The First Hundred Days of the Obama Administration

[Alex]

Originally Posted by sleepyjeff

To stop lobbying we could:

1) Actually follow...
2) Actually follow...

Neither one of those things would get rid of lobbyists as evidenced by the fact that when both of those things were true (very limited government spending and small class size) lobbying still existed.

So, if that is what you think Madison meant by "safe and competent guardian of the interests" then Madison was wrong from the beginning. Instead I think he just meant it would help keep the lobbying interests local.

But of course, we do all tend to approve of lobbying supporting things we agree with ("you go Audobon Society and get us a new national park!") while deploring lobbying in favor of things we disagree with ("you rotten coal mining companies!").

Though I think an argument can be made that federal lobbying has definitely been rendered more important as federalism has died a slow death over the last century. But most people on this message board support that death.