I just had to write a comment to underline the significance of this:

Because so many progressives want public campaign funding (which probably has its merits), some duopolists co-opt that message, and then write bills that promise “public campaign funding” in a sunshiney way, but have the more drastic effect of giving lots of money to Dems and Reps and making life harder on independent/third party candidates.

Often, the rules are written so that it would be very difficult for an independent or third party candidate to hit the benchmarks or meet the requirements for public funding.

From my perspective, this is what is wrong with the entire mindset of turning to government to advance social justice of any sort.

Government power is always captured by the corporate and other powers that be and turned to their advantage. I don’t think this is because we have the wrong people in office, but due to the incentive structure that is fundamental to the nature of monopoly government.

Because so many progressives want public campaign funding (which probably has its merits), some duopolists co-opt that message, and then write bills that promise “public campaign funding” in a sunshiney way, but have the more drastic effect of giving lots of money to Dems and Reps and making life harder on independent/third party candidates.

Often, the rules are written so that it would be very difficult for an independent or third party candidate to hit the benchmarks or meet the requirements for public funding.