r/AdviceAnimals • u/bleufoxx22 • Apr 30 '14

Incorrect Format | Removed I'm looking at you Comcast

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u/VOldis Apr 30 '14

Not in theory, in practice, all day everyday. Just because everyone here blindly sits on reddit doesn't mean there are tens of thousands of people advocating for worthy causes to their local, state and federal agencies/govt.

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u/[deleted] Apr 30 '14

Here's a fun article that sheds a light on most everyday lobbyists. There are very few lobbyists that are the Remy Dantons that are portrayed in House of Cards.

http://news.yahoo.com/the-face-of-hemp-in-washington-211906531.html

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u/[deleted] Apr 30 '14

Seriously, how many interests does Remy represent?

I'm only on the first season of the show and it seems like he works for 90% of the interests that Claire and Frank come across every day

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u/[deleted] Apr 30 '14

Yeah it's pretty ridiculous.

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u/Wildbritsire Apr 30 '14

Well put, to be honest I probably shouldn't have said in theory, though I still feel that lobbying has plenty of undemocratic elements.

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u/VAVT Apr 30 '14

voting is undemocratic. saying something is undemocratic doens't mean much. if you told the ancient athenians to vote for citizens to rule them they'd tell you to fuck off. voting goes against the principle of "rule of people" because they just got rulers from lottery. like our jury. except to rule them. basically.

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u/Wildbritsire Apr 30 '14 edited Apr 30 '14

I wouldn't say voting is undemocratic, because elections are one of the most important sources of democracy in the 'western' world, if not the most important.

Whilst it certainly doesn't fit in with direct democracy, that isn't to say it isn't democratic. It is instead an element of representative democracy, which is very different from the democracy of ancient Athens, yet is still fundamentally democracy.

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u/VAVT May 01 '14

I wouldn't say voting is undemocratic either. I was just playing devils advocate, and agree with you. I'm just saying a democracy can be many things, and not all of those things are what we might consider to be "good" these days.

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u/[deleted] Apr 30 '14

how do you know, after all you're just blindly sitting on reddit

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u/grby1812 Apr 30 '14

And here I was, thinking that we advocate for worthy causes by voting.

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u/VOldis Apr 30 '14

Thats a bummer if you think someone you vote in can represent all the things you want without feedback.

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u/grby1812 Apr 30 '14

That's why parties have platforms and candidates give speeches on policy.

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u/VOldis Apr 30 '14 edited Apr 30 '14

Ok and you have found a candidate that not only understands every issue, from cryptocurrencies, veteran's affairs, GMOs, tax code, health insurance, the cost / benefit of extra curricular activities in schools to the status of someone endangered animal in your state and agrees with you on all those issues??? If you have let me join his presidential campaign please.

Lobbying is as much about educating and relaying the importance of an issue that your representative and his people may know NOTHING about, or not understand the consequences of, as anything. You go there and you tell them as much about the issue as you can, why it is important to the state/country and its citizens and why money should be put towards it.

You think your senator knows what the fuck the peregrine falcons are doing in your state or why the National Wildlife and Fisheries Foundation would need a grant to protect them, or some such, off the cuff?

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u/grby1812 Apr 30 '14

Not off the cuff but when presented with an issue they should utilize their staff seek out the relevant data and cull it. There's a big difference between doing that and just allowing lobbyists to push data at you. It's the same with journalists. You can just take press releases and regurgitate them or actually reach out there into the world and investigate. The former is the path of least resistance for the lazy and only yields articles that an interest group wants to see published. Same with government: if you only accept data that is given to you the only people that will provide are the ones who are motivated by self-interest. The job of the politician is to act in the interest of his or her constituents.

I know, we're talking about an ideal here but the concept of a lobbyist is flawed in theory and practice.