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KLEIN_MONEY

                                             March 8, 2012

                                                   LONG_SHOT
   Lawrence Lessig doesn't just argue
   that the pressures of fund-raising
   corrupt political decision-making,
   he worries about a social maliase,
   a contempt for government that's
   developed among citizenry, most of
   whom really do believe that "money
   buys results in Congress".


                            Ezra Klein, March 22, 2012, New York Review of Books
   Ezra Klein disagrees     "Our Corrupt Politics: It's Not All Money"
   with Lessig, arguing
   that that historical
   trends don't show a
   close correlation with     This is of some
   the loss of faith in       interest, but
   politics and the rise      it strikes me
   of campaign money and      as not as            The path out may
   lobbyists.                 conclusive as        differ from the
                              Klein regards it.    path in, the
                                                   circumstances that
                                                   reinforce a
                                                   present day
                                                   condition may not
                                                   be the ones that
                                                   created it.


                      If we regard the public's
                      lack of faith in the
                      process as The Problem,
                      then all sorts of complex
                      effects may be in play.

                      Even a purely symbolic fix,
                      fought for and won, could
                      change the social dynamic so
                      that more substantial
                      improvements follow.


                                            But then, if lack-of-faith is
                                            really the central problem then
                                            both Lessig and Klein are
                                            ignoring an obvious "solution":
                                            a massive propaganda campaign.



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