The Party’s Over: McCutcheon, Shadow Parties, and the Future of the Party System

Shaun McCutcheon, the Alabama lawyer who successfully challenged a key provision of the Federal Elections Campaign Act (FECA), seems an unlikely ally of supporters of campaign-finance reform. They share neither his politics nor his lack of irony. McCutcheon, after all, supports Republican candidates by writing them checks in the amount of $1,776. Moreover, supporters of campaign-finance reform hardly want to hasten the Supreme Court’s dismantling of the FECA.

Yet McCutcheon’s suit was heralded by some as a remedy for what ails our politics. To understand this strange turn of events, one must view McCutcheon v Federal Election Commission against the deep shifts taking place in American politics. These are strange times for the two dominant political parties.