Campaign “donations” to fund politics are necessarily and obviously corrupting. Massive amounts are “donated” with the clear expectation of receiving something in return. Normally that is called “bribery” but the corrupt recipients of the bribes call it “free speech.”

And everyone knows this. Everyone sees the political finance system as corrupt. Everyone.

“Public financing” is one proposed solution. Campaign donations would be banned. Government finances political campaigns. But aside from the complexity of such a system, there are legitimate “free speech” arguments that people should be able to support candidates and parties they favor.

Secret Santa Donations

Here is an alternative that preserves “free speech.” Set up a “Secret Santa” system that prevents recipients from knowing where donations come from. You want to help a candidate or party? Fine! Sure, give all you can. But don’t expect anything in return because they won’t know where the money came from!

The point of a Secret Santa donation system is to stop the obvious bribery. So of course for this to work it must be difficult and illegal for donors to tell who they donated to and how much they gave, and for the candidates or parties to find out where money comes from.