For I’ve come to believe that this isn’t just one among a number of important issues. It is the issue. It is the single issue we need to solve if every other important issue is going to have a chance of being solved sensibly. The dependency of modern campaign finance is the single most important cause of the bankruptcy of Congress. Fixing this bankruptcy is the single most important reform effort that Americans face just now.

That’s not to say there aren’t other, extraordinarily important issues that America faces. Of course there are. Global warming is at the top of my list. The peace in Iraq may be at the top of yours. But fixing the bankruptcy that is Congress is the first step to solving these other issues. Without this first step, the other reform simply won’t happen.

Think of it like this: We’ve all known, or been harmed by, or harmed others as an alcoholic. We all therefore understand something about this particular dependency. One thing we understand is this. An alcoholic might face many critical problems. He might be losing his job, his marriage, and his liver. All three of those are among the worst possible problems a person could face. But we know he won’t begin to solve those problems until he deals with his alcoholism. Alcoholism isn’t the most important problem in the mix. It’s just the first problem. It’s the problem that must be solved before anything else can get solved.