YOU are a Special Interest!

One of the Pavlovian buzzwords that politicians and activists alike use to fire up the masses is “special interests.” Examples include, “Senator X is beholden to special interests,” or “As president, I will not answer to special interests,” and “It’s time we take Washington out of the pockets of special interests and give it back to the people!” The term special interests is rarely defined, but is generally meant to invoke shady back room deals by lobbyists, or paint a sinister insider group or association that controls the government while ignoring the people.

If you don’t follow politics or your democratic participation is limited to voting, then it all sounds good – take back the government and kick the special interests out of Washington! But guess what? You are not only a special person, but YOU are also a special interest! That’s right, the term “special interests” is not limited to unknown organizations and CEOs with deep pockets. If you write a letter to your Congressman or Senator telling them if they should vote for or against a bill, YOU are a special interest. If you belong to any group that tries to impact public policy – from a Chamber of Commerce to a union, and the NRA to the Sierra Club – YOU are a special interest. And if you speak out at your town’s Board of Selectmen meeting or call the mayor’s office to tell them your street is still unplowed, then YOU are being a special interest again.

Thanks to the First Amendment, anyone from a U.S. citizen to a Fortune 100 company has the right to address the government and tell it just how it feels about an issue. Do you want your neighbor to knock down his house and build a mega-mansion? If not, you have every right to request a change in zoning laws. You can even try and get your other neighbors to join you and start an organization, as strength in numbers make special interests even more special. If you are the CEO of a Fortune 100 company, and Congress is considering a bill that will force you to lose millions in revenue and lay off thousands of workers, you have every right to request a meeting with the chairman of the appropriate Congressional committee and tell them just that.

It’s easy for politicians and the media to deride special interests as what is ruining politics. Nothing could be further from the truth. “Special interests” sounds ominous, but addressing government from Washington to Town Hall is Democracy 101 in action. Any bill that is aimed at limiting special interests is doomed to fail on First Amendment grounds, as it well should. You may disagree with the NRA and want to limit their access to politicians, but would you also want to limit organizations like AARP or Greenpeace? Free speech is not discriminatory, and we are fortunate to live in a country where anyone has the right to address the government.

Perhaps another reason we hear about only certain types of special interests is because they are the ones most busy trying to influence the government. A new administration is coming to town in three weeks. It is going to do things much differently than the last one. It will make decisions that will impact every organization, company and person in America. Do you want to tell your Congressmen and Senators (who are representing YOU) what you think about this? They will correctly interpret your silence as neutrality or acquiescence. Or you can be a Special Interest, just like the ones you hear about, and tell them what they should know.