In fact, public financing is the surest way to lock up the system and protect it from dissenting outsiders. Public financing secures elections as a means for only people who love the status quo to participate. The hysteria over Buchanan's announcement for president was partly caused by the idea that someone who doesn't support the system could get matching funds. Moreover, the real problem with campaign finance is not that there is too much private money involved. The problem is that the stakes are too high.
Government has too much money to give away and too many favors to pass out.
If the office of the presidency and the Congress were occupied by people restrained by the rule of law and the Constitution, elections might be more about the quality of the candidate instead of what H.L. Mencken called an advance auction of stolen goods. But the implications of the tax check-off collapse are even more dramatic. It is encouraging evidence that a mark of our times is the nosedive in public perceptions of government itself. Too bad the federal form doesn't include any other check-off opportunities. When President George Bush proposed adding one that would help pay for the reduction of the national debt, it was the only good idea to emerge from his administration.