Special-interest groups are wielding too much influence on Capitol Hill, to the detriment of political parties and lawmakers' ability to focus on broad goals, say some Congress-watchers.
“Parties have flaws. But parties really have an interest in coalescing a majority, because they want to win," says Weber, the former US House member. "A lot of the problems we have in politics we have today ... are because, yes, interest groups have supplanted a lot of the functions that political parties used to play.”
In particular, Weber says, these groups box in politicians by applying lots of pressure and money, starting with the earliest stages of a prospective member's campaign.
“If you’re a Republican running for office, your goal is to get endorsed by your party, but you probably care more what the single-issue groups think,” he says. “What do the taxpayer groups think? What do the pro-life groups think?”
On the Democratic side, one could easily sub in public employee unions, environmentalists, or feminists, he adds.
And that leads to members whose concerns are more narrowly focused.
“Interest groups have a different set of motivations: They want to get more donors and more activists, and they get there by distilling their message down, not by broadening it out. And I think that explains a lot of our politics in this town,” Weber says.
And while corporate America isn’t seeking more donors or activists, it has a new outlet to pressure Congress: unlimited donations to political organizations, courtesy of the US Supreme Court's ruling in 2010 in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.
It only makes things worse that campaign-finance laws put limits on people's donations to political parties but allow unlimited funds to flow to interest groups, he says.
“We have the worst system of all,” Weber says, “and both sides need to give a little bit to reform it and get a system that is both more palatable and [that] strengthens those institutions that have an interest in achieving a majority as opposed to [a] narrow partisan interest.”
