Truly Affordable

For many years now, I have been the proud holder of jobs that my parents found very difficult to explain to their friends. Now, when a well-meaning acquaintance asks “what does your daughter do?” they try to explain that I help people understand how to communicate with elected officials. Invariably the response is “What? She teaches people how to lobby? Good heavens, she’s not a lobbyist herself, is she?” Apparently, being a lobbyist is right up there with being a convict, especially these days.

But is lobbying really that terrible? Before you utter a resounding “yes”, let’s look at what a lobbyist does. According to that wonderful resource www.dictionary.com, a lobbyist is someone who tries to influence public officials to take one position over another on a particular issue. That doesn’t sound so bad, does it? I’m sure some of you are thinking “well, no, but that doesn’t adequately describe all the terrible things that those lobbyists do in Washington, DC.”

Before we start casting stones, however, consider for a minute that the vast majority of these lobbyists are working on issues that you might actually care about! For example, are you a member of AARP? Do you contribute to the Sierra Club? Do you own a car and have an AAA membership? All of these organizations use funds from their members to hire “lobbyists” in Washington, DC. In fact, you, yes you, might actually be acting as a lobbyist in your daily life. Have you ever called up a city agency to express the need for a stop sign in your neighborhood? Have you signed on to a petition or letter from a professional organization that was then sent to elected officials at the state or federal level? That’s lobbying, my friend, pure and simple.

Yes, I know. That’s different. You’re expressing your views on public policy because you really care about an issue. Those evil lobbyists, however, are paid to express opinions that they don’t necessarily believe. They use all kinds of bribery to get officials on their side. The truth is, some people are paid for this work. Some, like citizen advocates, aren’t. Some employ a number of tools, such as fancy dinners, fundraisers and, as we’ve heard in the news lately, fully-paid trips to exotic locales as part of their lobbying efforts. Some don’t. Some professional lobbyists actually are really terrible people that peddle their influence in as sleazy a manner as possible and are an embarrassment to the profession. The vast majority, however, are people who truly believe in a cause and have found a way to marry their personal interests with their professional life. They are hired to lobby on causes they really care about, from access to health care to city planning to protection of animals.

I’m often asked “what’s the difference between lobbying and advocacy?” To me, it’s a simple matter of the audience. People who are supporters of a particular cause or position are “advocates”. When those people start seeking to influence public officials to take one position over another on those issues, they are “lobbying.” It doesn’t matter whether they are paid or unpaid, whether they are in DC or “outside the beltway”, or even whether they are sleazy or not: when one person seeks to influence another, that’s lobbying. We can condemn the tactics and strategies they use, but let’s not condemn the entire practice.

Really, if you think about it, there’s no escaping lobbying. In fact, it could probably be considered the world’s oldest profession. I know that some people honor another profession with that title, but if you adhere to the whole “Adam-and-Eve-in-the-garden-with-the-snake” perspective on the world, what was the snake but a very highly successful lobbyist? I’m sure he made all kinds of claims to Eve about the wholesomeness of apples and the general benefits that could be expected from apple eating. Perhaps he was evil - or perhaps he was just trying to get a little peace and quiet in the garden.

And in answer to the question that my parents always wrestle with - no, I am not a professional lobbyist, although I do occasionally “lobby” on a personal level. But I wouldn’t be ashamed to admit that I was.

Stephanie Vance, an ex-lobbyist and ex-chief of staff, believes that government isn’t broken; you just need to work the system to beat the odds. She currenlty travels the country presenting entertaining and informative workshops to help advocates navigate the legislative system and make an impact with their elected officials. Learn more and sign up for her free Advocacy Tipsheet at http://www.advocacyguru.com

I have written and published approximately 40 articles on various article submission websites in the last two months. I write on a variety of topics and to me it is very interesting what articles bring the most traffic.

Not all the websites I submit my articles too have stats for me to refer to but the ones that do offer valuable insight. The articles I write on politics and different kinds of investment options bring very little traffic. I also have counters on the articles on my own site and I get similar traffic on my site. People appear to be more interested in celebrity gossip, cars, Hot Wheels, and other hobbies than they are about how our country is run, their own financial position, or corporate issues.

I think hobbies are important this is why I have a hobbies page on my site. Hobbies offer a source stress relief, a way to relax and enjoy life. People get too caught up in the fast-paced world we live in and do not take time to wind down. So I am not saying the articles on hobbies are not important but the others certainly are too.

I originally titled the article “A Dose of Reality” because I thought it was me that needed to face reality, that most people are comfortable with the way their lives are going and do not want to face the difficult issues we will soon be faced with. As I am writing the article I now see it as a toss up. Maybe I am facing reality and it is most other people that do need to face reality and realize if we continue on the path we are on that we are headed for financial disaster.

If people continue to live beyond their means and rack up the debt what will happen if there is another recession? If the government continues to spend money at record pace what is going to happen if countries stop lending us money? How will we then finance the debt levels and spending? It is clear that the “leaders” of our country have no restraint at all when it comes money. And when you think about it, why should they? It is not their money, they are not held accountable for their irresponsibility, and when they retire they will live like royalty, on our tax dollars, for the rest of their lives.

Remember back to your elementary school days when you learned about the Revolutionary War and the development of our government? Do you think that the founders of our Constitution and the builders of our government intended things to turn out the way they have? Does anyone think that we, as people of the country, we were meant to have very little say over how our government is run as we do?

The United States government was set-up as a democracy. It was developed to give anyone the chance to run for office and be a leader of our country. This is not reality. Take the Presidential campaign for example. Since Ross Perot there have been many candidates for each election. He sort of made it possible for other parties to run. But, do they really have a fair chance? The Democrats and Republicans both receive Federal tax money to put toward their campaigns, no other party does. The Democrats and Republicans are often the only two parties allowed to participate in debates.

We are controlled by these two parties and as long as we continue to do things the way we have done them we will continue to get the results we have always gotten. As long as we continue to allow our Congress to pass laws allowing themselves to approve their own raises, allow our government to outsource the manufacturing of some of our most crucial defense weapons to Communist countries, allow our government to make deals with Arab countries to monitor our six biggest ports we will continue to face the same issues we face today.

The unfortunate part of this whole situation is people will not realize what is going on until they stop receiving Social Security checks or Medicaid stops covering life-saving medicines for the elderly. Maybe it will take another terrorist attack the size of 9/11 to wake people up.

Scott Bianchi operates http://www.best-internet-bargains.com. He writes on a variety of topics. If you would like to be added to his distribution list for his new articles when they are published just send an email to articles@bestinternetbargains.com .

We want to improve fishing in the region. Sediment is by far the
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