21 sats \ 5 replies \ @kepford 30 Aug \ parent \ on: Which U.S. Industries Spend the Most on Lobbying? charts_and_numbers
Great overview!
When the clowns talk about "saving democracy" this is what they are saving... an illusion. A lie. I remember when there were people that said we need to reform the laws around campaign financing and lobbying... It failed. It never would have worked because of the incentive structures. When so much power is centralized in one place, D.C. things like this system will develop. The only solution I can see is radical decentralization of power structures and truly free markets. If what we have is democracy, to hell with democracy.
I will say it is my opinion and observation that the big issue would be campaign financing and Super PAC... Lobbying still serves a good for the most part these PACs esp the Super PACs that are not required to show who is backing are scary...
There was a report yesterday that I saw involving China getting involved in the Congressional Races and not the Presidental one because it is easier to affect the Congressional ones via funding/leaks compared to the Presidental and could allow for China Hawks to be knocked back
reply
reply
I wont lie I do think one party who may or may not start with a D and be Left operates as a hive mind. Except for a very specific few and only over very specific things they will not speak out against the party. Within the R and right-leaning party you tend to see no only a trend of the representatives in both the House and Senate getting younger but also coming from a wide variety of backgrounds who stick to what they know from experience and not just off what the vibes are or the catchy phase is
reply
In my humble opinion the big problem is political parties because they evolve into a separate class of citizens which represent themselves rather than the people :/
(If political parties werent allowed people would be running as themselves. and be beholden to no-one but their voters. today holding office has become a career path, which was never the intention. i for one would like the doctors, dentists, farmers, you name it hold office but instead we get generic politicians who has done nothing but worked in politics their whole lives. they do not represent anyone other than the political class. /rant off)
tl;dr ban political parties
reply
Good ol George Washington warned us about political parties but alas we failed him there....
I will say at least in the House of Reps side yes there are some career politicians but there are also a ton of people who are not. On my Committee we have several ranchers, a guy who was a weatherman, a dentist, a guy who has a PhD in I believe Plasma Physics (he worked for the national labs), numerous small business owners heck even a guy who helped build the freaking Saturn Rockets for Apollo (he is retiring).
The Senate side tends to be career politicians in my opinion because they are people who have climbed the latter from things like Congressional or State Office. If they arent then they tend to be very wealthy people who may or may not be in touch with the Common Man anymore but again because that is the chamber that only has 100 people and is thus much more powerful per person wise compared to the House I see how it could easily happen.
reply