Reinforcing the status quo is one of the primary reasons lobbying is deployed. You can trust that people with money are frugal and only spend when they expect

Reinforcing the status quo is one of the primary reasons lobbying is deployed. You can trust that people with money are frugal and only spend when they expect to see a return. If the region was going to go that way anyway, then the lobbying was wasted spend. So what would you rather have as your truth: that the money was spent to overturn public will, or that it was a dumb error to spend that money in the first place? What does that say about the people who see the status quo as something worth preserving?