Comment by teeray
14 hours ago
I really wish there was a way for the electorate to preempt the votes of their representatives, so this kind of lobbying would be less effective. Sure, they might try carpet bombing the airwaves with PSA campaigns, but if the people really really don’t want what the lobbyist is selling, they would still be able to rip the ballot out of their congress critter’s hands and change the vote.
I would settle for representatives that actually represented the interests of the people rather than those of the wealthiest and their corporations.
They arent there to represent the interests of the people. Rather, the people vote for representatives whose positions they agree with.
That would require the people making their interests known, which would never happen in practice. The reality is that most representatives are well-intentioned and try to do the job in good faith, but only the wealthy/corporations ever give them the time of day to tell what their interests are. The representative can only work with the information they have available.
When do you think the last time the average Joe talked to their representative to communicate their interests, as is their democratic duty? The answer is, unfortunately, half past never. A representative cannot represent someone who keeps their interests a secret.
"Never happen in practice" is objectively false given the civil rights wins of the past century. While incomplete they were real, and real change followed.
Starting with the premise that it's impossible won't improve society.
Ballot initiative. Californians tried that to stop "gay marriage" (Prop 8) so the courts just told the people to fuck themselves and overturned it. Again in South Dakota for legalizing marijuana, the voters voted in favor by special initiative so the state just overturned it.
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