3 ms·

> Like anyone else, politicians respond to incentives. Sure, but it's not like they don't have a choice. Regardless of any incentives, they're the only ones ac

> Like anyone else, politicians respond to incentives. Sure, but it's not like they don't have a choice. Regardless of any incentives, they're the only ones actually empowered to make these decisions. Lobbying, offers of bribes, campaign financing promises, etc. do not in any sense detract from their ability and responsibility to make the right choices.

jacobolus 5y ago
Nearly everyone who takes any responsibility or even believes that there is such a thing as personal or professional ethics has been systematically purged from the GOP over the past few decades, and the GOP now has 6 votes on the Supreme Court and 50 Senators (=> effective veto of all legislation), and may well end up with congressional majorities after the next election. You can’t un-screw a system by just telling the people inside who were selected for their mendacity and corruption to “make the right choices”.
- nybble41 5y ago
  > You can’t un-screw a system by just telling the people inside who were selected for their mendacity and corruption to “make the right choices”. Of course not, but it's still the politicians (on both sides of the aisle) who are ultimately at fault for abusing their position and failing in their duty to their constituents, not the lobbyists for merely making suggestions or offering deals in their own self-interest. Restricting lobbying or campaign contributions wouldn't do anything to improve existing politicians' "mendacity and corruption". They'll just find other, less public, ways to serve themselves rather than their constituents.
  - jacobolus 5y ago
    > politicians who are ultimately at fault In a democracy, it is the voters who are ultimately at fault. But perhaps more to the point, it is the system that is at fault, and the system is very complex: institutions, physical infrastructure, social mores, common beliefs, canonical media and stories, traditions, language, .... You can’t just point fingers at individual people in a large imperfect system and pretend that swapping them would fix it. Troubleshooting and improving large complex systems is really hard and improvements are usually incremental, except sometimes in extraordinary crises.

jacobolus 5y ago

Nearly everyone who takes any responsibility or even believes that there is such a thing as personal or professional ethics has been systematically purged from the GOP over the past few decades, and the GOP now has 6 votes on the Supreme Court and 50 Senators (=> effective veto of all legislation), and may well end up with congressional majorities after the next election. You can’t un-screw a system by just telling the people inside who were selected for their mendacity and corruption to “make the right choices”.

nybble41 5y ago
> You can’t un-screw a system by just telling the people inside who were selected for their mendacity and corruption to “make the right choices”. Of course not, but it's still the politicians (on both sides of the aisle) who are ultimately at fault for abusing their position and failing in their duty to their constituents, not the lobbyists for merely making suggestions or offering deals in their own self-interest. Restricting lobbying or campaign contributions wouldn't do anything to improve existing politicians' "mendacity and corruption". They'll just find other, less public, ways to serve themselves rather than their constituents.
- jacobolus 5y ago
  > politicians who are ultimately at fault In a democracy, it is the voters who are ultimately at fault. But perhaps more to the point, it is the system that is at fault, and the system is very complex: institutions, physical infrastructure, social mores, common beliefs, canonical media and stories, traditions, language, .... You can’t just point fingers at individual people in a large imperfect system and pretend that swapping them would fix it. Troubleshooting and improving large complex systems is really hard and improvements are usually incremental, except sometimes in extraordinary crises.