A Winning Strategy for Larry Lessig Even If He Loses in Running for Congress Here in California

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Kai Stinchcombe
Founder
The Roosevelt Institution

The most obnoxious piece of advice ever given to a potential candidate for office is also one of the most frequent: don't talk about "process."

The "process" -- our political process -- sucks, and that's worth talking about. It is entirely predictable that our schools, our healthcare system, our economy, our justice system, and our environment are not what they should be -- they are produced by a system that is not what it should be. Yet every time an aspiring candidate says they want to build a better system, they get the same answer: "Don't talk about process."

According to this logic, the public is like the man facing a firing squad -- he has no objections to the guys with guns, he just doesn't like the bullets. Promise people you'll take away the bullets hitting the guy -- talk about healthcare, the environment, and the economy -- but don't mention the political process that is shooting these bullets.

If you start thinking about running for office, so you will be advised. Can you imagine anything more frustrating than being told, "Don't talk about the firing squad, just promise you'll stop the bullets"?

Stanford law professor Larry Lessig is one of the smartest and most creative legal minds in America. He is also a stubborn guy. By virtue of those two things, it seems, he so far has managed to ignore everyone who tells him he can't win a campaign based on process, and attract at least a handful of people who think he just might be able to. Good for him.