LIVE from Austin: Lawrence Lessig says money erodes trust in politics

We're listening to a very lively keynote by the distinguished Professor Lawrence Lessig, who is explaining how money in the political process has bankrupted Congress as an institution and reviewing the history of corruption, which goes all the way back to the beginning of the country.

"We face the exact same problem here," Lessig said, referring to the Framers' problems in making early American government independent (or nondependent) of private money and influence.

Lessig is eloquent, forceful, and smooth in his delivery; he's one of the most compelling speakers we've been privileged to hear from this year.

Lessig observed that blogs and bloggers are descendants of the pamphlets and pamphleteers that were the first press corps in America, before the New York Times or Wall Street Journal ever existed.

Lessig went on to talk about the work of Change Congress, which is trying to tag, identify, and track candidates who support meaningful ethical reform of government. Like Creative Commons, Change Congress allows people to post badges on their websites showing their support for reform.

In the next week, Change Congress will send letters out to all candidates and members of Congress asking them to sign on to a pledge to reform our nation's most important institution.

Lessig declared that our democracy was in a crisis, and corruption/abuse of power is not the most significant problem that we need to solve, but it is the first problem. Of course, back home in Washington State, that is something we have been working on with the local public financing of elections legislation that made it through the statehouse this year.

UPDATE, DiAnne: Lessig used a very nice graphics - concise, modern, rather telegraphic text and punctuated with pictures, ensuring that did not become the kind of pedantic speaker who merely reads off their presentation so that people would rather be outside.

He presented parallel stories of the corruption of money, whether by influence peddlers soliciting donations for the "Bush Library," a Congressman using official stationary to raise money for his center, researchers with industry conflicts of interest or CDC physician/reviewers recommending drugs when they received money from pharmaceuticals. He talked about parents of autistic children, who find themselves in a no man's land where they don't know whether to trust research because they know there are strings attached.

The bottom line? Trust can only exist when money is kept off the table. Positive examples given included Wikipedia - which, like NPI, accepts no ads - and Lonely Planet Guidebooks, which doesn't accept ads either but also rejects discounts and endorsements. It is not wrong to be skeptical and withhold trust when money is exchanging hands, because money tends to poison trust, Lessig said.