A Radically Conservative Idea: Let’s return to the US Constitution

Lawrence Lessig is a scholar of history who reminds us of the ideals of our Founding Fathers, and challenges us to return to those which we have betrayed

• The Declaration of Independence was a ringing indictment of colonialism, but the US in the 20th Century became the world’s biggest neo-colonial power. We overthrow popular governments that we don’t like and install dictators friendly to US corporations.
• The Fourth Amendment used to guarantee protection against government spying on US citizens. Now every email that we write and every call that we make is recorded at a huge Utah data center, just in case it’s needed for future prosecution.
• It’s not in our Constitution, but this country was once committed to maintaining the conditions for free market competition by breaking up big monopolies. This was a bipartisan consensus early in the 20th Century. Now we have banks that are too big to fail and media monopolies and Silicon Valley tech giants that control the lion’s share of internet traffic.