We all know that the current atmosphere in Washington, D.C. can be described as dysfunctional. I’ve been giving a lot of thought to ways that our dysfunctional political system could be fixed. Here’s what I’ve come up with.
8 Solutions to the Dysfunctional Political System in America
Today, I'll expand on solution #3:
End Lobbying—Here’s a simple way to look at this issue: Lobbying=Corruption. Here how it
works. Congressman Doe or Senator Smith decide to retire and go to work for XYZ Lobbying in
Washington. Since they know a lot of people in the Congress, they have access to them to talk
about issues and problems; they can bend their ear and get the inside track as to what is going
on in the Congress. So, XYZ Lobbying is hired by the Anti-Widget group to get legislation passed
in the Congress to outlaw widget manufacturing. Senator Smith then schmoozes with members
of the Congress to try to influence their vote on the anti-widget bill. This may involve nice
lunches, trips, tickets to events, and so on. Oh, of course, it’s not that flagrantly obvious. It’s
usually disguised some other way so that it doesn’t come across as graft but that’s what we’re
talking about here—using money to influence the Congress. It happens each and every single
day.
There’s no money in politics; the money is in the graft. Lobbying corrupts the integrity of the
Congress and its members and is nothing more than good, old fashioned vote buying. Poor Rod
Blagojevich is going to be spending the next 14 years in prison for trying to sell the Illinois Senate
seat vacated by Obama when he was elected President. I’m not defending what he did by any
means, but if we’re going to put him in prison for that we need to start investigating the entire
Congress. What he did goes on everyday in Washington and every member of the Congress
has been lobbied for something. Let’s not be hypocritical about this. Every Congressman and
Senator should renounce lobbying and support legislation to ban the practice. Does anyone else
think it suspicious that most of the members of the Congress end up millionaires? Maybe that’s
why they’re not willing to ban lobbying.
Your Turn:
What do you think: Is solution #3 something that can happen in our country?
Please comment!
~Digger