I just finished watching a TED Talks by Harvard Professor Larry Lessig. And he said some things most of us have felt for a long time.

Representative democracy?

Our so-called representative democracy disappeared a long time ago thanks to campaign financing and gerrymandering.

The result

As a result only 2 percent of the people actually determine which candidates make it through the primaries. And even after that, we make it hard to vote in the general elections.

Lessig’s talk

You can watch Lessig’s talk at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJy8vTu66tE

Voting holidays

He suggests voting be held on a national holiday when people can easily make it to the polls. But look what’s happening, folks. In state after state, legislatures are making it harder to vote, curtailing early voting and adding more restrictions to mail-in ballots. In fact, in some states they now prohibit giving snacks or water to those waiting in line! Tell me, what does that hurt?

So do our representative represent us?

So, our representatives, then, don’t represent us. They represent the highest bidders, those who helped elect them to Congress. Those same parties will keep them in office with money as long as they do their bidding.

Isn’t it time for a change?

Eliminating gerrymandering and publicly funded primaries would go a long way toward fixing this problem. So, let’s do it already.