The Problem of Special Interest Groups

I was watching The Colbert Report last night and the first interview Stephen Colbert did was with Lori Lipman Brown, director of the Secular Coalition for America.   They’ve been lobbying congress to stop spending tax payers’ dollars on religion.

Well, that’s pretty cool, I thought.  Finally someone to combat all those religious special interest groups.  But then I thought, well, wait, isn’t the Secular Coalition also a special interest group?  It seems that everyone has an agenda, and no two people ever have the exact same agenda, and so, each is a separate special interest group.  As long as there are interests there will be special interest groups and I’m tired of hearing people complain about them when what they’re really complaining about are special interests that aren’t in their own interest.  I’m equally tired of hearing people slam politicians for being beholden to some special interest group or other. 

Of course a politician is going to be beholden to a special interest group!  Politicians have agendas too!   No matter how a senator or president votes, it will be beneficial to some special interest group somewhere along the way.  Our politicians aren’t blank slates, no matter how much we may want them to be.

What I’d really like to see is not a politician who swears off special interest groups, because immediately you know he’s lying.  I’d like to see a politician who stands up and says, “Yes, I am influenced by special interest groups.  It’s unavoidable.”  How refreshing would that be?