Personally I've become fairly convinced that we could solve a lot of this just by having congress vote secretly like everybody else. It'd completely destroy the entire lobbying industry, remove party pressure and outside coercion from individual congressmen, and make vote buying literally impossible. We do it ourselves, everybody in the world does it when they vote, and it's the only reason vote buying and intimidation don't exist anymore in public elections in the US. Secret ballots!
That would mean they could get paid under the table and we wouldn't even know it then !by having congress vote secretly like everybody else
Well the way i understand it, lobbyist would do the usual reachout to congressmen, and then when the congressmen would vote on the bill, and it would be anonymous, no one will know what the congressmen voted for, making it harder to localize the congressmen who sold-out, and shame them and eventually kick em out
That might make sense if voters had more control over what congressmen do with that knowledge of voting practices than lobbyists, but they don't. People with shitloads of money who have the ability to intimidate or buy votes are the ones who are able to influence votes. The reality is that we don't shame congressmen who "sell out". They all do it, constantly. Not only to lobbyists but to their own parties. Let's say you're a lobbyist and I'm in congress and you know how I vote. You contribute a fuckton of money to my campaign and directly influence my reelection, which, statistically, your company makes astronomical profits on. Because lobbying has become so prominent I basically am unable to run an effective election without the support of lobbyists. In other words, if I don't sell some of my votes, someone who is willing to sell votes will be elected in my place. This means this is to, varying degrees, a universal practice. Now why is it worth so much to buy my vote? Well, because you know I'm going to do what you say. You can go online and look at every vote I ever make in congress. That lobbying money is a guarantee that your legislative agenda will be advanced. If I fail to adhere to our deal, not only will you not give me money next election, but there's a good chance some of my other benefactors won't trust me to play along either. Not only that, but I'm also being influenced by intimidation. My constituents really want me to pass a bill outlawing legwarmers because everybody thinks they're hideous, but there's an incredibly powerful National Legwarmer Association that just completely destroyed another congressman who raised a similar bill. They didn't offer him any money or anything, but when he voted against them they paid huge sums of money to air attack ads all across the country and there's absolutely no chance he'll ever be elected again now. His reputation is completely tanked. I don't want that to happen to me. There's also this new fishing regulation bill coming up that I really believe in and my constituents would support, but I'm afraid to vote for it because the party leaders are against it and they might not give me the opportunity to raise an education bill that I absolutely need to pass in order to get relected. So you can see here how not only does exposing my vote render me susceptible to my own greed as well as the necessity to raise enough funds to get elected, but even the most well intentioned politician is pressured by aggressive propaganda outlets and party leaders. Let's replay this scenario with a secret vote, though. You, the lobbyist, say you'll give me some money to do some shit. I say, sure, of course I'll help you out. I'll do everything I can to get that bill passed. And then when the bill doesn't pass, that's exactly what you get. I'll put my hands up in the air and I'll say "Hey, I did everything I could. Sorry, can't win em all." and that'd be it. You'd keep your job but you'd probably be lower middle class at best. Your company would barely make any money from you and as a consequence they'd barely put any money into lobbying. Campaign funds are significantly diminished across the board. It's not worth very much to pay for a promise that you can't even be sure was kept. Those Legwarmer People may still be mad, but they're not about to direct their fury at random on a hunch that so and so voted in such a way. They can't even tell how significant their impact was easily anymore, so it's just not as effective a way of getting what they want done. They may go back to focusing on public opinion like they did in the 70s. And perhaps most important, my party leaders no longer have any idea how much I played along with their ideas about what we ought to be doing. They don't get to lord their control over the rest of the party, they actually have to make convincing arguments. You know, like in a democracy. The lack of transparency doesn't sit well right away, but if you think about it we already know all the reasons we do this ourselves when we vote. Before secret ballots in public elections there was massive vote buying and intimidation. Now, ever since congress went completely public with all their ballots, there's massive vote buying and intimidation. Without secret ballots they have no way to escape the eye of the people who control them and make them serve the powerful rather than the people.
Ill edit this and get back to you later. Im in a time constricting situation Edit: So this is one way anonymity can go, and it is possible, but what the way I thought the revolving door would respond to your idea is by working mutually to ensure that they make money, pass the right bills, and essentially maintain the position they do now. They would accomplish this when, like you said, the lobbyist will reach out the the congressman to vote on bill Z, the congressman sympathizes with the moral implications of passing bill Z but the lobbyist is also offering cashola if he passes the bill. But now since the congressman's votes are operating under full anonymity, he can vote for the bill, get paid for either voting for the bill (because the money doesn't always extend to passing the bill, voting is enough for these lobbyists to whip out their wallets) or passing the bill, and since your votes are anonymous, no one knows you voted for that bill, and you are corrupt, so they don't know whether to vote to keep you in office or not. I have a much more wary perception of congressmen. My scenario involves a lot more compliance on part of the congressman, and of him being apathetic towards moral concerns, and him being more greedy. Your scenario has him on the good sideYou, the lobbyist, say you'll give me some money to do some shit. I say, sure, of course I'll help you out. I'll do everything I can to get that bill passed. And then when the bill doesn't pass, that's exactly what you get. I'll put my hands up in the air and I'll say "Hey, I did everything I could. Sorry, can't win em all." and that'd be it. You'd keep your job but you'd probably be lower middle class at best. Your company would barely make any money from you and as a consequence they'd barely put any money into lobbying. Campaign funds are significantly diminished across the board. It's not worth very much to pay for a promise that you can't even be sure was kept.
And then when the bill doesn't pass, that's exactly what you get. I'll put my hands up in the air and I'll say "Hey, I did everything I could. Sorry, can't win em all."
How? How do you sell a vote that you can't show anyone? You can't. It's why vote buying is nonexistent in public elections. A promise from a congressman that you can't tell was kept is worth next to nothing. Again, voter opinion does nothing to affect whether or not a given bill will pass. Lobbying does everything. Voters don't gain any control through congressional transparency. Corporations and lobbyists do. My scenario does not cast the congressman as a "good guy". It casts him as an actor that has forces beyond his control acting on him. He's corrupt because he can be corrupt. You literally cannot get people to pay you much money at all for votes that they can't verify you made. It's throwing away money and companies know this. Removing public votes removes the element of corruption because only an idiot will pay for what he's not sure he ever got. Again, just think about why you aren't allowed to bring anyone with you into the booth when you go to vote. Children know why we do this, but we don't apply it to congress because we have this idea that if we get to watch what they're doing we'll somehow be able to control them. Well, that's not the case. All we've got are our flimsy little votes while lobbyists have huge piles of money. Congressional transparency exposes congressmen to being controlled, certainly, but not by the people.