Aging Capriciously

Lobbying is legal bribery.  Lobbying keeps politicians in the pay of vested interests.  As long as we have PAC’S, Paid Lobbyists, Cross-State funding of politicians and corporate money going to political campaigns, we will never have Democracy in America.  The saying “He who has the gold makes the rules “is true.  Our political system is in the pocket of paid lobbyists whose job is to see that our political leaders vote the right way.  The right way is determined by who can provide the most money for their forever campaigning.  Our politicians spend more time trying to raise funds for their next campaign than they do working for the American public.

In 1924 over 100 years ago, Senator Bob LaFollette, ran for president on a Progressive Party platform calling for among other things the need to BAN LOBBYING.  There is not an American voter who is not sick and tired of the money that is being extorted by most politicians to finance their next campaign.  The day after an election, you will get a message in your email box telling you how essential it is for you to send money NOW to so and so to help them be reelected.

Rachel Maddow on her TV show the other night (3-1-25) was describing the dissent that is growing among voters nationwide within the voting public.  There are political protests taking place all over America at campaign rallies, town hall meetings, civic meetings and in public office buildings.  People are sick and tired of their elected leaders standing by while they get fleeced.  This dissatisfaction is rife within America and includes voters and citizens from across all political spectrums.  Americans are standing up and demanding that billionaires not be allowed to run America.  Rich oligarchs like Elon Rusk are running amok within the political system because they can provide billions of campaign dollars to our ever hungry for money elected leaders.

In an interview with the leader of the Democratic Party, Hakeem Jeffries, Maddow said the public wanted to know what the Democrats would do to stand up for the rights of the people.  Jeffries started to give a bunch of inchoate efforts the Democratic party was making and mentioned the political rallies taking place.  He sounded like these protest rallies were something the Democratic party was organizing.  Maddow cut him off very quickly with the remark “These rallies are being organized from the bottom up.  They are a grass roots movement and are not a result of Democratic party initiative.”  Jeffries then proceeded with a list of things the Democratic party was planning to do.  His ideas were so vacuous and vague, I have not a clue what they are going to do.  One thing I am certain of, Jeffries did not say one word about moving to ban lobbyists and lobbying from the halls of our Congress.

Until we ban lobbyists, we will never restore our government to the government envisioned by the founding fathers.

We need to have a focused movement to ban lobbyists.  Every dissent in America over the next year or so should include a message to ban lobbyists.  The only way the people can regain control of the political system in this country is by making lobbying illegal.  I am calling on all American citizens to stand up and speak out against lobbying.  If you don’t want to speak out, then buy a T-shirt that says, “Ban Lobbyists.”  But every grass roots group in America needs to start an outcry to “Ban Lobbyists.”  Imagine if every Church, Synagogue or Mosque in America was speaking out against Lobbying.  Every protest group should have at least one sign calling to “Ban Lobbying.”  We should be putting signs up outside every legislative building in America saying, “Ban Lobbying.”

There is some precedent in Christianity for throwing the lobbyists out.  In Matthew 21:12-13 it is written:

“Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, “ ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’” — New International Version NIV

Ask yourself what Jesus would do?  Would he stand idly by while the lobbyists bought and sold contracts and bills supporting more and more buying and selling?  I think not.  Jesus would have thrown them all out on their asses.  Those of you who claim to be Christians should take heed here.  There is much every religious organization could do to help clean the temple out, but they sit by doing nothing while our government is sacrificed to the false gods of materialism and profit.

Following, I suggest several ideas to take the money out of politics and to restore our political system to a semblance of a peoples democracy and not a democracy of Billionaires and Oligarchs.  If you like these ideas, than please share them with your friends, neighbors, families, church or whatever groups you belong to.

• Make lobbying or trying to induce an elected official a crime akin to bribery because lobbying right now is legal bribery.
• Call for the elimination of PAC money, Special Interest Groups and Corporate funding of political campaigns. Campaign funds should only come from eligible voters.
• Set a limit of 1000 dollars maximum per year that any eligible voter can donate to political campaigns. You could spread this money across several campaigns or drop it all on one but the legal limit for one year would be 1000 dollars.  This money would be eligible for a tax deduction for the entire amount.
• Ban the funding of political leaders in one state by voters from other states. You should only be allowed to support political leaders in your state of residence with exception of the office of President.
• Repeal the Citizens United Decision.  This vote by the Supreme Court treats corporations as private citizens and as such they are entitled to free speech.  This finding is ludicrous in itself but it gets more ridiculous  The court then decides that free speech means corporations can act as private donors in campaign spending.  In other words, corporations are the same as private citizens and entitled to donate as much money as they want to politicians who will support their private programs.  Since when does any corporation have a soul or a heart or even a brain? 

It has been said with a great deal of truth that America is a country run, Of the Corporations, By the Corporations and For the Corporations.  America is being run by special interest groups across a broad spectrum of interests, but all without concern for the interests of the larger American public.  Do we want a government of corporations, or do we want a government of the people, by the people and for the people?  Here are the top ten Lobbying groups in America as of 2025 with the amount purportedly spent on lobbying.  Personally, I doubt the money shown here is in any way a legitimate representation of the amount actually spent by any of these groups. I will discuss why this is true later.

Top Spenders

Lobbying Client                    Total Spent

1. 1. National Assn of Realtors           $86,385,941
   2. US Chamber of Commerce         $76,260,000
   3. Pharmaceutical Manufacturers  $31,720,000
   4. American Hospital Assn             $29,017,803
   5. Blue Cross/Blue Shield               $27,146,300
   6. American Petrochem Mfg          $26,310,000
   7. American Medical Assn             $24,782,000
   8. Meta                                              $24,430,000
   9. Business Roundtable                 $23,400,000
   10. American Chemistry Council    $22,330,000

 I queried ChatGPT to see how much money lobbyists spent in 2024 in total and came up with the following information:

“In 2024, lobbying spending reached a record-breaking $4.4 billion.” — OPENSECRETS.ORG

“The total amount spent by lobbyists on political campaigns annually is not separately tracked and is encompassed within the broader category of individual and PAC contributions.”

A majority of funding for the 2024 election — over 65%, or nearly $5.6 billion — comes from political action committees, also known as PACs. — USAFacts

The above information leads to the inescapable conclusion that despite a slew of laws that allegedly govern the activities of lobbyists and PACs, the system is broken.  The system does not work to limit or proscribe the actual influence of lobbyists on our electoral system.   We must demand that the system be fixed.  The system is corrupt, misused and only serves to undermine and torpedo the democratic process in America.  We have enough media to educate people on laws and policies.  We do not need 12,000 paid lobbyists roaming the halls of Congress looking out for their interests and not the interests of the American people.

“The financial elite already have the politicians in their pockets, as a result of their lobbying.” — K. Eade

“Very few of the common people realize that the political and legal systems have been corrupted by decades of corporate lobbying.” — S. Magee

“The important thing to remember with the Internet is that there are large companies that have an interest in controlling how information flows in it.  They’re very effective at lobbying Congress, and that pattern has locked down other communication media in the past.  And it will happen again unless we do something about it.”  — E. Pariser

“As long as we, in the United States, continue to insist that our politicians have to spend all of their time raising millions of dollars for television ads, it will be corrupt.  If we leave it up to the politicians to clean up lobbying and finance reform, nothing is going to change.” — K. Spacey

Stand up and demand that your political leader take the money out of politics.  Ban Lobbying.  Ban Lobbyists. 

Restore Democracy to the American people.