All too often, instead of acting as a brake on runaway corporate power and greed, government becomes their enabler, undermining the very rules and regulations intended to keep us safe.

Simply tallying Adelson's wins and losses -- or the Koch brothers', or George Soros's, or any other mega-donors' -- misses the bigger point.

In 15 states, according to the progressive Center for Public Integrity, "there aren't any laws preventing legislators from resigning one day and registering as lobbyists the next."

Speaking Wednesday in his farewell speech to the Senate, incoming Secretary of State John Kerry warned of the corrupting influence of money and politi...

The actions of Amgen and its cronies on Capitol Hill show who the real takers are -- not those who look to government for support in old age and hard times but the ones at the top whose avarice and lust for profit compel them to take as much as they can at the expense of everyone else.

We've seen how Washington insiders write the rules of politics and the economy to protect powerful special interests but now, as we enter the holiday season, and a month or so after the election, we're getting a refresher course in just how that inside game is played, gifts and all.

What is lacking in the Constitutional amendment approach is an alternative funding system, one that gives candidates the option of running for office without wealthy patrons.

Back in the first the Gilded Age, in the 19th century, bosses in company towns lined up their workers and marched them to vote as a bloc. Now, the Gilded Age is back , with a vengeance. Welcome to the plutocracy -- the remains of the ol' USA.

Even after Election Day has passed, pressure has to continue on Congress, the IRS, the FCC and the Federal Elections Commission -- despite its current, weakened and feckless status. Dark money has to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into the light.

If you had reported as long as some of us have on winner-take-all politics and the unenlightened assumptions of the moneyed class, you wouldn't find the remarks of Romney and his pals all that exceptional.

Political coverage of the two conventions reflected the partisan events unfolding at each. My team and I wanted to offer an alternative.

Back in 2000, I worked with Arianna at the Shadow Conventions because she and I shared a passion for ending the corrupting influence of money in politics. We thought the problem was bad then; it's rotten now. And neither party seems any more genuine about addressing it. The business of governing has been slowly replaced by the businesses that govern. And those businesses, for the most part, either seek to rig laws to their own advantage or to maintain the status quo. So what it comes down to is this: Unless we generate a massive, history-making surge in the fight for reform we are likely, in another 12 years, doomed to having an even more dire conversation about our fading republic -- about a country that is a shadow of its former self.

There's a special ingredient in Tar Heel politics that the state's establishment have repeatedly ignored at their peril. Unique in Dixie, North Carolina has a populist tradition going back to the 1670s.

Today, private funds far outpace the public grant -- and we know from previous conventions that nearly all of this money comes from companies that have business with the federal government.

The wealthiest Americans often choose to live in gated communities, designed to shield them from the intrusion of those Ann Romney calls "you people." Now, Mitt Romney is applying that same notion to his campaign for the presidency.

Owing largely to the power of money in our politics, the views of mere voters carry virtually no weight in determining representatives' views. What matters is pressure.

We live in an age where both our politics and our markets are being managed in a way where we never get a chance to see who is really pulling the strings.

If you're visiting a candidate this summer and looking for a thoughtful house gift, might we suggest a nice super PAC? Thanks to the Supreme Court and Citizens United, they're all the rage among the mega-wealthy.