About

About FixCongressFirst.org

No one is ever going to like everything that Congress does, but weshould be able to believe that when it makes mistakes, it does so on the basis ofstupidity or incompetence, or because there are too many Democratsthere or too many Republicans -- but not because of the money. But with special interests funneling millions of dollars into our elections -- and a new Supreme Court ruling giving corporations and unions even more power to control our government -- we can never have that confidence.

This isn't a Democratic issue or a Republican issue -- it's a fundamental question about what kind of democracy we want to have. As we've watched presidents in both parties fail to pass their agendas, it's become increasingly clear that elections are no longer where decisions are made in this country. A fortunate few, neither dependent on nor accountable to the people, control the direction of our government. That weakening of our democracy should frighten everyone equally, whether or not you support the people currently in power.

Our goal is to restore public trust in our government by passing a hybrid of small-dollar donations and public financing of elections.

FixCongressFirst.org is a project of Change Congress, a non-partisan advocacy organization whose sole purpose is to protect the independence of Congress by fighting the influence of money in politics.

Co-founders

Lawrence Lessig, a professor at Harvard LawSchool, is a leading thinker on technology and Internet policy. He isthe founder of Creative Commons and author of “Code,” “The Future ofIdeas,” and “Free Culture.”

Joe Trippi, whom The New Republic called “the manwho reinvented campaigning,” is the founder of Trippi & Associates.He has worked on presidential campaigns for Walter Mondale, Gary Hart,Richard Gephardt, Howard Dean and, most recently, John Edwards. In2004, as the National Campaign Manager for Howard Dean’s presidentialcampaign, Trippi pioneered the use of online technology to organizewhat became the largest grassroots movement in presidential politics.Through his innovative use of the Internet for small-donor fundraising,“Dean for America” raised more money than any Democratic presidentialcampaign to that point—all with donations averaging less than $100.

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Call a Convention

Passing the Fair Elections Now Act is an essential first step toward restoring trust in our democracy. But if we want to guarantee that nothing will stand in the way of fundamental reform, then we have to write this reform into our founding document, the Constitution itself. Learn more.

WHY FAIR ELECTIONS?

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