According to Lawrence Lessig, something is rotten in the State of the Union. The Harvard professor and founder of Creative Commons has dropped out of the presidential race, according to a statement Lessig released on Nov. 2 via YouTube, citing corruption within the electoral process, and that "the Democrats have changed the rules" concerning restrictions for participating in the primary debates.
As per the video, his self-imposed termination of his candidacy is in reaction to revised restrictions placed on debating eligibility. As Lessig recounted, the prior rubric required primary candidates to have scored at least 1 percent in three out of six polls conducted within a six-week window before the given debate (in this case, six weeks before Nov. 14, when the next Democratic debate is set to air.). However, the DNC changed the rule last week—instead of reaching the golden 1 percent threshold within a window of six weeks, the party rewrote the policy, requiring the minimum to compete to be reachedat least six weeks before, barring him from the event.
"[U]nless we can time travel, there is no way I that will qualify," said Lessig in his annoucement.
The shift prompted Lessig to determine that the policies were changed purposely to render him unqualified to speak.
"It is now clear that the party won't let me be a candidate," Lessig added. "I must today end my campaign for the Democratic nomination."
Once primarily known as "the Internet's lawyer" due to his work on web-related policy and copyrights, Lessig announced his presidential bid in August 2015 in the form of a YouTube video. In it, Lessig declared that he would run as a one-issue "referendum candidate" in the Democratic primary, and urged supporters to help him raise $1 million in funds to begin his campaign. Lessig was frank about his singular imperative: to sign in his own proposed legislation, the Citizen's Equality Act, whose three-pronged preogative included the "equal right to vote," "equal representation," and "citizen-funded elections." Once completing his goal, Lessig said that he would resign from office, handing the presidency over to the vice-president, who would presumably be selected from one of his opponents in the primary.
As of now, Lessig has not mentioned any intention of running as an independent candidate.
Watch Lessig bid his adieu to the White House in the video below.
Via: Variety
