But there is no hurlyburly. There is no marketplace. There isn't even room for a small dissenting opinion. Neither the problem nor the relevance of the purported solution is ever really explained by the media, much less critically analyzed. Instead the media vomit out meaningless bromides and nonspecific outrage about money in politics.
Hard money is campaign money strictly regulated by the federal government.
It is money controlled by American citizens rather than the federal government. But they can't just say that. Much to the consternation of liberals, the Supreme Court held that the government cannot regulate political speech that falls short of expressly advocating the election or defeat of a candidate. If you are not a journalist, it will immediately occur to you that an equally plausible explanation is that the NRA supports Senator Gun Nut because Senator Gun Nut agrees with the NRA's positions. It's a chicken and egg problem that never really gets thrashed out in the media.