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Originally Posted by Mariana Trench  My guess is that what Brutha was getting at was your failure to make a distinction between lobbying, lobbyist bribery, and campaign contributors. Lobbying itself--the act of trying to convince politicians to make legislative decisions one way or another--is not a problem. In fact, it's a key part of modern democracies. The issue is the corruption, and the fact that most lobbying in the US requires money for access in the first place. THAT is a problem, and a huge one.
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I see what you're saying, I guess to me that the two (actual lobbying vs. corporate "bribery" lobbying) are hard if not impossible to distinguish anymore)
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I would also argue that the practical requirement of massive socioeconomic power for access is a fatal flaw in modern lobbying that doesn't have an easy answer.
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I think the answer is straightforward and simple. Cut off all ability of corporations to spend the kind of massive money they do on politics in one swoop. In short "get the money out." The part that isn't practical is that no one will ever do that.
I am sure many impracticalities could be brought up, but the trick is not to get so caught up in the minutiae of detail. To me this is just like spirituality or personal development. You can keep paying attention to the details and problems and they will never stop coming because the process then becomes about the problems and the details themselves and no longer about eliminating the problem, or you can make the commitment first and let the details work themselves out as part of the process of fulfilling the commitment which is the primary concern.
It's like earlier this year, I made a thread about getting sick pack abs. I didn't know how I was going to do it, but I made the decision and the declaration, and the how worked itself out on the way.