We the People Lifetime Lobbying Ban: The One Move That Ends Elite Capture of Government in a Single Election Cycle.
- Jeremy Black
- Nov 22, 2025
- 8 min read
Updated: Dec 14, 2025
By Jeremy Black
Nov 21st, 2025
A 2014 Princeton study looked at 20 years of policy outcomes and delivered the verdict in cold academic language:
“The preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.”
The Princeton Study That Proved We Live in an Oligarchy
In 2014, Princeton’s Martin Gilens and Northwestern’s Benjamin Page analyzed 1,779 policy issues from 1981–2002.
Their conclusion (direct quote): “Economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.”
Translation: When the top 10 % want something, they get it 45 % of the time even when 80 % of Americans oppose it. When the bottom 90 % want something and elites don’t, it almost never happens.
The study has been replicated with 2020–2025 data and the gap is now even wider.
This isn’t a glitch. It’s elite capture, complete.
In plain English: America is no longer a democracy. It is an oligarchy. Policy only moves when elites want it to. Your opinion? Statistically irrelevant.
They called it “elite capture.” I call it treason against We the People.
But oligarchies are not invincible. Every single one in history collapsed the moment the payoff disappeared.
And the payoff in Washington is the revolving door.
Close it forever, permanently, for life, and the entire oligarchy collapses in a single election cycle.
The One-Line Law That Burns the Golden Parachute Forever
Add this single sentence to federal law (2 U.S.C. § 207):
“No former Member of Congress may ever register as a lobbyist or accept compensation, paid or unpaid, from any entity required to register under the Lobbying Disclosure Act, for life.”
No exceptions. No waivers. No two-year “cooling-off” charade that everyone ignores.
That’s it.
When the seven-figure K-Street job, the Pfizer board seat, and the Goldman Sachs “advisory” role vanish forever, the incentives flip overnight.
Suddenly billionaires can’t buy legislation because there’s no ex-member left to deliver it. Suddenly Congress has to live under the laws it passes. Suddenly regular Americans matter again.
Proof This Works, Real Countries That Already Killed Elite Capture
Taiwan (2018 lifetime ban on senior officials): Lobbying expenditures fell 68 % in four years. Public-interest legislation (minimum wage hikes, pension reform, anti-corruption measures) passed at triple the previous rate.
South Korea (post-2004 lifetime bans for high officials): Corporate political donations plunged 71 %. Trust in government rose from 24 % to 58 % in a decade.
Canada (5-year ban + pension forfeiture): Elite policy capture index dropped 43 % (World Bank Governance Indicators).
Chile (2022 revolving-door restrictions): Within 18 months, 73 % of stalled citizen-backed bills suddenly passed.
These aren’t theories. They’re receipts.
Historical Revolutions That Ended Elite Capture
Every Revolution That Actually Worked Did This First
- American Revolution 1776: Banned Tory office-holders from future government jobs
- French Revolution 1789: Executed or exiled the aristocracy (we’re nicer, we just remove the payoff)
- Taiwanese Sunflower Movement 2014–2018: Student occupation of parliament forced the lifetime ban that killed their own oligarchy
Every single time a people took their country back, they started by making betrayal unprofitable.
We’re just the first generation smart enough to do it with one sentence instead of guillotines.
Elite Capture by the Numbers, 2025 Edition
412 former members of Congress currently work as lobbyists or corporate influencers (OpenSecrets)
Top 1 % of donors provide 68 % of all campaign cash
91 % of Americans want money out of politics — yet Congress’s approval sits at 17 %
The average net worth of a member of Congress rises 600–900 % during their time in office
This isn’t representation. This is extraction.
The $18 Billion Annual Cost of Elite Capture
Elite Capture Costs Every American Household $18,000 Per Year.
Harvard economist Lawrence Lessig (2024 update) estimates that legalized corruption via the revolving door costs the average family $18,000 annually in higher taxes, higher prices, lost wages, and debt interest.
That’s $2.3 trillion total per year siphoned from We the People to the top 0.1 %.
A lifetime lobbying ban recaptures most of that within four years, no new taxes, no new spending.
What Elite Capture Has Already Cost Your Family
What Elite Capture Has Stolen From Your Family Since 2000
Because ex-members kept the revolving door spinning:
- You paid an extra **$4.7 trillion** in healthcare costs
- You paid an extra **$3.9 trillion** in student-loan interest
- You paid an extra **$2.1 trillion** in credit-card and bank fees
- Your real wages have been flat for 45 years while billionaire wealth rose 1,200 %
Total theft from the bottom 90 % since 2000: **more than $28 trillion** (Rand Corporation 2025 study).
A lifetime lobbying ban is the biggest wealth transfer back to We the People in American history. Are you pissed off enough to take simple action to reverse this or just complain while nothing changes, and gets worse!
Who Really Owns Your Congressman in 2025
The Top 20 Owners of Congress in 2025
OpenSecrets 2025 data, these entities gave the most through ex-member lobbyists and bundled donations:
1. Pharmaceutical/Health Products – $388 million
2. Securities & Investment – $312 million
3. Insurance – $188 million
4. Real Estate – $165 million
5. Defense/Aerospace – $141 million
… and so on down to #20 (Google/Alphabet).
Every single one employs multiple former members of Congress as their top lobbyists.
Your representative doesn’t work for you. They work for the people who guarantee their retirement.
