By Edward Hujsak
For the 89% of Americans who currently express dissatisfaction or mistrust of the Congress, a new book by Lawrence Lessig, Harvard Law Professor and political activist, titled “Republic Lost – How Money Corrupts Congress, and a Plan to Stop It,” is a compelling read. It resonates on a personal level in that it broadly underscores and provides clarity and depth to the concerns expressed in my article on this site: “How We Got Here and Where We are Headed.”
The book dwells on the reality that concern for reelection on the part of legislators as soon as they move into office has resulted in a dual dependency, as opposed to the single dependency on which they were elected - fidelity to the people who elected them.
The second dependency centers on cultivating sources of money to fund the next election. Lessig writes that thirty percent of every legislator’s time is spent raising money, a disturbing diversion that helps explain the empty seats in both houses during serious debates. In the last twenty years that source of money has been identified to the huge stable of lobbyists that has taken root in Washington, representing various interests. In 2009, 13,700 lobbyists spent $3.5 billion, or about $6.5 million per elected representative. Nothing illegal takes place. No bribes, no overt pressure, no outright gifts. What has developed is a fine art of creating a relationship between lobbyists and legislators. A communing, a sharing of concerns, a capturing of the majority of their attention, an infusion of the ideas and concerns that the lobbyists are pushing. Inevitably, when the needs of the lobbyists are realized through legislation, the money flows. It’s all legal. A slow dance develops between the two parties. The relationship warms with the notion that if reelection is unsuccessful, the legislator can move seamlessly into the ranks of the lobbyists at several times his or her Federal salary. As the author points out, these are not evil people. They are good people doing wrong, whether knowingly or not. It’s just human nature, isn’t it, that a legislator will answer a phone call from a contributor before answering one from a constituent. Likewise, contributors would likely be first on the list of calls the legislator makes.
A quote from the book: “The real story of the Great Recession is simply this: Stupid Government regulation allowed the financial services to run the economy off the rails. But it was the financial services industry that drove the Government to the stupid Government regulations. They benefited economically from this policy, and as carefully as I have tried to frame these puzzles in a way that might allow both sides some space, this case brings even me to the brink. Strain as I may, I find it impossible to believe that our Government would have been this stupid, had Congress from both sides of the aisle not been so desperate for the more than $1 billion in campaign contributions given by individuals and groups affiliated with these firms, and the $2.7 billion spent by them lobbying.”
The second dependency is likened to an addiction and the Congress is no more able to fix it than an alcoholic can be restored without intervention. Any change from the status-quo would likely be strongly resisted by all parties that benefit from the current corrupt system of government.
In concluding chapters Lessig describes several ways to circumvent the above, the strongest suggesting that a plurality of states can force Congress to call a constitutional convention with a single purpose: to resolve the problem of campaign financing in a way that eliminates the hold that powerful interests hold over legislators through the lobbyist medium. The cost per individual would be trivial compared to the costs they presently bear in the present corrupt system of subsidies and largess to special interests.
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