Fixing Democracy by Revamping Lobbying

To me the biggest problem in American politics is lobbying. Lobbying is legalized bribery. And I am not talking about Jack Abramoff - that was REAL bribery. Lobbyists have more say in legislation than voters possibly can under that system - unless the voters get their own lobby. Some do. AARP, NRA, AFLCIO are all examples of lobbies that represent a collection of voters. The more voters they get, the more clout they have. But grassroots organizations cannot pony up the bags of cash that entire industries can offer. The American Bankers Association, the National Association of Securities Dealers, and the Bond Market Association all represent entire industries with very, very deep pockets. If AARP goes up against, one of these giants they will most likely lose.

“Lobbying” is the attempt to influence public policy by petitioning government. Petitioning government is a cornerstone of democracy and appears in such diverse documents as the Magna Carta, Declaration of Independence, and the Bill of Rights. But, none of those documents envisioned a future that included multi-national corporations who have more money than most countries. In Colonial times, individuals would petition the government by writing letters. But there are now too many citizens and politicians have too many complex issues to have ongoing contact with individual constituents (unless they are campaign donors). So the original concept of lobbying - to allow citizens to directly contact and influence legislators - has been bastardized. Now you get access and influence with money. The more money you have, the more access and influence. Bribery.

The bastardization of lobbying has led to a bastardization of the political landscape. It seems that all politicians care about anymore is getting reelected. As this paradigm grew, it created an "arms race" of campaign financing. Races used more radio and television, costing more money, needing more contributions. This need made lobbyists more important to the politicians, giving them more influence.

I have less of a beef with lobbying efforts from groups. AARP and the NRA have become powerful lobbies that get politicians' attention. But these groups have clout moreso because they can mobilize their members, not because of giant bags of cash. They can promote a politician and their members will donate to and vote for that candidate. I many not agree with the organization's agendas, but I agree that their lobbying efforts are a good example of democracy in action, and I think the founding fathers would agree.

I have more of a beef with corporate lobbying. Corporations are able to push though so much legislation that is good for them, but bad for the individual voters. For example, Democrats recently tried to push through legislation to further regulate the $40 Billion "payday lending" industry. These predators charge interest rates that, when annualized, amount to almost 400%. Not wanting to lose their loan shark businesses, the industry ponied up over $1Million to fight legislation that would limit the interest they could charge. When consumer groups condemned a bill as full of loopholes and favoring the industry, bill sponsor Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., said, “While they may not be JP Morgan Chase or Bank of America, they’re very powerful. Their influence should not be underestimated.”

What? You cannot defend against them, Luis? Why not? The answer, of course, is that if he didn't do what he was told, the lobby would give their money to Gutierrez's opponent in the next election. That is when bribery becomes blackmail, and neither one is good for the country. This scenario plays itself out over and over. Play along, and the lobbyists are your best friends. Oppose them and they are your worst enemy.

Yesterday, the Senate failed to pass a bill that would have allowed judges to enable certain homeowners to renegotiate mortgages. Big banks didn't like this idea one bit. Of the 59 Democratic Senators (including new GOP turncoat Arlen Spector), only 45 voted for the bill. A leading supporter of the bill, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), concluded that banks "frankly own the place." How sad. He stood up and said that the banks owned the Senate. I guess that explains all that bailout money flying around without accountability.

So what do we do? I think the first thing is to stop giving corporations the same rights as individuals. Lobbying is considered a right, but it is a right of citizens. Corporations are not citizens, despite their protestations to the contrary. This idea is not new. Over 20 years ago the NY Times ran an editorial entitled Corporations Are Not Persons. The piece points out the example of tobacco companies arguing that advertising to children was their right under the first amendment. As the editorial points out: "Equality of constitutional rights plus an inequality of legislated and de facto powers leads inevitably to the supremacy of artificial over real persons."

As long as corporations have the same rights as individuals, they will own our political system. They have too much money and voters or voter PACs can't compete. The political system should belong to the people, the voters, the citizens. The NRA, made up of individual citizens, should have every right to fight against gun control. The gun manufacturers, should not. The citizens are fighting for thier rights, the manufacturers for their profits. It's our country, not the corporations.

Once it is established that corporations do not have the same rights as individuals, we can start to chip away at their influence. Lobbyists can be prevented from making donations on behalf of any corporations. Only individuals would be allowed to donate. If that would ever happen, Gucci Gulch would become a ghost town and politicians would have to think for themselves instead of do what they are told. We could return to the concept of "citizen legislators" rather than professional politicians.

There are few politicians in Washington who have the guts to take this on. Introduce a bill that denys corporations the same rights as citizens and you will see the mother of all lobbying efforts. I think President Obama just might take this on, if he can clean up some of the current messes taking up his time. My hope is that the GOP will continue to shoot itself in the foot, and the Democrats make even more gains in 2010. Then, armed with that super-majority in both houses and leveraging on his popularity, Obama takes it on. If and when that happens, it will require a massive grassroots campaign. Politicians still repond to voters if enough of them speak out. If it happens, jump in. Donate, volunteer, write, canvass, do whatever you can to help the cause. Our democracy just might depend on it.