There was a persuasuve new post at The American Prospect by Eliza Newlin Carney:

To beat Donald Trump in 2020, the democratic presidential nominee will have to solve a familiar progressive puzzle: how to win over voters who hate big political money without unilaterally disarming against a well-funded opponent.

So far, no leading Democrat has figured out how to make the pieces fit. While the party’s primary candidates have scrambled to outdo one another in “purity” pledges, from rejecting corporate PAC money to returning lobbyists’ donations, such promises are largely symbolic. Only a fraction of campaign receipts come from corporate PACs, and that money is fully disclosed and subject to strict limits in any case. As for lobbyists, so many operate outside the disclosure rules that any “ban” contains a giant loophole.

The bigger money—and the bigger threat to democracy—comes from ill-regulated, billionaire-backed groups like super PACs, secretive nonprofits, and candidate-party joint fundraising committees that skirt the contribution limits. Democratic presidential hopefuls have paid lip service to rejecting such players, but cash-flush progressive groups have already announced plans to spend tens of millions to defeat Trump, and no one expects the Federal Election Commission to lift a finger to enforce the rules.

See the full story here.