The super wealthy account for a growing share of both parties' funds. In the presidential election year 1980, the richest 0.01 percent gave 10 percent of total campaign contributions. In 2012, the richest 0.01 percent accounted for an astounding 40 percent.
Adding to the cynicism is the revolving door. In the 1970s only about 3 percent of retiring members of Congress went on to become lobbyists. In recent years half of all retiring senators and 42 percent of retiring representatives have done so.
This isn't because recent retirees have fewer qualms about making money off their government contacts. It's because so much money has inundated Washington that the financial rewards of lobbying have become huge.
Meanwhile, the revolving door between Wall Street, on the one side, and the White House and Treasury, on the other, is swiveling faster than ever.
Clinton should focus her campaign on reversing all of this. For a start, she should commit to nominating Supreme Court justices who will strike down "Citizen's United," the 2010 Supreme Court case that opened the big-money floodgates far wider.
She should also fight for public financing of general elections for president and for congress -- with government matching small-donor contributions made to any candidate who agrees to abide by overall spending limits on large-donor contributions.
She should demand full disclosure of all sources of campaign funding, regardless of whether those funds are passed through non-profit organizations or through corporate entities or both.
And she should slow the revolving door -- committing to a strict two-year interval between high-level government service and lobbying or corporate jobs, and a similarly interval between serving as a top executive or director of a major Wall Street bank and serving at a top level position in the executive branch.
Will Hillary Clinton make restoring democracy her big idea? When she announced her candidacy she said "the deck is stacked in favor of those at the top" and that she wants to be the "champion" of "everyday Americans."
The best way to ensure everyday Americans get a fair deal is to make our democracy work again.
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