From the Washington Post:

Small-dollar donors were supposed to save democracy. Reformers had hoped that grass-roots political fundraising — connected by the internet and united against corruption — would become a formidable force to counter the money that wealthy individuals funnel to candidates.

Only half of that would become true. Small-dollar donors are indeed powerful today — but they have made politics worse, not better.

This has manifested in different ways depending on the party. For Republicans, small-dollar donors have bankrolled bomb-throwers who treat Congress like the Thunderdome. For Democrats, they have wasted hundreds of millions of dollars on ridiculous, fantasy-driven campaigns. And even when they flood a race with cash, they do little to lessen the influence of big donors….

But in most elections, small-dollar donors don’t connect online to wage war on moneyed interests. They donate to scratch an emotional itch. And by doing so, they make real-life politics more like the internet: hospitable to trolls, indulgent of political fantasy and deeply exhausting.