You and other commenters are focusing on lobbying in principle, and I generally agree with your explanations. But what about lobbying in practice? The revolvi

You and other commenters are focusing on lobbying in principle, and I generally agree with your explanations. But what about lobbying in practice? The revolving door, gifts, paid trips, campaign contributions, etc. Wealthier individuals have a greater ability to influence politicians and not just because "they can afford education in rhetoric." It is difficult in most cases to prove quid pro quo bribery. But I suspect most politicians, lobbyists and insiders generally agree that politics is increasingly a pay-to-play game. An anecdote from Jack Abramoff, former lobbyist sentenced to 4 years for "trading expensive gifts, meals and sports trips in exchange for political favors"[0]: '...the number-one weapon used to influence a member of Congress was the promise of a future, high-paying job to a member's top staffers. 'Now the moment I said that to them or any of our staff said that to them, that was it. We owned them,' Abramoff said . 'And what does that mean? Every request ... of our clients, everything that we want, they're going to do. Not only that, they're going to think of things we can't think of to do' ... Such tactics resulted in Abramoff's lobbying firm holding sway in the offices of about 100 Congressional representatives, he says ... 'I would view that as a failure, because that leaves 335 offices that we didn't have strong influence in.' [1] Note: Other than Abramoff, whom the media generally focused on during his corruption investigation, many other people were also convicted of crimes including officials from the White House, House of Representatives, congressional staff, Department of the Interior, Labor Department and Justice Department. [2] [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Abramoff#Indian_tribes_grand_jury_investigations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Abramoff#Indian_tribes_gr... [1]: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/11/how-jack-abramoff-says-he-bought-100-members-of-congress/247860/ http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/11/how-jack... [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Abramoff#People_convicted_in_Abramoff_probe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Abramoff#People_convicted...