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| Professor Lessig |
Of course, he is not really running for President because anyone who is actually running for President behaves as if he wants to win and serve as President.
The professor is doing what professors like to do: He is generating discussion, trying out ideas, examining thought, but he is not concerned with the practical, real world consequences of those ideas.
In this sense, he is like my other favorite professor of public policy, Paul Krugman, the former Princeton, now CCNY economist, who once remarked he did not want to become part of the government because then he would have to deal with the practical implications of putting into action his ideas.
Professor Lessig spoke at a recent Hampton Democrats Picnic, a backyard affair attended by surrogates for the Democratic Presidential candidates and by Lincoln Chafee (who is running for President for reasons I have yet to fathom) and about fifty local citizens.
He is a masterful speaker, the best of the day, with the possible exception of Hillary Clinton's surrogate, the Congress woman from the 1st Congressional district o of Connecticut (which includes New Haven.) But while every candidate or the surrogate covered a broad range of concerns from immigration to healthcare to terrorism, Professor Lessig hewed to the single issue he says is necessary to address before any other business of government can proceed: Campaign financing, the idea that our Congress is up for bidding, is bought and sold and every member of the legislative branch spends most of his or her day soliciting bribes from people with enough money to make a difference. The system of allowing Congressmen and Senators to phone for money is nothing less than a system of sanctified corruption and until we have a Congress which serves its constituents rather than its patrons, we have no sort of democracy at all. Or, as my grandfather was so fond of saying: We have the best Congress money can buy.
He is correct, of course. Like the hedgehog, he knows one big thing. The fox is a very clever animal, and knows many things. The hedgehog is a simple animal and knows only one thing, but he knows that one thing very well.
The problem is, if you are actually asking people to vote for you for President, they will expect you to be more than a designated hitter.
Anyone who watches "West Wing" has to be impressed by the sheer magnitude of the scope and spectrum of problems faced by the President and his staff daily. If there were ever a case for a liberal arts education, watching "West Wing" should convince us the president should be broadly, which is to say, liberally educated. From science to economics to engineering to psychology to political science to sociology to anthropology, every discipline is relevant to what a President should, ideally know something about.
In one of the best sequences of this episode of "West Wing," Donna, a campaign worker, has to go around to interview other "candidates" who want to be considered by the voters in the Iowa caucuses: She meets one man who is running because he wants to make it a crime to not carry a gun in America. There is another whom she calls a "refugee from Hootenany" whose main concern seems to be singing folk songs with political messages. This, of course, calls into question who can claim to be considered a serious candidate, who deserves a place behind a podium on the stage at the debate
Clearly, in modern times, we have had men who simply were not smart enough or well educated enough to function effectively as a President, George W. Bush being the prime example.
Lessig is actually portrayed in an episode in Season 6 where a group from a newly liberated former Soviet republic arrives at the White House, asking for help to write a constitution for their new democracy. Toby, the show's most cerebral, passionate and opinionated player, tells them they should not want a Constitutional democracy at all; what they should really want is a parliamentary democracy. No, they reply, they want a government with a strong executive leader, like the American government. A parliamentary systems would dissolve into chaos because the prime minister is not powerful enough to keep the government together. But, Toby points out, a constitution is not enough; what really makes a constitutional government work is the mindset of the citizens who want the government to work, who use the written document as a touchstone and a point of reference from which to begin the discussion, but it is not a guarantee of success. Most constitutional democracies have failed because the president becomes a monarch, Toby says.
In the show, Lessig is invited to the White House--I can only imagine Professor Lessig approved of his portrayal in the script--and he argues that the Constitution is a living document which allows for government, and even though this former Soviet republic has no tradition of democracy, neither did our country when we first set out. All we needed was a few good men, and this particular former Soviet republic has a critical mass of that.
Elsewhere in the episode you see a very principled candidate for President, played by Jimmy Smits, compromise his principles in Iowa by endorsing corn derived alcohol as a gasoline additive, even though it is a billion dollar a year boondoggle which does nothing to benefit the environment or global warming but exists only to feed the accounts of some farmers but mostly big agribusiness. A more principled candidate refuses to tell the Iowa farmers what they want to hear and he is booed from the platform and chased from the state. Smits has done his calculation: He cannot do the things which matter most to him if he refuses to do things he doesn't want to do on issues less important to him. You have to pick your fights in politics.
So these are the things real candidates must do--abandon some battles and some constituencies to survive and fight another day. It can be wrenching: you sacrifice some troops and allow them to die, lose one battle, so you can win the war.
Professor Lessig has floated the idea that once he accomplished the reform of campaign financing, once he got money out of politics, he could resign the Presidency--our work here is done.
The problem is, people elect a President for more than that. Even Lincoln who maintained his main job was to save the union had to address many other issues, from commuting and pardoning to appointing men to be government functionaries. The Presidency is broader than any one issue.
Dr. Lessig has only one core principle and he cannot compromise it.
He can be a professor but not a President.
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