[marchingkazoo]

In The States, it's an actual constitutional right. I won't try to justify how positive the role is or could be. However, the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

A lobbyist's literal job is "to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

[ysofunny]

we gotta redraw the relationships between government, people, THE people, and business/corporations which behave like people but aren't actually individuals

all as part of a renegiotiation of what "the public" actually means given that we have now digital internet, which forces a re-evaluation of what it evens means to "be in public"

it's like there's two publics: digital (or cyber or virtual) and physical (in real world), but our laws are not aware of this??? dunno

[notquitetrue]

Say my friends and I own a business that will be affected by something Congress is considering. So we hire a lobbyist to go inform the politicians about that. How is that not people exercising their First Amendment rights? Our livelihood depends on what they do. It is a major part of my life. It seems like your view is that you are only “people” when you’re not engaged in economic production, that human beings only exist in leisure.

[ensignavenger]

Corporations are owned by people. Should people not be allowed to combine together to petition the government together?