Public Financing Is Key…: “If you want a government by the people and for the people, then the people have to pay the bill. Otherwise, the favors will flow right back to those who’ve actually picked up the tab.”Newsday Most cynicism about campaign finance reform cites the loopholes that will remain to be exploited, the likely cash flow from state party coffers to the national organizations, or the replacement of ‘soft money’ by ‘hard money’ at double the limit. Public financing will solve some or all of this but I think it misses the boat. We have to focus not on where the money comes from but where it goes. A political system in which campaign finance goes to hire consultants to tell the candidates how to read the public’s desires and then buy TV time to present themselves as that flavor-of-the-day is what’s bankrupt, however the money is raised. Oh, and an endlesly gullible electorate that eats it up uncritically no matter how much evidence there is that they’re being fooled again and again by the unreality industry.