So the reason it isn’t considered bribery is because they’re not paying anyone to change their positions so much as finding people who already agree with their positions and dumping money on them to win elections.
Less direct quid pro quo bribery and more patron client sponsorship.
That’s why the whole money is speech thing happened, because the way the system operates basically amounts to using funds as a form of public endorsement, which is a protected form of free speech, and it’s pretty hard to say why one group should be able to do that while another shouldn’t without one of those groups already being in jail.
The problem is that the system doesn’t publicly finance elections, and as a result, can’t justify why some should be able to donate while others shouldn’t.
I get it, but wouldn’t it be easier to just make lobbying free and let everyone have a say instead of taking the money and risking the nation’s security by foreign influence?
I mean, it’s just opening up your country for catastrophe at this point.
The only way to do that really at the moment would be to give Congress members a discretionary fund to use for getting constituents out to speak with them on the issues, the problem with that is that it gives the Congress critters the ability to influence who’s able to talk to them by just never scheduling people who want to talk about shit they’re not interested in.
It would also require Congress critters to never attend any sort of educational conference which runs afowl of freedom of association.
So the reason it isn’t considered bribery is because they’re not paying anyone to change their positions so much as finding people who already agree with their positions and dumping money on them to win elections.
Less direct quid pro quo bribery and more patron client sponsorship.
That’s why the whole money is speech thing happened, because the way the system operates basically amounts to using funds as a form of public endorsement, which is a protected form of free speech, and it’s pretty hard to say why one group should be able to do that while another shouldn’t without one of those groups already being in jail.
The problem is that the system doesn’t publicly finance elections, and as a result, can’t justify why some should be able to donate while others shouldn’t.
I get it, but wouldn’t it be easier to just make lobbying free and let everyone have a say instead of taking the money and risking the nation’s security by foreign influence?
I mean, it’s just opening up your country for catastrophe at this point.
The only way to do that really at the moment would be to give Congress members a discretionary fund to use for getting constituents out to speak with them on the issues, the problem with that is that it gives the Congress critters the ability to influence who’s able to talk to them by just never scheduling people who want to talk about shit they’re not interested in.
It would also require Congress critters to never attend any sort of educational conference which runs afowl of freedom of association.