In Philip Stiefer blog post about Lobbyist Out of Control he states that "Lobbyists and political action committees are a real threat to the democratic process and leave the average voter powerless." I would have to somewhat argue against that.
Lobbying is the ability to be able to convince/persuade legislators and officials in government to vote one way, or to advocate for a cause. I think that that is totally okay. We are in a democracy, and everything is based on voting. And everyday people are trying to change other people's opinions on a topic. It also happens alot in Congress. Lobbying is just a smaller scale of persuading. Instead of trying to convince a whole crowd, you can focus on one official at a time. Then start to move to other officials. Lobbyist are usually someone who is in an intrest group. These people do a good job by being able to inform the legislator about certain types of informations. And the lobbyist can provide a good stong base if the legislator picks up the idea from the lobbyist. I don't believe that lobbyist affect average voters. Lobbyist just affect the decisions of people in office.
PACs are a threat to the democratic process, but not really. PACs are just a collection of peopls money. People like intrest groups, corporations and unions. And there is a restirction that say that someone can only donate up to $5000. Which really isn't that much. Also that PACs only make up about 30% of the overally funds of a campaign. Which again is really not that much.
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