“Never in the history of Congress has faith in it or its work been as low. Indeed, more people likely supported the British Crown at the time of the revolution than support this congress today.”
That from Larry Lessig’s 8 minutes on Obama’s first year (video above), authored just days before this afternoon’s Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. FEC. Full text pdf, scribd.
Today Lessig says — in this 3 minute video posted before boarding a plane to Boston at SFO — the decision will only exacerbate the problems with the current system:
I don’t think the point here is that corporations should be silenced, I think the point is we need a political system where people can trust that decisions Congress makes are decisions based on the merits… not what the funders demand… This is an extraordinarily important moment. And we need to organize to push as strongly as we can to get an alternative to the current system for funding elections that at least makes it possible for people to trust government again.
Lessig promises a more detailed reaction when he’s home in Boston. It will be posted here. You can subscribe to his podcast here.
SEE ALSO: TMV’s Patrick Edaburn, Don’t Overread Supreme Court Ruling. SCOTUSblog’s analysis here and here, and their round-up of coverage.