“Campaign finance reform was the subject of..."

“Campaign finance reform was the subject of fierce debate in America not long ago.  Yet the debate missed the point.  As long as we have a government that can exploit peaceful, hardworking Americans on behalf of special interests, as long as it can make or break any American business with (for example) tax policy, politically motivated antitrust prosecutions, and ill-considered regulation, and in general as long as economic winners and losers can be determined in Washington, people will want to assure their share of the loot by influencing the political process through money.  Campaign finance reform focuses on the system rather than the cause. 

This is one reason I was so skeptical when friends urged me to run for president.  There are fore more interest groups lobbying in Washington for special benefits and privileges than most Americans can imagine.  I do not oppose just this one or that one.  I oppose the whole apparatus, the whole immoral system by which we use government to exploit our fellow citizens on behalf of our own interests.  For someone like me to win, there would have to be enough Americans who believed in freedom to be able to offset the combined power of interest groups that have grown accustomed to treating the people as a resource to be drained for private gain.  Were there really enough people for that task?” -Pages 106 & 107 of The Revolution, A Manifesto