How To Get our Democracy Back

An article in the Feb 22 Nation by Lawrence Lessig
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100222/lessig

is one of the most convincing analyses of what's going on with the Obama presidency.   The thesis (from the left of course) is not so much the conservatism of the policies Obama has supported, but his lack of follow through on his campaign promises to change the way Washington does business....evidenced by:

1.  Appointment of old guard inside the beltway practitioners to lead his staff.    leading to:
2.   His acceptance of business as usual in dealing with Congress..not challenging its pathological dependence on fundraising and he concomitant influence of big business and its lobbies to stymie anything that threatens the lucrative status quo  (He argues that partisanship with its quick reference to some ideological question is the cover for campaign cash.)

Obama as quoted in this article:

both parties had allowed "lobbists and campaign contributions to rig the system"
"Unless we're willing to challenge [that[] broken system... nothing else is going to change."

By the way, this corruption of congress corrodes Americans' faith in our political system.   88% of Americans believe money buys Congress.

That cynicism leads to decreased participation and ultimately leaves the fox to guard the chickens.

Lessig proposes that Obama lost his moment by not framing this challenge even before he began to advance his political agenda.   ..   that we needed to remove or lessen the impact of money on our political system, particularly Congress.   If he had framed the debate in this manner and then proposed citizen-funded elections and constitutional reformsto ensure legislative integrity, he might have:
a.   Possibly succeeded in making transformational changes in our sick political system
b. If he failed, identify this failure as behind his inability to win his policy proposals, (rather than partisan republicans) and thus be in a stronger position to again advance the political reforms re money.

Read the article.   It's better than my summary.