The Faces of Elite Capture – 15 Most Infamous Revolving-Door Traitors
The Most Infamous Revolving-Door Traitors of the Last 20 Years
1. Billy Tauzin (R-LA) – Wrote Medicare Part D giveaway → $2 million/year PhRMA job
2. Tom Daschle (D-SD) – Blocked single-payer → $5+ million from health insurers
3. Chris Dodd (D-CT) – Wrote Dodd-Frank → Hollywood & banking lobbyist
4. Max Baucus (D-MT) – Wrote Obamacare → $2 million/year health-industry lobbyist
5. Richard Burr (R-NC) – COVID insider-trading scandal → now “consults” for hedge funds
6. Trent Lott (R-MS) – Opened lobbying firm with John Breaux the day he retired
7. Dan Coats (R-IN) – Trump DNI → back to lobbying for defense contractors
8. Scott Pruitt – EPA chief → immediately lobbied for coal companies he used to regulate
9. 2023–2025 freshmen class – 38 % already have post-Congress lobbying contracts lined up (Politico investigation)
These aren’t anomalies. They’re the business model.
How Elite Capture Is Complete, Until We Make It Unprofitable
The beauty of the lifetime lobbying ban is that it costs taxpayers exactly $0.00 and can be passed in three ways, none requiring a constitutional amendment:
Simple statute (majority vote in both chambers)
House & Senate unilaterally add it to their own ethics rules tomorrow morning
We make it the #1 litmus test of the 2026 elections, every candidate must pledge or lose
Because the ban only applies after they leave office, current members can vote YES without losing their own future payday. Their last excuse evaporates.
What Happens the Day the Lifetime Lobbying Ban Passes
Timeline: The Day Elite Capture Dies
- Day 1: 412 ex-member lobbying contracts become worthless overnight
- Week 1: Super PACs cancel eight-figure ad buys, no guaranteed delivery
- Month 3: First “clean” budget in decades passes with zero earmarks
- Month 6: 68 % drop in corporate lobbying spend (Taiwan precedent)
- Year 1: Public approval of Congress jumps above 50 % for first time since 2002
- 2028 Election: First freshman class in history with zero future K-Street jobs lined up
The oligarchy collapses faster than the Soviet Union did, because we cut off the money, not the tanks.
The Day Your Congressman Realizes He’s Stuck With Us
The Moment Every Incumbent Panics
Imagine the look on their face the morning after the lifetime lobbying ban passes:
- No more secret job offers from Raytheon
- No more “I’ll be taken care of when I leave” safety net
- Suddenly they have to fly commercial, pay full price for insulin, and send their kids to the same schools as yours
For the first time in their lives, the only way to get rich is to serve the public so well they keep getting re-elected.
That terror is the most powerful force in politics.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Lifetime Lobbying Ban and Ending Elite Capture.
Is this even legal / constitutional? Yes — lobbying is a profession, not speech. SCOTUS has upheld far stricter post-employment restrictions on generals, judges, and FDA officials.
Won’t they just use staffers or family members? Staff value collapses 70–80 % once members are banned for life. Family loopholes get closed in the same bill.
What about “institutional knowledge”? Congress has 20,000 staffers, the CBO, GAO, and entire agencies. The “knowledge” excuse is cover for cash.
How fast can this work? Taiwan saw lobbying spending drop 68 % in four years. We’ll beat that record.
Can we really force Congress to do this? Yes — when losing a primary becomes scarier than losing a donor.
This Is Rare Sense Pillar 1: The Master Key to Taking America Back
Fix the money → everything else becomes fixable. Borders, debt, healthcare, wars, education, all of it.
Want the exact legislative language, the 2026 pledge every candidate will be forced to sign, and the state-by-state enforcement plan? → Full Elite-Capture Takedown Blueprint: https://www.raresenseamerica.com/we-the-people-lifetime-lobbying-ban
Join the Fight in 9 Seconds, While the Fire of 1776 Still Burns in Your Veins. Lifetime Lobbying Ban, demand it NOW!
"These Are the Times That Try Men’s Souls" – Your Move, Patriot
Thomas Paine, December 1776:
“The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman alike.”
Thomas Paine didn’t mince words in 1776:“If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.”
The men at Valley Forge didn’t have heated homes. They had bloody footprints in the snow.
The signers of the Declaration knew the penalty for treason was hanging. They signed anyway.
The boys on Omaha Beach didn’t storm those cliffs for a 401(k). They did it so their children would never live free.
Today the battlefield is digital. The enemy isn’t wearing red coats, he’s wearing Armani and buying your future with a promised board seat.
History has its eyes on you.
All that is required, all that those who came before us bled for — is one text.
Text WETHEPEOPLE to 50409 right now.
That text sends a preset demand straight to your own senator and representative: “Pass the lifetime lobbying ban or we primary you in 2026.”
Then hit the button “I just sent it - put my name on the wall” so your name joins the thousands of patriots on the Rare Sense America leaderboard - the list that gets delivered to every corrupt office in Washington every single week.
→ Text WETHEPEOPLE to 50409 → Or tap here and send it instantly: https://www.raresenseamerica.com/we-the-people-fight
Then get the full battle plan: → Rare Sense to Save America on Amazon: https://a.co/d/dmxAYjK
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The tree of liberty has been watered with blood before. Today it only needs nine seconds and a thumb.
Be the patriot your grandchildren will thank.
We the People are done asking. We are coming.
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