<story><title>Lessig: Why Washington is corrupt</title><url>http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/07/opinion/lessig-washington-corruption/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>notatoad</author><text>From a nearby foreigner&apos;s perspective, the strangest thing about US politics to me is the prominence of elections.  It&apos;s a never-ending media spectacle that candidates have to participate in.  The problem isn&apos;t the way campaigns are funded, it&apos;s how much funding a campaign actually needs.  It is obscene that it is even possible to spend so much money campaigning.&lt;p&gt;I look back to the last federal election here in Canada - it was triggered by a vote of no-confidence over the budget, and 5 weeks later the whole process was done.  the candidates only had &lt;i&gt;5 weeks&lt;/i&gt; to spend money.  no matter how much money you are legally allowed to donate to a campaign, the candidate can only spend so much in such a small time frame.  It doesn&apos;t matter if you&apos;re a billionaire or not, it&apos;s impossible to garner much influence when the campaign period is so short.&lt;p&gt;of course, our voter turnout is miserable and the guy we managed to elect is pretty terrible, i&apos;m not trying to say our system is perfect.  but the year-and-a-half long campaign with elections every two years just seems so ridiculous.</text></comment>
<story><title>Lessig: Why Washington is corrupt</title><url>http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/07/opinion/lessig-washington-corruption/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>jacoblyles</author><text>And as someone who supports primarily insurgent candidates from outside the mainstream, the Citizens United decision was a godsend. There is no better way to enshrine the status quo for eternity than limiting outside fundraising.&lt;p&gt;Lessig keeps pounding this drum, but Washington corruption goes a lot deeper than campaigns. Who do your representatives talk to every month? Who does their research for them? Who is a big fish in their home communities?&lt;p&gt;I don&apos;t know what the right policy is to address Washington inside dealing. But lets not pretend that limiting campaign money (thereby gutting independent campaigns) is the answer.</text></comment>