| | Myths in Popular Culture
How Politicians Sell Out to the Interest Groups
If you wanted to dramatize the corruption of politicians and interest groups, you couldn't do a better job than making the 1994 film The Distinguished Gentleman. The film stars Eddie Murphy as Jeff Johnson, a political neophyte who is elected to Congress through a series of bizarre flukes. The movie is actually a comic version of the 1939 drama Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Murphy and the film's director take every opportunity to depict most elected members of Congress as contemptible and vile - totally devoted to selling their vote to the highest bidding lobbyist.
As the plot unfolds, Jeff Johnson mainly goes to Washington, D.C., because "That's where the money is." His dream comes true when he arrives in the Capitol and finds lobbyists whose "whole point in life is to buy you off." When Johnson asks one of the lobbyists, "With all of this money coming in from all sides, how can anything get done," the ready response is that "it doesn't; that's the genius of the system."
As with all myths about politics, strains of truth can be found in some film's portrayals. In reality, observers are increasingly concerned, as are members of Congress, with the escalating cost of elections and the dependence on lobbyists and political action committees to help finance campaigns. An uncomfortable relationship can exist between the donors and the receivers of campaign contributions in which policy may be influenced. But The Distinguished Gentleman goes too far in distorting the governing process and the methods used to debate and write laws.
Most members of Congress, as well as most elected officials in our state and local legislative bodies, cannot be bought by lobbyists as portrayed in this film. Policymaking is a complex process influenced not only by interest groups but by the constituents, principles, and policy preferences of our legislators. That interest groups can and do influence the policymaking process, to the detriment of some policies, is indeed true. That they are a constant and overwhelming force of corruption in the policymaking process is a myth generated and reinforced by movies like The Distinguished Gentleman.
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