Suppose we took all the money out of politics and every major candidate gets an equal amount

[dawg]

16. It would start immediately.

Right now, they've got the big money donors *and* the media. Take away the big money donors and they still have an advantage, but it will be diminished.

Case in point, all the tea-party whackos would be having a field day with Romney right now if he didn't have so much money to spend on attack ads kicking them back down. That would sew chaos in their ranks, and they might even end up nominating one of the unelectable extremists like Santorum. Of course, I guess someone as rich as Romney could always spend his own money. But right now, he doesn't even have to do that. The rest of the Wall Street fatcats pay his way for him.

We can't take away Rush Limbaugh's first amendment right to have his say. But we can keep people from purchasing the government outright. Money does not equal free speech.