The American government is arguably more unpopular than ever with its citizens. Gallup polls reveal a record 36% approval rating (Gallup.Inc Presidential) for President Trump and a 20% approval rating for Congress (Gallup.Inc Congress). Much of this could be attributed to the government being seen as working more in the interests of lobbyists than in those of American citizens. Lobbies are advocacy groups that persuade or “pressure” politicians to influence laws. The right to lobby is protected by the First Amendment which states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or restrict freedom of expression or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. While in theory anyone can lobby a politician and all American citizens have the right to lobby their representatives, lobbies representing corporate interests are able to donate millions to US election campaigns. politicians. Lobbyists representing pharmaceutical companies and gun manufacturers have been accused of obstructing reform that could alleviate the ongoing opioid epidemic and mass shooting crisis in the United States. Americans are increasingly pointing the finger at lobbyists, raising the question of whether or not corporate lobbyists should play a role in American politics at the expense of public welfare. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution goes into great detail about the inalienable rights of citizens and particularly focuses on the proportional distribution of the voting power based on state population. Considering that America is a representative democracy, legislation is designed so that the population is represented proportionally. Section 2 of the 14th Amendment states that “Representatives shall be distributed among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State…” (US Const. Amend.XIV). This notion of fair representation raises the question of whether or not companies follow the same rules. Do lobbyists and the interest groups they represent have disproportionate influence on legislation? Some politicians suggest that certain forms of lobbying should be stopped, some call for strict regulation by proposing a US anti-corruption law, while others suggest that a corporatocracy has completely replaced American democracy. In his academic article “A Law and Economics Analysis of Lobbying,” Dusko Krsmanovic states that “a lobbyist is a natural person who devotes more than 20% of his working hours to lobbying and who has received at least $5,000 in compensation of a customer. In the case of a lobbying firm (instead of an individual), the threshold was $20,000 semi-annually. » These restrictions are much more lax for political action committees or PACs and Super Pacs, which are organizations that can donate immense sums of money.​ ​When it comes to pure spending, lobbyists alone have a greater capacity to finance campaigns than a single individual. In a speech to the Illinois Senate in 2016, then-President Barack Obama advocated for campaign reform so that citizens are better offrepresented, believing that reform would make "politics better", which expanded on his 2008 campaign ideals, in which he declared: "I intend to tell the corporate lobbyists that the days when they set the agenda in Washington is over, that they did not finance my campaigns, and that on my first day as president, I will launch the most radical ethics reform in American history. We will make government more open, more accountable, and more responsive to the world's problems.The American people. During a Democratic Party debate in early 2016, Senator Bernie Sanders spoke at length about how Super Pacs had led to "...corrupt campaign finance...". This sentiment extends to right-wing politicians as well as presidential candidate Donald Trump who tweeted: "All presidential candidates should immediately disavow their Super PACs." They are violating not only the spirit of the law, but the law itself" in October 2015. It is worth noting that, despite denouncing the current state of campaign finance, President Obama, President Trump , Sen. Sanders, and others like former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sen. Lindsey Graham have all focused on Super PACs and not lobbies as a whole. This could be because all these politicians receive money from other types of lobbies. Those who are not politicians have much more extreme views regarding campaign finance reform. Some groups are advocating comprehensive campaign finance reform and placing heavy restrictions on lawmakers' ability to raise money. The nonprofit Represent Us is a national organization dedicated to spreading anti-corruption reform in America. Represent Us cites a Princeton study that concludes that "The preferences of the average American appear to have only a tiny, near-zero, and statistically insignificant impact on public policy." Whereas it takes about 1.1 million dollars for a congressional campaign and congressional campaign spending totaled about $4 billion during the 2016 midterm elections, public financing is seen as a way to curb the outsized power of lobbies and the MSNBC reporter Aliyah Frumin attributes this heavy spending to "the landmark 2010 U.S. Supreme Court case, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, in which the Court ruled that corporations could spend unlimited to influence federal elections." The idea that corporations use lobbies to exert immense influence is a sentiment shared by psychologist Bruce Levine, who wrote for the Huffington Post in 2011, that "the United States does not are neither a democracy nor a republic. A corporatocracy governs Americans: a partnership between too-big-to-fail corporations, an extremely wealthy elite, and corporate-collaborating government officials, and “…we the people have no impact on politics.” The three key players in this political situation are politicians, businesses and the general population. Corporations retain their personalities while politicians advocate for campaign finance reform, particularly when it comes to Super PACs. The general public is demanding reforms so that they are better represented and that the democratic process is maintained. Because of the vast difference in an individual's ability to spend versus that of a corporation, it is abundantly clear that a corporation's ability to lobby and therefore.394.