Let’s light up the Internet

Jimmy Wales
2 min readAug 15, 2015

Right now is the perfect time to take a look at something different to get your creative energies going… When you light up the Internet, anything is possible.

My friend, Larry Lessig, is trying something a bit crazy, but maybe just crazy enough get America back on a track to becoming a representative democracy.

The vast majority of Americans believe their government has been captured. If there were a referendum to end that corruption, it’s clear America would vote overwhelmingly to support it. But the American constitution doesn’t give the people the power of a referendum. So Lessig has a plan to hack one instead.

On Tuesday, Lessig launched an exploratory committee to kickstart a campaign to become a “referendum president.” (I am the chairman of that committee). If elected, he would serve only as long as it takes to pass fundamental reform of this corrupted system. He would then resign, and the vice president would become president.

If by Labor Day (September 7), he can raise the funds to make a run possible, he will leave his job and run in the 2016 Democratic Primary. If he does not raise the goal, then the committee will return the money raised (unless you opt to make your contribution non-contingent, so they can cover the costs of seeding this campaign).

No one in DC would have dreamed of such an idea — just like no one in DC would have dreamed of any of the extraordinary ideas that have worked in the past 20 years. I don’t know if this will work. I do believe it is worth a try. If you can help give Lessig a chance to make a run of this, I’d be grateful.

Here’s a link to a launch video where he lays out the case and to where you can support him.

https://lessigforpresident.com/

As of this moment, we’re already on $209,456 of the $1 million goal by Labor Day. Your contribution will really help.

— Jimbo

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Jimmy Wales

You know, the @Wikipedia and @Wikia guy. Free speech activist, entrepreneur.