If there’s one thing in politics that I wish I could wrap my head around but simply can’t is why monetary lobbying is legal. After all, the definition of bribery is “the practice of offering something (usually money) in order to gain an illicit advantage”, and I would certainly say that these days, lobbying does just that.
This country was founded upon the principal that politicians are elected by the people, and for the people. We all get a vote, and our vote counts as a measure of who we think most accurately represents what we stand for. In a system without lobbying, this would be the case, and without monetary incentives from corporations to do things, politicians would certainly be more inclined to vote along what they campaigned on. It seems to me like lobbying is the cause of so many issues in Washington, and without it, the people would actually be represented properly.
The citizens of this country and in democracies all around the world are not being represented accurately due the massive influx of money being pumped into policy decisions. A great, recent example of this would be the impending Comcast/NBC Universal merger in which 87% of the politicians supporting the merger have received money from Comcast. How is this legal? Most people of this country are smart enough to know that approving this merger would be a huge problem, but their voices are not being heard over the thousands, if not millions of dollars, being put in the pockets of politicians.
If there is one thing I wish I could change about politics right now, this would be it. I think this one simple change would change the entire system for the better, and quickly! What do you think?
John Doe on 01.17.2011
I sincerely doubt that the politicians would pass legislation to make monetary lobbying illegal, it would be contrary to MOST (not all) of their lavish life styles funded by the public coffers…I know there are a lot of good politicians but not enough to make a difference on the scale we need.
Plus media would have to be on our side to exposing this blatant and glaring error in American politics.
RG on 01.26.2011
I will point you to the worst instance of legal interpretation of to arise out of the United States Supreme Court: Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad. This case is referenced as THE case to make corporations humans, thus granting them with the right of freedom of speech. Yet, the judges in this case never rendered such a decision.