Weaver95

Y’know, every now and then I run across an article that tries to explain what ‘the problem’ is with our country and our government.  And in nearly every article, the author tries to find a way to blame ‘the lobbyists’ for being a corrupting influence on the democratic process. Take this article, for example.  The author makes a typically over the top claim:

Voters and elections are irrelevant. Lobbyists decide what’s in the best interests of this elite club. The usual suspects? Try the Forbes 400.

Lobbyists and ‘the rich’ are somehow completely and entirely to blame for all our woes!  why, it’s all so simple!

Feh!  I’m sorry folks but no, it is NOT that simple!  I suppose I should start with a bit of full disclosure here - Dad was a lobbyist himself.  I was actually dragooned into helping him on more than one occasion when he needed some help with a lobbying task or three, so along the way I picked up a couple of the basics regarding how a lobbyist works behind the scenes.  So I think I can safely say that I know more than the average person off the street about lobbyists and how they function.

First off, let’s get this out in the open right from the start - lobbyists aren’t ‘evil’.  They aren’t the devil, they aren’t out there trying to undermine democracy.  They’re doing a job.  Nothing more, nothing less.  Just like you and me, they have a boss.  That boss tells them what their end goal is going to be, sets goals and demands frequent updates regarding their progress towards that goal.  You might also be shocked to learn but lobbyists also have very stringent ethical guidelines.  In fact, I’d venture to say that lobbyists have more ethical guidelines than my own profession (I’m a computer programmer/systems’ analyst), and they actually obey them.  So let us dispense with the myth that lobbyists are just floating around out there doing evil for the sake of evil.  They are people, just like you and me who want to feed their kids and get through the day with a paycheck at the end of it.

A lobbyist, true enough, is there to represent a certain point of view.  They get paid to do research, compile reports and present that point of view to an elected official in a certain light.  But that’s BIASED, I hear you shout!  well maybe it is - but you can say that about any point of view.  Pick an issue - global warming, abortion, gay marriage, the war on drugs, any issue you want - and in each and every issue there are two sides.  sometimes more than two sides.  And each side has a particular point of view.  each side wants to put it’s point of view in the most favorable light possible.  They hold to their belief that their point of view is always right and that the other view(s) are always wrong.  Each side is ‘biased’.  The only difference between a lobbyist and a fanatic is that the lobbyist is getting paid.  Actually, the lobbyist is probably being  more objective than the True Believer.  They’re doing it for money, and have to map out a strategy to present a particular point of view on a given issue.  They try very hard not to let emotion cloud their judgement, and act within an ethical and legal framework to present that viewpoint to elected officials.  The True Believer, on the other hand, isn’t bound by any code of ethical behavior.  To them, the cause is all.  Emotion is the rule rather than the exception.  But they’re doing the same sorts of work - presenting a view of the world to elected officials.  Different approaches, same end result.  But somehow and for some reason, the lobbyist is considered to be ‘evil’ while the True Believer is considered noble for his efforts.

What it all boils down to is that lobbyists aren’t policy shapers.  They’re a tool used to shape opinion, but they are not the force that is driving that effort.  No, if you want to blame anyone for corruption in politics there is only one group of people you can blame.  It’s the one group that could completely end the influence of major corporations in an instant, should it choose to do so.  The one group that nobody wants to talk about….the legislators themselves!   Lobbyists and corporate campaign donations can and do represent an undue (one might even venture to say corruptive) influence on our legislators.  But that’s not the fault of the lobbyists, it’s the fault of our elected officials themselves!  The legislators themselves set the price for their votes, they are the ones who expect to be taken to expensive dinners or flown to posh overseas resorts.  They’re the ones who make ‘face time’ with their votes expensive, they are the ones who expect to have legions of lobbyists catering to them just on the off chance that they might shift a committee vote towards something a lobbyist favors.  Lobbyists are playing the game, true enough.  But Congress is the one who runs the table in this rigged game of money, power and influence.

That’s why I find all this talk about lobbyists offensive.  Lobbying isn’t ‘evil’.  It isn’t wrong.  It’s a symptom of a greater problem - that of corruption endemic to our elected officials themselves.  But none of us want to admit that our leaders are corrupt.  And our leaders play on that desire - they tend to portray themselves as innocent victims in all this influence peddling.  The lobbyists themselves know they’re being set up as the fall guy.  However, the guys in Congress have no problem forcing the lobbyists to fall on their swords to keep themselves above suspicion in this nasty war over public opinion.  Why don’t the lobbyists speak up about how bad things are?  well…because they still have a job to do.  exposing corruption among the members of Congress wouldn’t change anything inside the beltway.  Plus it would make their job much more difficult.  Actually, proving corruption among legislators and exposing it would virtually ensure that a lobbyist would never work in that business ever again.

stop blaming the lobbyist for corruption in government.  If you want to end corruption in Congress then stop electing people to office who take bribes.  Republican and Democrat alike take lobbying money without any problem whatsoever.  Stop putting those people back into office and make sure that the replacement official understands that if he or she starts sucking up money like a giant vacuum cleaner that they’ll get kicked out of office next election cycle.  If we kick enough of those bastards out of office, then the rest will learn their lesson and start doing their jobs rather than demanding bribes from lobbyists.  Ultimately it is OUR job to make sure that elected officials behave themselves.  We need to be much more careful about who we vote for and stop  blaming  lobbyists for merely doing their jobs.