and then the second catalyst for this phenomenon was something we don t talk about much, mccain-feingold. those law passed back in 2002 by limited contributions to political parties helped divert the flow of money to outside spending groups and super pacs we re talking about here but also into think tanks, and policy institutes, things like media matters monitoring the truthfulness of various cable outlets. and so you ve seen this kind of calculation by money interest, rich individuals, and folks with money in this country that you might be able to achieve the political outcomes better by bypassing these old structures and creating your own ways to slug it out in the political arena. maybe the question we should be asking, is the proliferation of thing takes, weakening the parties as mediators of the political debate, and is a is that a bad thing or a good thing? let me close on this point because i think it s anothe