Last summer at Netroots Nation, Lawrence Lessig of Change Congress wowed us with one of his patented slide presentations, this one focusing on changing the way campaigns are funded. This is not a new idea, of course, but it is one that by all accounts needs new eyes and new blood since all other attempts at solving the problem, at the federal level, at least, have either failed or sucked.

At a blogger meet-up following the presentation, Lessig wanted to hear our thoughts; he was in listening mode, which was refreshing since usually people like to pretend they have all the answers even when they don't. Lessig knew and acknowledged that his movement to change the way campaigns are funded was a work in progress and he was committed to getting it right. On January 8th, Lessig launched the next step in his fight: the Change Congress Donor Strike.

We need a clean system of campaign financing--one where politicians pay attention to regular people, the very small-dollar donors who made such an impact in 2008.

Reforming the system will never be Congress's first priority until a grassroots movement gives politicians a choice: You can have our money or special interest money, but not both. Now is the time to push for this change, and that's why the donor strike is important.

The pledge, which you can sign HERE, states, simply:

"I'm pledging not to donate to any federal candidate unless they support legislation making congressional elections citizen-funded, not special-interest funded."

The beauty of this petition is that there actually is real legislation to rally around, it's not just theoretical:

The bipartisan Fair Elections Now Act was offered last Congress, and will be offered again this year by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Arlen Specter (R-PA), and Reps. John Larson (D-CT) and Walter Jones (R-NC).

Under this legislation, congressional candidates who raise a threshold number of small-dollar donations would qualify for a chunk of funding--several hundred thousand dollars. If they accept this funding, they can't raise big-dollar donations. But they can raise contributions up to a certain amount (such as $100 or $250), which would be matched several times over by a central fund. This would create an incentive for politicians to opt into this system and run people-powered campaigns.

No new taxpayer dollars would be required. TV broadcasters, who currently get access to our public airwaves for free and make billions of dollars as a result, would pay a fee that would be the source of revenue for the central fund.

It's a great bill. You can help pressure Congress to pass it by joining the donor strike today.

What's great about this bill is that it doesn't take away our ability to make small dollar donations to candidates we support, but rather makes it central to the premise of the bill. That's why I like the shift away from the "publicly funded" frame and toward Lessig's "citizen-funded" framing of campaign finance reform. This is a way to make members of congress even more accountable to us, which in turn will completely shift the way policy is made in Washington. This is, of course, precisely why the special interests will try to block this bill and why we must array our own army against them. Building that army is exactly what Lessig is doing. So, get on board and join the donor strike.