Lawrence Lessig - How to Tell D.C. Politicians to Go to Hell

I know Lessig is the more recognizable name on HN (and probably the Internet as a whole, but the article's co-author, Mark McKinnon, is far better known in political circles. He was a Bush and McCain campaign PR guy, who dropped his formal role in the McCain campaign (for a time at least) because he didn't want to campaign against Obama.

Not making a value judgment necessarily, but it struck me at the time as a little unusual.

Ahem. "D.C. politicians" in the strictest sense are a mayor, a city council, a non-voting delegate in the House of Representatives, and if you wish to be picky a few dozen Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners.

The states are the ones who are sending what Mr. Lessig calls "D.C. politicians" to D.C. Or is Washington's mighty electoral vote (not votes, vote) skewing the process? Is there a fetor from the Potomac River that corrupts virtuous state politicians? The news out of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, etc. etc. suggests not.

I think the fundamental problem with "a new Constitutional Convention" is that there's no way to keep it from being staffed by the current folk. And even if we can go around Congress, what's to stop the corporations from buying off the state legislatures? It would take a majority in one house each in 13 states to block any amendment, which isn't that much when you realize state campaigns are loads cheaper.

And any sort of convention would have to entertain "take away guns" amendments from the left and "ban abortions" amendments from the right. They'd spend so much more time fighting about those things than on the stuff like reducing corporate power or making the Congress suck less.