Eric Posner on Lessig at Slate:
So there is a mismatch between Lessig’s means—a dramatic run for office as an unprecedented “referendum president” who resigns as soon as his mandate is legislated—and his goal, which is at best incremental reform. In the past, he has argued with a great deal more persuasiveness that the only way to reform the political system is through a constitutional convention, and it is easier to see the logic of this position than to understand his campaign goals. Constitutional amendments really could go to the root of the problem—by limiting campaign contributions (and thus overturning Citizens United, which held that the First Amendment banned certain limits on political expenditures), restructuring the Senate (which is a highly unrepresentative body that favors rural interests), limiting the power of the Supreme Court, and perhaps creating a parliamentary system or something like it, which would avoid the twin problems of gridlock and presidential abuse of power that have long been troubling features of our system of separation of powers.
But most calls for constitutional conventions come these days from conservatives, who want to impose a balanced budget on the federal government and who have no interest in adopting Lessig’s electoral reforms—nearly all of which would benefit the Democratic party in the short term. And the results of a constitutional convention—where moneyed interests as well as all kinds of interest groups would play a big role—are unpredictable. Well, not entirely unpredictable. Under the amendment process of the Constitution, state legislatures can play an important role in selecting delegates and ratifying amendments. And while there is a means to circumvent their formal participation, they would probably influence the outcome. This matters. Republicans have vastly more control over state legislatures than Democrats do—in part because of the gerrymandering Lessig wants to end—so we can be pretty certain about the ideological tilt of any amendments that might ultimately be ratified, if not their content.
This is probably why Lessig has not adopted his earlier proposal of a constitutional convention to his presidential run. The rot goes too deep. But it also should raise doubts about whether the Citizen Equality Act can do any good.
Even if Lessig can’t win, or can’t do much more than hand over the reins to his vice president if he does win, his candidacy would bring a rare level of intelligence and political sophistication to the election and much-needed attention to the problem of electoral reform. For that reason, you might donate a little money to his campaign. I did.