You might ask the question why are lobbyists able to get things done but the average person is not?
Well, they have three things going for them: message, mass, and money.
As outlined in the tax bill and in The Hill article they have a clear idea of what specific changes they want to see in the tax bill. They also have the money and resources to push that forward. But just because there are 6000 lobbyists, more than half of the lobbyists in DC working on this issue, does that mean they have mass support for what they’re doing?
By comparison, there are 15.7 million Italian Americans in the United States. That’s about 6% of the population. And in fact, they are the fourth largest group with the largest concentration in New York, New Jersey, and California.
So when you compare 15.7 million Italian Americans with 6000 lobbyists, who has the larger mass?
So what’s the difference?
The difference is that the lobbyists are organized and work for a corporation to hire them and the Italian Americans who could support Chet’s bill either are unaware of it or don’t know what to do and are not organized.
But Chet has a clear message. What he’s missing is a mass of people who could begin to move this through congressional committees and gain some attention. And that’s where you come in. If you share his debate with more people Chet could begin to have the mass social media presence and policy power that insiders in DC now have.
What Chet does have going for him are the 8 policy mindsets that are critical to success, just like the lobbyists and their clients do. He has passion, the willingness to change, the ability to persuade, the know-how to pull a team together, he is positive that he can move forward, he is committed to the cause, he is persistent and will continue to push forward but he’s also realistic about what the possible outcomes could be.
So are the lobbyists. All 6000 of them.
I think you can guess I am not of the opinion that we should get rid of lobbyists or that there are too many. What I would suggest instead is that individuals could come together and crowdsource their ideas and crowdfund and purchase the service of lobbyists to work for them just as we hire attorneys for complex legal matters or accountants for complex tax matters.
When you have complex government relation’s problems you want to resolve you need to hire experts.
In the meantime, you can support Chet’s cause by sharing his debate and this blog so the 15 million Italian Americans can take a look and see if they agree with his cause and help to make things right.
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