zlacker

> lobbying itself (specifically, informing lawmakers about your specific perspective and desires) is a valid and desirable function.

If it were a truly demotic activity you would have a point. But as it is, lobbying (in the US at least) is almost exclusively by/for large/moneyed interests, and the part of it which isn't is considerably less effective than that which is.

>>wallee+(OP)
Every time you communicate something to a politician, submit a submission on a Bill, or write a letter to the editor criticising a political policy, you are lobbying.

That you don't bother engaging and others do doesn't give them an unfair advantage.

That being said, the US system sounds like a shitshow of bribery and corruption.