Interest
groups are often criticized for being
"single issue." This means they will support
whichever political candidate
promises to champion their one issue. The political candidate
could have a
terrible platform regarding every other issue, but as long as he or she
supports
the issue the interest group is promoting, the candidate will get
the group's money and
votes.
To use a non-partisan
example, a powerful, well-funded interest group
might decide they will only
support a candidate who agrees to ban green hair dye. The honest
candidates
might say, well, that is completely ridiculous, and I will not support that,
because
I stand for creating jobs, cleaning up corruption, etc. The interest
group, however, could
easily use its money to defeat these sensible
candidates. The person who got elected might
destroy jobs, be corrupt, and
not even believe in democracy, but he or she would get elected
because of
supporting the hair dye ban. He might even do grave damage to the economic
interests
of the people who voted him into office.
Many
therefore say that groups
should support candidates not on the basis of
single issues but based on a broad range of issues
that might work together
to make the world a better place.
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