinced me to support him.
No, what Bernie needs to stand up for is access to the democratic process regardless of what you think of the candidates.
tl;dr: the Democratic party has a āNot invented hereā problem
The funny thing is Iām actually not that ardent a supporter of Sanders. I really like what heās saying, but Iām genuinely scared that if he ran in the general the U.S. public would focus on the word āsocialistā and give the election to whoever makes it out of the Republican primary. With far right dead enders essentially certain to continue to hold the House, I view this presidential action, basically, as a rear guard action against Republican control of House, Senate (they have maybe a 50/50 of retaining the majority), and Presidency.
I suggested not giving to Lessig because I think burning your money instead would at least grant you temporary warmth. I donāt think his pseudocampaign is going to amount to anything.
Not sure what that means.
I just fear that Lessig (whose aims I agree with) isnāt going to be anything other than counterproductive in the Dem primaries. Clinton getting the Dem nomination is the worst possible outcome*, and thatās all I can imagine he can help achieve, if that. If Lessig actually wanted to be President, and had campaign reform as his main policy, along with fleshed out liberal positions across the board, Iād be much happier with him running. But then heād just look a lot like Sanders, and would still be splitting the liberal vote in the primaries, which I donāt want.
*Iād still rather have her as President than any of the Republicans, natch. The only one who offers anything better than her in any regard is Rand Paul, but he comes with too much crazy. The others are all completely unacceptable.
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Yeah, the Biden stuff makes no sense in Coryās post. Also the opening two paragraphs display an amazing naivetĆ© and hyperbole about American political process. Amazing and unprecedented presidential bid? Lessigās plan will work (magic! sparkles!) but Clinton and Sandersā campaign finance reform ideas, which are similar in reform substance wonātā¦ becauseā¦ support Lessig!
There are legal subjects in the U.S. that Cory has taken the time to get educated on and is trustworthy on, but this is not the first post to display a weakness in knowledge about U.S. political structure and history. Not horrible mind, but maybe in need of a brush up? Welcome to the U.S. Cory, if you want to be a political activist on non-IP issues, itās time to hit the books again.
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Iām pretty pissed at Lessig, but I donāt think heās a plant. Heās wayward and allowing his own hubristic bubble to obscure the bigger picture. That said, I do think more than a few Clinton minions helped to fund his ācampaignā whether Lessig is aware of that fact or not.
I dislike the system sheās a part of. I also dislike the Democratic party overall and think it needs to be massively reformed and/or replaced.
Perhaps Iām splitting hairsā¦ butā¦
I support Bernie, but I donāt dislike Hillary. I donāt trust her like any other corporatist appeaser, but I certainly think her heart is somewhat in the right place especially compared to the Republicans. I think there would be some damn good things that Hillary would at least try to accomplish as president and I also think itās about damn time we had a female president.
Hillary has evolved a lot over the course of her life, however, her sketchy record and current status quo establishment funding (and ties to filthy, corrupt Super PACs) betrays her in this race against Bernie Sanders.
Do I think Hillary is a horrible, rotten person? Compared to Republicans? Hell no. Do I think she would accomplish even a fraction of what Bernie Sanders and our grassroots movements that surround him will do if elected? Hell no.
If Bernie Sanders loses to her in the primary and sheās the only person between us and yet another horrific Republican administrationā¦ Iāll sure as shit vote for her in that case.
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āWe canāt count on a single candidateā - of course not, but you should be supporting a single candidate for president. You would be better off spending those dollars on down-ticket races (maybe for actual, you know, legislators, who can pass the sort of reform Lessig is advociating) than wasting your money on some assholeās vanity run.
