Quote Originally Posted by a completely inoffensive name View Post
@PJ what you say is true, but instead of simply cutting the nose to spite the face we must recognize that maybe we shouldn't let industry have lobbyists in Washington in the first place.
Well, apart from the infeasibility of instituting such an initiative, the resulting effects would be far from positive. Lobbying is a vital element of a pluralistic democracy. It is the glue that binds the people's will and the legislation that enforces it. How, for example, is your average congressman supposed to know the intricacies of the American health care system well enough to regulate it and at the same time be an expert on which of a slate of the latest military weapons systems deserve funding and which do not?

The problem is the political class, and it always has been. They are supposed to act as honest brokers between various lobbying groups - to distill their complex proposals into their main points and then judge which of those will best serve their constituents. This requires a group of people motivated by altruism instead of money and power. They are hard to come by, but they do tend to manifest in times of real crisis. The best policy, however, is to keep as much power as is practical out of the hands of politicians in the first place.

Quote Originally Posted by PVC
Then fund your political parties through taxes, not donations.

Make political donations illigal, and make it illegal for elected officials to hold shares, stocks, or bonds.
I fear that would be a bit authoritarian for our tastes, freedom of speech and all...

We do actually have fairly strong laws on illegal forms of lobbying in this country though, and many of the most egregious offenders have been put behind bars. The problem is that the most skilled lobbyists deal in social currency and other intangibles, and relationships are far more difficult to regulate. Money changing hands in some dark alley is not how most lobbying is done.