7 ms·
This might be pedantic, but legally speaking, if you were to "pay a politician" for voting a certain way, it would be highly illegal. "quid pro quo", on a camp
by Green_man 8y ago
This might be pedantic, but legally speaking, if you were to "pay a politician" for voting a certain way, it would be highly illegal. "quid pro quo", on a campaign contribution or a porsche or a briefcase of cash is all illegal.
- calgoo 8y agoIMO, lobbying is legalized bribing, so too me, lobbying is paying a politician to vote or do as you ask.
- JumpCrisscross 8y ago> lobbying is legalized bribing So when I call my elected leaders to voice up about an issue, that's bribery? Because what I'm doing is lobbying. Or, if I call my elected leader and patch in a friend in another state who's more knowledgeable about the domain, is that lobbying? If it's not, then what if my friend and I both patch in an out-of-district friend? What if we form a formal club? If we want (a) freedom of political speech and (b) freedom of political assembly, it gets really hard to separate a grassroots interest group from a destructive commercial one. (And should civic interests always trump commercial interests? That's a political question, too!) TL; DR Democracy can't exist without lobbying. With respect to paid lobbying, I might agree, but the devil's in the details.