Forum Post: Is it wrong to buy our way into the political realm?
Posted 12 years ago on Dec. 1, 2011, 4:25 p.m. EST by LobbyDemocracy
(615)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
The influence of money in politics is truly disturbing. Lobbyists for pharmaceutical companies, oil companies and the rest of corporate America buy their influence every day. These organizations fight to make sure that the government tends to the needs of the 1%.
For years we have fought to decrease the influence of money in politics. Most of that legislation has not been made into law, and when it has been the Supreme Court has intervened on behalf of the lobbying industry. The argument is made that money is part of free speech and we cannot step of the rights of big businesses to buy their way into the government.
I have a solution to this problem, but it is not free. I do not propose that we donate to campaign funds and send Senators and Congresspeople on golf outings in Scotland. What I do propose is that we create an enormous voting bloc and use the power of numbers to influence policy. Although money buys influence in DC, the primary reason it does so is that money buys votes. If we can put together a large enough voting bloc and push the agenda of the majority we can once again keep our elected officials responsible to the voters that put them in office.
I have formed a lobbying organization to achieve this goal. Lobby Democracy is a democratically run lobbying organization. We do not have a predetermined platform or agenda. Our sole purpose is to represent the interests of the majority to their elected leaders.
We are polling our membership to determine what issues to support. We will take up any issue that reaches 65% support or opposition. We will contact our members elected officials and give them the opportunity to respond to their constituents via the website.
We will also provide our members comparisons of their polling data with the voting record of their Representatives and Senators.
Unfortunately, supporting these tasks is not free. To contact all of the Senators, Representatives, and their staffs online you need to buy a $6000 service. The sites block all responses from outside their district without this service. We need to run the website and database, collect information about what is happening on Capitol Hill, write articles, write letters to our elected leaders, communicate with our members, keep the accounting data, file tax forms.....
This is why we are asking for a $20 annual membership fee. Does it seem a little gross to have to buy your way into the government? Yes; but, the one percent has been doing it for decades and they have the legislation to prove it. So please consider whether $20 is too much to ask to turn the tide on Capitol Hill and once again make our leaders hear the voices of their constituents.
Please take a minute and check out www.lobbydemocracy.com and let us know what you think. If you believe in the cause, take the plunge and sign up. This organization cannot function if the majority does not get involved and fight for its own interests.
If you have questions or comments, please leave them here so that we can rise up to the top of the list and others can hear about the organization.
Either we go to Washington,D.C. and kick all those no good- for- nothing members of the U.S. Congress out of office or nothing will ever happen! Our politicians will not make any changes despite what we do here. This is why this movement has to keep going until those oppressors in Congress and State House respect out Republican form of government and the will of our people. We also have to think seriously about organizing our own political party and run our own people for all the political offices if we want changes. Let's have a discussion about it.