I mean it still feels like a lobby-proof democracy should be the aspiration, rather than resigning oneself to lobbying as an inevitability
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It's kind of weighted as to what counts as 'lobbying.' Constitutional issues aside, what are we aspiring to ban - probably not letters from constituents or whatever.
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I mean I'm given to understand corporate interests dispense a great deal of money to elected officials
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*Bribery* is different from lobbying Bribery itself is explicitly illegal at multiple levels, including in the Constitution itself Most of the laws around lobbying are intended to try to keep anything they do from being bribery
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Replying to @arthur_affect @Nymphomachy and
Obviously rich people can and do look for loopholes to get around this and have ever since George Washington built his career on throwing parties at his giant plantation house But it's not clear that "not having lobbyists" would make that any better
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To be clear, I'm specifically criticizing the juxtaposition Noah was making, saying if the options really came down to perpetual gerontocracy or perpetual lobbyist power I'd much rather have the latter and curb its worst excesses
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Well no I'm not sure it was really responsive to the point he was making He's saying that some kind of "gerontocracy" - a "seniority system" - is inevitable, it's just the way the world works "You want to talk labor laws, that's Bob's thing, he's been doing it 20 years"
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Replying to @arthur_affect @Nymphomachy and
Yeah, this is arguably one of the biggest arguments against term limits. The proper operation of government administration takes time and infrastructure set up, it's why so many House reps seem so less effective - they have to keep interrupting it with fundraising.
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Replying to @loudpenitent @Nymphomachy and
I do think the inevitable conservatism that sets into any long-lived institution is a bad thing in the end - because I'm not a conservative - but it's not an easy problem to solve Term limits themselves aren't a magic wand to fix it, they'd probably mostly mask the problem
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Replying to @arthur_affect @loudpenitent and
The old boy network recruiting young figureheads is an easy play, it's something they already do anyway when it benefits them If all of Congress were strictly term limited you'd get way more Mayor Petes than AOCs
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I mean I do like AOC, a lot, but she's unusual in many ways Unusually smart and principled, so she's not shopping for mentors to tell her what to do Unusually charismatic and good at winning elections, so she's not living in fear of being unseated
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Replying to @arthur_affect @loudpenitent and
Recruiting a whole Congress full of AOCs would be difficult, much as I do think they're a better generation than their predecessors
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Replying to @arthur_affect @Nymphomachy and
Also even AOC has been showing the occasional need to suck up to her perceived backers. *stares at the Rabin Thing*
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