This really surprised/encouraged me when I saw it and I wanted to share:
For those who don’t know these people:
Lawrence Lessig is a Yale-educated, Harvard Law professor who is sometimes referred to as the “Godfather of the movement to end political corruption” because of his work with groups like Represent.Us, RootStrikers and the Sunlight Foundation. He wrote a book about the urgent need for Campaign Finance Reform called “Republic Lost” — it’s well worth reading and available for free from that link I’ve posted. He also tried to run for president in the last election but bowed out citing rule changes from the Democratic Party that precluded him from appearing in the televised debates, according to Wikipedia.
Joe Rogan is an MMA commentator and stand-up comedian whose podcast has a very large and, judging by the comment section, politically diverse audience. His audience is significant because it includes multiple populations that can be described as “right wing nut jobs whose fundamental grievances are valid” — I’m talking about people who voted for Trump because their job got outsourced, people who started watching InfoWars because they were upset about the Patriot Act, etc. These are the types of people who don’t trust CNN or Fox News because they think “the whole damn thing is rigged” and I think it’s very encouraging for those people to be hearing from someone like Lessig who can tell them, “Yes, you’re right, the system IS rigged and, yes, Democrats and Republicans both participate in rigging it — your suspicions are validated. But look: Democrats have proposed meaningful legislation to un-rig the system in the past and they’re about to do it again with HR1; also Republican corruption is far more extreme and damaging than the worst of what the Democrats have done.” (not a direct quote)