Harvard Law Professor and longtime political activist Lawrence Lessig wants to win the presidency of the United States to accomplish one critical objective: ending the corrupting influence of money on politics. With that done, he says he’ll step down and let someone else take over the Oval Office. It’s a radical notion, the single-issue presidential candidacy, but as he points out, only a radical solution can wrest back control of our democracy from the monied interests who have steadily come to dominate American political life.

In this exclusive interview, Lessig and The Young Turks’ Cenk Uygur discuss:

- The Kickstarter campaign that will decide whether Lessig officially runs for president.
- Why, even if one of them were to become president, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton have no hope of eliminating money from politics.
- Why the American people would get behind a one-issue candidacy to get money out of politics.
- Why the Democratic party is as guilty as Republicans for the current corrupt system.
- Whether Donald Trump’s candidacy is helpful or harmful to the cause of money in politics.
- The Three Prongs of Political Corruption that a Citizen Equality Act would deal with.
- Whether he would govern as president on other issues while trying to pass the Citizen Equality Act.
- How the fight against money in politics is the Civil Rights issue of our time, and that now is when the American people need to come together in shared sacrifice to take back democracy.

Find out more about Lawrence Lessig here: http://www.lessig.org
Donate to the Lawrence Lessig for President Kickstarter here: https://lessigforpresident.com
Follow him on Twitter: @Lessig

A portion of our Young Turks Main Show from August 21, 2015. For more go to http://www.tytmembership.com. 

Hour 1: Power Panel-Ben, Cenk, Jimmy, and John. Ted Cruz went on Jan Mickelson’s radio show to talk about how much he’s against immigrants just days after Mickelson proposed using illegal immigrants as slaves. Cenk now thinks that Cruz stands a good chance of winning the nomination as the crazy Trump alternative. Video of Cruz claiming to have been speaking out against birthright citizenship 4 years ago when no one else was calling for an end to it. John points out that 4 years ago, Cruz openly spoke out in favor of birthright citizenship. Video of Mickelson’s recent proposal to institute slavery for illegal immigrants. Discussion about the seemingly nonexistent bottom to the GOP’s hateful rhetoric. Amanda Terkel put together a list of Americans that would’ve never been allowed to be citizens if we rejected birthright citizenship the way many presidential candidates propose. The top 5 includes Marco Rubio and Bobby Jindal.

Hour 2: Ana replaces John for SCS. One of the unmentioned negative side effects of the Ashley Madison info leak is that in many countries around the world, gay affairs and extra marital affairs are punishable by death. Many people’s lives are potentially in danger. After the movie Straight Outta Compton has been released, some of the women that Dr. Dre assaulted in the past came forward to complain about the violent aspect of his life not being portrayed. Dre released an extensive apology. Discussion about why he made this strategic move.