But buying off a single congressperson is not going to change the worldwide discourse on a topic.

Pick the right one and it might.

Or spend $23,134,000 on all of the House and Senate.

You probably only need 15% of congress. Some of the unbought ones will follow, some would vote for your side anyway, and there are often unrelated things in the bill that will bring a bunch of those who otherwise don't care about this issue with.

In theory, to change discourse, you just need one expert and a few magazine articles and the rest is history.

How do you eat an entire elephant? One bite at a time.

How do you corrupt an entire government? One congressperson at a time.

> The going rate for a member of congress in 2015 was a little less [0] - about $43,000

If that's really the factor that swung the vote, there is more to it than that contribution. There may be a promise of a job after Congress. Or there may be an expectation of continued contributions.

Put another way, if you donate $43,000, you're not going to get a line item in a law. (Counterpoint: I've never donated more than a few thousand in my life, and I've had a hand in multiple state and now three federal laws. A lot of people don't civically engage. If you're the only person calling your elected on a bill they don't care about, and you aren't a nutter, they'll turn you into their de facto staffer on it.)