A Call to Duty

I experienced what I like to think of as a “Howard Dean moment” yesterday at the North Carolina Voters for Clean Elections lobby day. As some of you might remember, then-governor Dean famously destroyed his presidential ambitions with one frenzied exclamation (we should all have such passion for government), and I confess I felt a similar surge of enthusiasm yesterday at our state’s capital. Professor Larry Lessig delivered what has to be one of the most important presentations of our time, touching on three of the most critical issues facing our country today. I’ll spare you the details, but the part of the presentation that really struck me was this message: connect the dots. No matter what issue you hold close to your heart, no matter which of our nation’s crises has you the most doom-struck, the only real way to make a difference against the onslaught of corruption that has taken hold of our government is to remove control of our elections from the powerful interests that steer them now and put that control back in the hands of the voters.
What led me to the aforementioned state of euphoric enthusiasm was the realization that we can do it. This summer, we can take back control of the elections in North Carolina. The voter-owned elections attachment to the NC legislature ethics bill is looking to pass the NC Senate, but still needs to pass the house. Over the next few weeks, call your representative, call your local VOE headquarters, do anything to wrest control of our democracy away from the corrupt and powerful. This summer, a true democracy and a better future is within our reach. Eeyaa.