On Tuesday Lawrence Lessig, a Harvard law professor, announced that he would run for president if he receives $1 million in donations by Labor Day. Lessig’s plan is decidedly idiosyncratic—he has never held political office, and he declares that he will resign and hand over the orb of power to his vice president as soon as something called the Citizen Equality Act is signed into law. But Lessig, who is brilliant and influential (I know him slightly), has approached his presidential campaign with characteristic creativity. And if he can bring some serious worries about the corrupting effect of money in politics to public attention, his efforts deserve support or at least sympathy.

For Lessig, as for Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the “system is rigged.” In his 2011 book Republic, Lost, he argues that money has corrupted politics. The problem is not bribery in the old-fashioned sense. Nor does Lessig believe that the problem is simply that interest groups obtain favorable legislation by making campaign contributions, bribery with a wink, as one might call it. Lessig believes that politicians and lobbyists are decent, law-abiding, and (even) ethical people who are caught up in a system of mutual dependence where money influences political outcomes without leaving any tracks. Understaffed and thinly spread members of Congress rely on lobbyists to inform them and even write the legislation, depending on the lobbyists more for their expertise, goodwill, and even friendship than for campaign cash. Lobbyists provide much-needed aid but always with a slant, reflecting their particular view of the world, which is not that of most Americans. The result is that, without anyone quite meaning it, law reflects moneyed interests while ordinary Americans are shut out. This has led to political polarization and loss of faith in democracy.

Not everyone agrees with Lessig’s diagnosis. Political polarization and loss of faith in government long predate the modern era of money politics, as Ezra Klein has pointed out. It is also worth mentioning that Big Money has not blocked significant progressive legislative accomplishments of recent years—which have created quasi-universal health insurance, stricter financial regulation, and slightly more progressive taxes. But Lessig is certainly right that money in politics is a problem, and something should be done about it.

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