Is America Going Backwards? A Brief Examination of America’s Gullible Legislation

Written by Mia Liang
Edited by Kristin Cho
Cover Image from ALEX WONG/GETTY

Is America Going Backwards? A Brief Examination of America’s Gullible Legislation

As of April 17, there have been 163 mass shootings in the United States3. Yet, lawmakers in many states have pushed to further deregulate assault rifles.

Women are dying because they are unable to access life-saving abortions within their own states and are barred from leaving the state to carry out these abortions. Lawmakers in South Carolina proposed a bill that would subject women who have had abortions in any form to a death penalty.

Joe Biden makes a public point of showing his commitment towards reducing America’s carbon footprint to protect vulnerable citizens, yet he passed the Willow Project despite overwhelmingly adamant protests.

In all of these instances, politicians have received considerable backlash and opposition from citizens regarding the laws they are making. For example, in Tennessee, an astounding number of citizens and politicians alike demonstrated for increased gun regulation in front of the Capitol building after a shooting in Nashville. However, politicians were able to ignore these protests and calls to action and pass their policies anyway. The questions of why this is possible and whether or not this should be possible should be answered by examining the societal weight of contrasting democratic principles.

Arguably, deregulation of the scope of policy implementation is essential to maintaining democratic values because freedom to change should be indicative of freedom of choice. However, when politicians are legally allowed to not act in the interests of citizens, and thus only try to act in accordance to citizens’ interests during election periods every four years, freedom in implementation exacerbates consequences of problematic policy.

First and foremost, why are some politicians incentivized to pass policies that are decidedly not in the interest of the public, and why are they able to? Back in 2019, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez famously, in a “corruption game” illustrated how easy it is for any ill-intentioned political figure to legally gain power through lobbyist organizations and pass laws that prioritize the interests of these organizations, even if they are at the expense of the majority (CNN, 2019).

Firstly, Corporate Political Action Committees, or CPACs, and PACs, in general, are quietly recognized as legitimate means to gain campaign funding for federal elections. CPACs and PACs are lobbyists that are and are not affiliated with corporations, respectively. An example of a CPAC would be a PAC formed by oligopolist pharmaceuticals firms. The lobbying power of CPACs comes from their market importance as large firms and their considerable GDP factor. Contrastly, an example of a PAC would be the National Rifle Association, or NRA, a recreational-group-turned-lobbyist organization that campaigns on the grounds of the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms (BBC). The lobbying power of the NRA and other similar PAC’s come from the large scope of people who are willing to pay membership fees to join these organizations. There are approximately at least 3 million members of the NRA, including many important political and cultural figures who are able to offer even greater financial contributions to these committees (BBC).

When CPAC’s and PAC’s fund campaigns, which is very often, they expect that the legislation passed by the candidate if elected would benefit them. In the case of big corporations, this could manifest as deregulation for labour and production practices or a decrease in antitrust laws. For PAC’s, this could look like passing policy that directly coincides with the beliefs of their group. In the case of the NRA, this means deregulating guns. Politicians are able to fulfill the desires of lobbyists because there is no set indication of what kinds of legislation presidents are allowed to modify or pass, and, subsequently, there is no metric of accountability between presidents and their voters besides reelection, which happens only once every four years, during which time policies can go from the drawing board to full implementation without being hindered by citizens’ objections.

So, what can we do about this? Does campaigning for political action on social issues simply become helpless in the face of immense lobbying? Definitely not. To say that all politicians are heartless vessels for lobbying is entirely unrepresentative. ounger, vigilant individuals have been increasingly running for office, and we have the power to vote them in.

Furthermore, a shift in political policy happens when there is a fundamental shift in the political ideology of the masses. However, in a polarized society, it is difficult to get people to listen or to understand opinions more adverse than their own. Nevertheless, every single step of progress we have made so far indicates that it is entirely possible. Continuing to speak up and to demonstrate on poignant issues is the best we can do, and we should not underestimate its power.

Works Cited

“Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calls out Trump in five-minute corruption game.” YouTube, 8 February 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJlpS4vhKP0. Accessed 27 April 2023.

Alfonseca, Kiara. “There have been more mass shootings than days in 2023, database shows.” ABC News, 17 April 2023, https://abcnews.go.com/US/mass-shootings-days-2023-database-shows/story?id=96609874. Accessed 27 April 2023.

KRUESI, KIMBERLEE, and JONATHAN MATTISE. “Tennessee's House expels 2 of 3 Democrats over guns protest.” AP News, 7 April 2023, https://apnews.com/article/tennessee-lawmakers-expulsion-d3f40559c56a051eec49e416a7b5dade. Accessed 27 April 2023.

Nilsen, Ella. “Biden administration approves controversial Willow oil project in Alaska, which has galvanized online activism.” CNN, 14 March 2023, https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/13/politics/willow-project-alaska-oil-biden-approval-climate/index.html. Accessed 27 April 2023.

“US gun control: What is the NRA and why is it so powerful?” BBC, 13 April 2023, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-35261394. Accessed 27 April 2023.