What are we really fighting for when we embark on campaign finance reform? Mark Schmitt, of the New American Foundation and The Decembrist, opens an engaging dialogue on TPM Cafe urging reform-minded folks to not get bogged down in the details of campaign finance and to keep our eyes on the ball: using policy (like Clean Elections) to create opportunities for more people to become involved in politics and spark social change.

Micah Sifry, a Public Campaign alum, picks up on Schmitt's themes, expanding on the opportunities presented by Clean Elections systems to use systemic reform to create social change, open the political process to a broader cross-section of the population, and amplify the voice of ordinary people in elections.