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How is lobbying still legal in the USA? Isn't it clear as day corruption, where you pay for influence over the government? I thought Americans valued freedom?

by xupybd 10y ago

washadjeffmad 10y ago
The freedom for an individual (a minority) to out-buy popular, widely held, value-backed ideas (the majority) with one's own money is about as American as it gets. What is the government's role if not to protect minorities from the will of the majority?
jomamaxx 10y ago
'lobbying' just means individuals or groups speaking to their government reps. There's nothing wrong with it. It's when there's a disproportionate power imbalance that we run into problems.
- xupybd 10y ago
  Isn't there disproportionate power there now? Large amounts of money can be used to employ full time lobbyists. These full time lobbyists mean you can pay for influence that the ordinary citizen would not have the resources to achieve.
  - jomamaxx 10y ago
    Yes, there is definitely a problem. But 'lobbying' itself is not the problem.
posterboy 10y ago
The market will fix it
otterley 10y ago
> How is lobbying still legal in the USA? Lobbying is well-protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. It is considered "core political speech," or, alternatively protected under the right to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. There's an entire body of First Amendment law out there for you to study if you're particularly interested.
sgnelson 10y ago
Rather than being pedantic like most of these replies which describe lobbyings definition, but to take your intent to mean" lobbying in which large amounts of dollars change hands between special interests and politicians in which case the politicians are then passing laws (sometimes written by the lobbyists themselves) that directly benefit these special interest groups, often at the cost of the public at large. To answer you, I'll ask my own question: Who makes the laws? As long as the foxes guard the hen house, we should expect no change. As long as politicians can quit their jobs one day, and get a $500,000/yr salary working for the lobbyists the next day[1], we should expect no changes. There are very clear and very obvious problems in how our government works. In my opinion, as silly as allowing the banks/Wall Street to regulate themselves, allowing Congress to regulate themselves is equally as bad. Until this is no longer the case, clear cut bribery will continue in the home of the free. (because freedom isn't free, somebody's got to buy the politician off.) [1] To be honest, you can't do this today, you must wait (I could be wrong here, this is from memory, too lazy to look up the current law) 2 years before becoming a lobbyist after working in Congress/Fed Gov't, however, this law has had negligible impact at best.

How is lobbying still legal in the USA? Isn't it clear as day corruption, where you pay for influence over the government? I thought Americans valued freedom?

by xupybd 10y ago

How is lobbying still legal in the USA? Isn't it clear as day corruption, where you pay for influence over the government? I thought Americans valued freedom?

washadjeffmad 10y ago

The freedom for an individual (a minority) to out-buy popular, widely held, value-backed ideas (the majority) with one's own money is about as American as it gets. What is the government's role if not to protect minorities from the will of the majority?

jomamaxx 10y ago

'lobbying' just means individuals or groups speaking to their government reps. There's nothing wrong with it. It's when there's a disproportionate power imbalance that we run into problems.

xupybd 10y ago
Isn't there disproportionate power there now? Large amounts of money can be used to employ full time lobbyists. These full time lobbyists mean you can pay for influence that the ordinary citizen would not have the resources to achieve.
- jomamaxx 10y ago
  Yes, there is definitely a problem. But 'lobbying' itself is not the problem.

posterboy 10y ago

The market will fix it

otterley 10y ago

> How is lobbying still legal in the USA? Lobbying is well-protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. It is considered "core political speech," or, alternatively protected under the right to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. There's an entire body of First Amendment law out there for you to study if you're particularly interested.

sgnelson 10y ago

Rather than being pedantic like most of these replies which describe lobbyings definition, but to take your intent to mean" lobbying in which large amounts of dollars change hands between special interests and politicians in which case the politicians are then passing laws (sometimes written by the lobbyists themselves) that directly benefit these special interest groups, often at the cost of the public at large. To answer you, I'll ask my own question: Who makes the laws? As long as the foxes guard the hen house, we should expect no change. As long as politicians can quit their jobs one day, and get a $500,000/yr salary working for the lobbyists the next day[1], we should expect no changes. There are very clear and very obvious problems in how our government works. In my opinion, as silly as allowing the banks/Wall Street to regulate themselves, allowing Congress to regulate themselves is equally as bad. Until this is no longer the case, clear cut bribery will continue in the home of the free. (because freedom isn't free, somebody's got to buy the politician off.) [1] To be honest, you can't do this today, you must wait (I could be wrong here, this is from memory, too lazy to look up the current law) 2 years before becoming a lobbyist after working in Congress/Fed Gov't, however, this law has had negligible impact at best.