TO LOBBY OR NOT TO LOBBY, THAT IS THE QUESTION

I've been questioning "Lobbyists" and "Special Interests Groups" for awhile now and came to a point of being very confused and frustrated. Due to my ignorance, I was approached by a lobbyist who represents public agencies and was able to interview her on her career and got a broader idea of what lobbying is all about. In this media fueled world it's easy to hear from both sides, Democratic or Republican, about how "Special Interest Groups" are bad and must be stopped. I was almost quick to jump on that bandwagon but now after speaking with this individual I have a deeper appreciation for the job and find it not to be so cut and dry after all.

Special interest groups have been apart of our political structure even before America was America. It wasn't until the Progressive Era when our country started to become highly critical and aware of lobbyists, and yet the Progressive Era itself came to pass due to heavy influence by lobbyists. The Princeton Review regards the lobbying career as the, "art of persuasion." The woman I interviewed, whom I will refer to as Jane for anonymity sake, regarded it as, "the art of education." Either way they play a crucial role in our government and we as U.S. citizens must be aware and educated of this process.

An interesting thing Jane brought up to me during the interview was, "[When Obama was a Senator] Obama's staff rocked because they obtained expert information from interest groups such as mine, and then imparted their acquired knowledge to Senator Obama, who then was able to make educated decisions on how he was going to vote in the Senate. That was the only way he was able to maintain his seat in Congress." She later hinted that information could have come from constituents or U.S. citizen as well but even so you can't really be sure if they were hired by a special interest group or not. The responsibility of a lobbyist is certainly high, and most of their time is spent watching and reading through bill after bill, making sure the issues they are fighting for are being catered to, and then they correspond to the staff which in turn dictates how the Senator would vote. It's a seemingly rigorous process and can definitely be admired, yet it's also intimidating. I'm not willing or have the time to do what lobbyists do and read through every bill, looking for every issue that I have a problem with and then start emailing my representative! I mean I had enough problems reading the HealthCare Bill and before I could even finish reading it they already voted on it!

I do agree with Jane when she brought up this idea; it is strange to see how some of these Senators, like Obama, speak out against lobbyism and yet use that very system to get ahead or maintain their seat. I'm still not quite sure if lobbying is necessarily the evil here, but maybe it's once you step into the world of Political Action Committees (PAC) in special interest groups... that's when things start to get dangerous. Considering Jane is working with public agencies, her group does not have a PAC. PACs lie more within cooperate entities. What are PACs? As far as we know they've been around since 1944 and are pockets in special interest groups where they hold money for campaigning for or against Senators. Using PACs a lobbyist could essentially promise money to a senator's campaign when facing reelection. This is where a red flag comes up. From a mere citizen's standpoint, this Political Action Committee just sounds like a fancy term for "bribe." I think we need to learn the distinction between some of these interest groups, especially the ones who are using PACs, because I now know that there are some doing great good out there, and others who are abusing the system.

Speaking of money exchange, recently laws have been created to try to keep lobbyist in check. The Lobbyist Disclosure Act (LDA) was actually put into place in 1995. It requires lobbying spending to be made public and have them frequently report their spending to the Office of the Clerk. Although it seems a lot of these tasks are left in the hands of registered lobbyist, so I could see where one might be able to abuse the system. There have also been reports of "loopholes" in the legislation so it might be fair to say it isn't fail proof. But the information is there and readily available. Evenmore so, there is a website dedicated to keeping track of lobbyist and interest groups and gives light to some of their dealings: OpenSecrets.org Where would we be without the internet?

Well I know my interest in special interest groups will not stop here, but for now I'll conclude this article. I think the most enlightening thing about the interview was when she said, and I've heard this said before, that "Lobbyist are just exercising their 1st Amendment right of freedom of speech... We are democracy in action." Despite how frustrating this process can be or how much corruption is in it, I find two key words in that statement, "exercising" and "action," that put responsibility on me as a United States Citizen. Essentially lobbyist aren't doing anything you or I couldn't do. When they find concerns in legislation they respond accordingly by sending emails or phone calls to get the eyes of the representatives on it. That's something I don't do. I think a lot of us don't do it. It's much more easier to sit on the sidelines and point a finger at problems rather than approach it.

In the end, if anything this encourages me to take more action towards the things I want to see change in the world around me, and I'm not talking merely within a relationship between a Citizen and a Representative, but with anything that I might have a problem with; cooperations, public services, my own property. We should start voicing our concerns more clearly and I think a lot of us don't and that's what's hurting our Country. I know far too many people who scourer the internet looking for things to criticize. That's not going to change anything. It's like what Teddy Roosevelt said,

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

So despite however big you think this government is and however impossible it is to change it, take courage and try anyways. Hell! The lobbyists are, so why shouldn't we?

-N.S.Soria