Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress--and a Plan to Stop It

These clear and strong rules cushion skepticism; they make trust possible because they give the public a reason to believe that the institution will act as it has signaled it would act.

the question that I mean these data to raise is simply this: Not: Did these contributions buy the silliness we see? Instead: Do these contributions affect your ability to believe that this policy is something other than silliness?

The gift economy is thus the relationship of friends, or family, or different people trying to build an alliance.

As Jake Arvey, the man behind Adlai Stevenson’s political career, defined politics: “politics is the art of putting people under obligation to you.”

the government protects sugar, and the government subsidizes corn. As a result, more foods get made with high-fructose corn syrup, and more cattle get fed corn, meaning more cattle get fed antibiotics. The quantity of high-fructose corn syrup thus goes up in our diet, and the prevalence of dangerous bacteria goes up as well. And in complicated ways

had just finished clerking at the Supreme Court. That experience had depressed me beyond measure. I had idolized the Court. It turns out humans work there.

“Cognitive capture is a better description of this phenomenon than crony capitalism.”53

The demand for fund-raising plus the supply of safe seats meant American politics could afford to become more polarized, as a means (or at least a by-product) of making fund-raising easier.

the mere presence of money with a certain relationship to the results makes us less confident about those results.