The only way to really end lobbying would be to end Washington's power. Not everyone lobbies for cronyist reasons -- sometimes lobbyists are there to remind the behemoth that is the federal government not to roll over in its sleep and destroy their industry. The idiots passing laws in Washington don't know what the results of their "brilliance" will be; they just pass a law, and wreck an industry. So yeah, lobbying sucks, but get rid of the underlying reason why corporations lobby -- Washington decides who wins and who loses.
Ending lobbying would mean ending the right of individuals (or groups of individuals) to petition the government. Another alternative: make everything utterly transparent in terms of money.
There's a difference between having your voice heard and what we call lobbying today. Lobbying today is, for all intents and purposes, bribery. It is buying off politicians. It is not something the common man can do or has benefited from. The primary beneficiaries of lobbying are the wealthy and large corporations. Lobbying rarely helps small businesses and the average person in America, instead it tends to work to convince legislators to present and pass legislation that does things like give corporate welfare to large companies. For crying out loud, you have lobbyists who are literally writing bills or portions of bills that are put forth to vote.
If lobbying was just allowing your voice to be heard, I'd have no problem with it, but lobbying in Congress today is bribing politicians through promises of employment, gifts like free lunches and vacations, campaign contributions and "independent" campaign ads by their affiliated PACs and Super PACs, and sometimes information that can be used for insider trading. It corrupts the democratic process and has enabled the current economic condition where we have a growing wealth gap and shrinking middle class.
I do agree that making everything transparent when it comes to money sounds like a good thing, but it wouldn't really help. There are many ways you can obfuscate money and there is more corruption in lobbying than gifts and lunches. Campaign contributions and gifts are only a small part of the corruption that exists.
