I recently attended a meet-and-greet with a local candidate running for state senate in California. He explained that he would have the freedom to be independen

I recently attended a meet-and-greet with a local candidate running for state senate in California. He explained that he would have the freedom to be independent in the legislature and vote based on his convictions, unlike the rest of his compadres. The reason is that he comes from a wealthy, populous district. It is easy for him to fundraise from liberal constituents. For the rest of the state, he explained, many legislators are forced to fundraise from lobbyists in Sacramento - 90% of their fundraising instead of 10% like him. This results in lobbyists having extreme control over much of the legislature. E.g., the tobacco lobby, which has almost no actual business in California since very little tobacco is grown here, instead has enormous influence because they can easily buy legislators. States are much less powerful than the federal government. They can be played against each other. The elections and laws are much less closely watched. Individual billionaires can easily control an entire state, where they might struggle on the federal level. Of course, none of this is terribly different at the federal level either - Congresspeople are pretty cheap, and lobbyists have tons of cash. The American form of government is thoroughly rotten. ---- As for hope, I like: participatory budgeting. I think all municipalities should be using this in some form. This has apparently been used with some success in Porto Alegre, where the basic form is: each neighborhood sends a representative with a project proposal and a request for funds, e.g., we need a library, we need to repair sewer pipes, we need to build a sidewalk, it will cost us $X. Some fraction of the city budget is allocated to be spent on such projects (say, 10% or 20%). All of the neighborhood representatives vote on which proposals should be funded; the funds are used. The mechanism is simple, extremely democratic, and forces some neighborhood organizing, all of which seem like they would be great things for municipalities.