I've been trying for some time to read Republic, Lost by Lawrence Lessig. I kept getting bogged down in parts I and II.

I've seen Lessig's solutions presented by advocates, and I don't buy them, but I can't criticize what I haven't read. Finally, my conviction that this IS the right problem to be thinking about caused me to forge my way through to Part III.

Part III is an excellent statement of the nature of the problem, and includes discussion of important topics that the simplified statements of his solutions seemed to gloss over, although I might organize it differently.

Some basic problems:
1. Congressmen don't know everything. They need to be informed.
2. Informing them is not a hobby - people have to be paid to do that.
3. If you can afford to hire a lobbyist, Congressmen are going to be more informed about your concerns than the guy next to you who cannot.

1. You have a right to freedom of speech.
2. It costs money to publish things.
3. People with more money speak more loudly.
4. The populace tends to believe what they hear.

Both of these concerns seem intractable.

Lessig layers on top an additional concern:

1. Congressmen and staffers are not paid well relative to their peers.
2. Congressional campaigns are extremely expensive.
3. Congressmen must raise money.
4. Congressmen become dependent upon the sources of that money.
5. You don't trust them to be independent from their sources of funding.
6. This dependence changes their behavior.
7. They are more receptive to the views of donors. (Donations buy access.)
8. They actively seek to regulate businesses in order to provoke donations from them because they need the money.
9. They have pushed our country to become more politically partisan because it produces greater individual donations.
7. All the fundraising distracts them from doing things that are unrelated to fundraising.

Lessig compares this to the behavior of an alcoholic.

I haven't read part IV yet, on solutions. I wanted to get my map of the problem laid out in writing, first.

I think that the book is worthwhile for part III, alone.

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