I still don’t understand how lobbying is legal. Like, it’s straight up bribery.
Because the people who decide what is legal are the people who benefit from it.
Lobbying is supposed to be making your case to a politician, and hoping they vote/propose a bill/etc. With that interest in mind. You yourself are allowed to lobby your congress critters...technically.
We're allowed, but without a fruit basket stuffed with money they're not going to listen.
They're surprisingly not that expensive to buy though, 10k will get you pretty much whatever you want...
$10k will get you access, but you won't convince a politician to do something that will cost them all of the other $10k checks they get from special interests.
Like if you wanted to buy a senator in order to get some earmarks for your development projects, you could probably get that buying a table at a fundraiser or two. But if you want them to pass legislation supporting unions or reducing the influence of money in politics, you'd basically have to bankroll their whole campaign because they wouldn't raise another dime.
The lobbying is not the problem. The donations that sway opinions are the problem. If it was entirely unrelated to donations and the congress person was just hearing out all sides of an issue, that's a good thing.
How often do companies fund biased or outright falsified studies that are then presented as fact by lobbyists?
I could maybe get more behind lobbying without donations if all data points were required to be peer reviewed. The lawmakers hearing these arguments are not experts (see any tech related legislation ever), it’s real easy to lie to them; basically removing the money then means that the most charismatic and/or best liar ends up winning.
If donations did not affect outcome, no company would donate.
Even when a legislator's decisions are unaffected by lobbying, companies still control legislation by ensuring legislators who earnestly believe in legislation that favors the corporations over the people get elected.
This is how Biden sided with banks and the prison-industrial complex for half a century yet didn't have enough money to fund his son's cancer treatment without selling his house until Obama paid off his medical debt.
If you ever called or wrote a letter to your congress person about an issue you cared about you were a lobbyist when you did that.
The problem is not lobbying, the problem is pay-for-play. Something like 80%-90% of candidates who spend the most money end up winning their election. Our politicians are owned by wealthy corporate interests who fund their elections. The solution is to get money — especially corporate money — out of politics.
There are a number of policy proposals that might limit the power of money in our politics, federally funded elections, regulations for how much air time each candidate gets, perhaps bring back the fairness doctrine, just to name a few.
In theory, it's partially meant to educate politicians who cannot be experts on everything in a world where information exponentially grows, but this system has clearly been intentionally used to abuse power.
We didn’t deserve Carter. We still don’t. He’s a better category of human than nearly all of the politicians we have at the moment.
That is why the Democratic party drastically changed its primary rules after Carter was elected (to make them less democratic, and to give establishment elite party members more power).
They tried to tighten the collar on the public even more when Occasio-Cortez primaried an establishment Democrat.
The left-wing of the Democratic Party, including President Jimmy Carter, are the red-haired stepchildren of the party, and they'll never let us forget it.
There are more secret fascists than it appears who will Hail Hydra when Secret Hitler makes his appearance.
Its extremely obvious. "Oh, these? These aren't bribes. They're uh, free speech! Yeah! And companies speak in money so this is their free-"
Shut the fuck up.
What are bribes? You mean lobbying? Totally different thing, look, the words have totally different letters!
Citizens United is one of the worst decisions in the history of the Supreme Court.
Its absolute evil. I can't believe us citizens haven't burned it to the ground in a fit of rage. Its blatant fucking bribery. I'm seein' red just typing this post.
"Why are there bribes coming out of your Congress and Supreme Court, Seymour?"
"Uh! ...Ohh, those aren't bribes! It's speech! Speech from the free speech we're having. Mmmm, free speech!"
door slams "Phew"...🏃♂️🎼🎵🎵🎵🎶
clearly he's old enough to run again.
Man. The guy can grow peanuts, build thousands of houses, kick cancer's ass, and is brilliantly insightful.
No wonder he lost reelection. He's competent. I'm kinda shocked he won in the first place. We didn't deserve him, and we still don't.
Well, between that and Reagan and Iran Hostage Crisis.
That and his own party turned against him when it became apparent he cared more about the country than their profits
The guy facilitated crimes against humanity in Indonesia and Afghanistan. I'd rather an incompetent war criminal than a cold blooded architect of genocide.
He can also fund and arm the Indonesian government while it commits genocide in East Timor
And he wasn't competent. He squandered a Democratic majority in both the House and Senate for two years by sitting to the right of both chambers of Congress, and ended up heralding the deregulation and deunionization that we blame Reagan for.
Like all US Presidents, Carter is a piece of shit
Thank you, Mr. Last Good American President very likely ever.
We never deserved to be led by this man. We'd rather be lied to by actors.
I agree with what is being said in the article. However, I have seen an uptick of articles older than 2 years being posted as "recent news" or "breaking news". This article is from 2015 and while it is pretty accurate, especially in these times, something from 8 years ago should be noted as such.
Seriously. This is political discussion, but not news (current events).
Carter put solar panels on the White House roof. Reagan took them off because he was beholden to the fossil fuel industry. And now look at the planet.
Yeah he helped create it. The first US president to begin to embrace neoliberal ideology and fictitious capital. Set the path for Ronald Reagan to bring in neoliberalism proper. And armed the Mujahideen, which lead to the crisis in Afghanistan. This is equivalent to Eisenhower warning everyone about the military industrial complex.
Had to scroll all the way down for this comment. The only response to this article should be : "Thanks for making this happen"
It's a feudal system of corporate lords with a priesthood of economists, politicians, and lawyers.
It’s insane to think this guy, who was a pastor, lost the Christian vote to the cheating twice divorced Reagan
The initials, the carpentry, the advocations for peace and against extreme wealth. You'd think a certain group would like this guy.
We know.
Oligarchy is baked into the U.S. constitution. Only rich (land-owning) White Males had any say. The Senate (mostly wealthy) has a permanent veto over any real power sharing. Oligarchy is nothing new in the USA, they have just added window dressing to make people THINK it ever was a democracy.
Jimmy Carter is a fucking legend
It's an oligarchy? 
Always has been
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