The practice of lobbying has been around since America’s gilded age, when the young nation first experienced the sheer power of big business. Lobbying is the practice of paying legislators money for elections in exchange for political favors. Explicitly, this practice is illegal, but the supreme court has identified money as free speech, so this practice cannot be constitutionally stopped. However, the constitution guarantees a level playing field to its citizens concerning their political voice. Should lobbying be tolerated as an extension of free speech, or should it be done away with, as it awards wealthier individuals more political power?
Making room for debate: Lobbying debate by Isaac is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Isaac,
I love this topic, my government class just finished discussing this. What is your stance on lobbying? Do you have a solution? Although lobbying is legal, I agree with Hailey, there should be more restrictions. Lobbying gives more power to the wealthy which only makes up a small portion of the population. It doesn’t give all Americans an equal voice.
Very interesting topic, Issac. I believe lobbying can be very corrupt, and while it is legal, it is not fair to the majority of the American citizens. There should be stricter laws and restrictions when it comes to big business in government. I especially appreciated you commenting on how “the constitution guarantees a level playing field to its citizens concerning their political voice.” How do you believe this issue could be solved or improved? If you would like to learn more, I suggest you look into this article:https://www.cato.org/policy-report/julyaugust-2006/big-business-big-government. I look forward to reading more from you on this topic in the future.