The trouble with lobbying is - where do you draw the line?
Do I, an individual citizen, have a right to petition my elected representatives?
Do I, an individual citizen, have a right to organize with fellow citizens to petition my elected representatives?
Do I, an individual citizen, who owns a business, have a right to organize with fellow citizens who own similar businesses to petition my representatives?
The problem with lobbying is a fundamental issue with representative democracy, not with the American political system. Lobbying by monied interests is simply more overt in the American system. I can't think of a Western democracy where industry interests don't have a huge say in the legislative and even executive processes. From the perspective of the politician, they are looking out for their constituents by helping out industrial interests, because in their eyes, that means jobs and development.
I agree there is a huge problem with the outsized influence of industry in the political realm, but I think it's a very complicated problem to untangle. The only way we have to fight it is to organize ourselves, which is usually extremely difficult.
I don't think this boundary would be that difficult to delineate and enforce. Political donations ought to come from personal bank accounts rather than corporate ones. Is it any more difficult than that?
So then you don't believe individuals have the right to organize to petition their representatives? Because any organization is going to mean pooling resources into a legal structure...like a corporation.
That's a good quibble. People should be allowed to organize. I suppose there should be a distinction between political organizations and profitable ones.
So a group "Whigs for America" pooling donations is fine, but a for-profit corporation spending millions on lobbying would not be fine.
The difference being that the former group is a non-profit collection of people concerned about some aspect of government.
There's nothing about the US Constitution that says that different elements of it don't conflict. The question precisely is working out where boundaries exist, and what trade-offs to make.
No, but changing the constitution is not a minor affair. You can't just propose one amendment through the legislative process, you have to launch a convention, and the country you get on the other side of that may not have much in common with the country now.
Do I, an individual citizen, have a right to petition my elected representatives?
Do I, an individual citizen, have a right to organize with fellow citizens to petition my elected representatives?
Do I, an individual citizen, who owns a business, have a right to organize with fellow citizens who own similar businesses to petition my representatives?
The problem with lobbying is a fundamental issue with representative democracy, not with the American political system. Lobbying by monied interests is simply more overt in the American system. I can't think of a Western democracy where industry interests don't have a huge say in the legislative and even executive processes. From the perspective of the politician, they are looking out for their constituents by helping out industrial interests, because in their eyes, that means jobs and development.
I agree there is a huge problem with the outsized influence of industry in the political realm, but I think it's a very complicated problem to untangle. The only way we have to fight it is to organize ourselves, which is usually extremely difficult.