Comment by Aunche

15 hours ago

> No longer do you have to carefully study laws and regulations, you just have to make sure one guy likes you!

American civic understanding has gone through the floor. People already think that corporate quid pro quo is the default, so for some, this is actually an improvement because it's more transparent now. It can't be that corporations achieve wins through research and coalition building because that would imply that people aren't not doing enough themselves. The irony has made lobbying stigmatized in grass-roots organizations [1], which only gives corporate lobbyists more power.

[1] https://apnews.com/article/nonprofits-lobbying-less-survey-1...

Right. The founders of the country would be shaking their heads in disbelief; every day the administration hews closer to the tyranny the Federalist Papers were so on guard against.