It is unquestionably true that money often distorts political outcomes, because it plays an intolerably large role in the political system. Warren, Sanders and Lessig are right to emphasize that moneyed interests sometimes block desirable action. As Nobel Prize-winning economists George Akerlof and Robert Shiller explain in a forthcoming book, those interests have especially harmful effects on complex or technical issues to which ordinary voters pay little attention.
It is one thing to deplore the effects of money and well-organized private interests. It is quite another to proclaim that our democratic structures are rigged.
The current era of fundamental reform demonstrates that if yesterday’s losers work hard enough, they can end up as tomorrow’s winners. The system is far from perfect, but it is anything but rigged.