[wkimeria]

I'm originally from Kenya. We used to have a joke

"If it happens in Africa it is called corruption. If it happens in the US it is called lobbying".

I remember seeing a chart of how much money a Senator had to raise every week for their next race and it was stark bonkers (and this was in the 90s, before Citizens United). I just checked and the figure is even worse now. https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/02/state-of-money-in-p...

From that article, victorious senate candidates have to spend an average of about 16 million. So if you are already a Senator looking forward to your next race you have to raise about 80k a week!. And you are not getting that kind of money from the average citizen.

Money in politics is the root of most of what ails the U.S political system (not all, but a very big part).

[colpabar]

As an american, I really enjoy learning things like this about how other countries view us and our craziness. A lot of people here would be genuinely confused at the comparison.

>"If it happens in Africa it is called corruption. If it happens in the US it is called lobbying".

To add to this, we (americans) also never refer to our own elite class as oligarchs. That's reserved for other countries, because ours is a totally fair, democratic, and meritocratic society, and we're definitely not ruled by a small group of well connected rich people.

[Fnoord]

> As an american, I really enjoy learning things like this about how other countries view us and our craziness. A lot of people here would be genuinely confused at the comparison.

I'm puzzled by that. I thought it is generally well known Hollywood influences the Dems, and that the tobacco industry influenced politics in past (to name two examples).

[mrandish]

> Money in politics is the root of most of what ails the U.S political system

I disagree that money is the root. Money is still one level above the true root, which is what the money is needed to buy: "Re-election." Thus, an alternative, though unconventional, solution is single-term limits. Once elected to any national public office, you can never run for that or any other elected office again. One and done.

This idea is not without it's share of potential problems, but I think that's true of any potential solution that has a chance of actually working. After thinking it through, I'm pretty sure I'd prefer the "single-term" set of potential downsides over the others.

[ckosidows]

Why would someone elected to office, who knows they can't run again, have any concern about the will of the people? At best you would have the same outcome that you get from politicians at the end of their terms, and it's not like these politicians are solving all of society's ailments.

If they can still get lobbying money by operating on the will of corporations, they could spend their whole term making money for themselves with no concern about re-election.

This solution just seems like hoping and praying the politicians we elect have higher regard for their legacy than their wallet.

[mushbino]

This is why the revolving door exists. Do what we want and we'll give you a high paying job afterward. There are former congressman currently making $3 million a year as lobbyists as soon as they leave office.

[lossolo]

> "If it happens in Africa it is called corruption. If it happens in the US it is called lobbying".

It's the same here in Europe, we are joking how elites in US legalized corruption and called it lobbying, it's really weird for us (outside of US), that people just go along with this state of things and do nothing about it, like almost whole population would be after some kind of long period of brain washing in US.