Ramtin Arablui and Randa Abdelfattah

If they have strong convictions, all these ads, they will not necessarily do all that much good.

In fact, they can actually hurt you.

At a certain point, do the super PACs pose a real existential threat to our democracy?

That's a very big question.

I think campaign finance issues can pose a real threat to the integrity of our democracy and the way that people feel about it.

I think it is corrosive to the confidence Americans have about the way the country works.

I think both from the left and the right, you see this lack of confidence in democracy

how fair the country works and the way that average people can't get a fair shake.

You see that in polling where people feel like the system in America is kind of rigged in all kinds of ways.

And I think campaign finance is certainly one part of that.

We've only opened more doors to more money, certainly for the last 30 years.

And generally speaking, money kind of goes in one direction in campaign finance.

It's generally been more and more rather than less.

That's it for this week's show.

I'm Randa Adelfattah.

I'm Ramteen Arablui.

And you've been listening to ThruLine from NPR.

This episode was produced by me,

And me and... Fact-checking for this episode was done by... Thanks to... This episode was mixed by...

Music for this episode was composed by Ramtin and his band, Drop Electric, which includes... And finally, if you have an idea or like something you heard on the show, please write us at throughline at npr.org.