Ah, if it were only me making the case, you'd rightly dismiss me as a right wing yahoo. But today brings Bob Bauer (whose progressive credentials are unimpeachable, if you'll pardon the pun) whose remarks to the American Constitution Society ought to be required reading for progressives who cling to the ideal of campaign regulation like a drowning man to a bouy.

"In this situation, more than anything else, progressives have to depend on politics—energetic and uninhibited politics—to advance their program. This is where a campaign finance reform supporter heads down the wrong path. The campaign finance reform supporter assumes that entrenched power, possessing the lion’s share of the resources, will have an insurmountable advantage that may be overcome only with legal controls. So we have detailed regulation of the rules of politics in the name of "political equality," which, it is assumed, will give the "average citizen" a fighting chance.

This is delusional, on several grounds."

And in this, conservatives and progressives have a lot in common. Both our movements are seen two ways: as an engine for party success at the ballot box, and as a threat to the entrenched establishment's grip on policy in government. In fact, I think Bauer's remarks could have been appropriately delivered to the National Taxpayers Union or American Life League.

As the respective "fringe" of our parties - where does that leave us? Bauer, on progressives:

"What genuine progressives should seek is the opportunity to compete politically in all possible ways, with all the tools and resources they can summon to the effort. Their politics should be unapologetically aggressive, experimental, probing, and resourceful in all senses of the term. Campaign and other resources are only a fraction of the total resources in this society devoted to influencing social and political outcomes, and these total resources, it is fair to say, are not generally at the disposal of the progressive community. Those other resources are found where established thinking and authority is located. Progressives should worry less about the resources of adversaries and devote more energy to building a storehouse of their own.

The progressive challenging the existing order will always occupy the position of David in the confrontation with Goliath, and it is not to David’s advantage, in these already disadvantageous circumstances, to face restrictions on the type, size and number of rocks that may be loaded into the sling."

Amen.