Introduction: privilege resurgent -- This is not what democracy looks like -- The $10 billion election: what it looks like when billionaires start spending -- The architects of dollarocracy: Lewis Powell, John Roberts, and the robber baron court -- The bull market: political advertising -- Media corporations: where the bucks stop -- The rise and fall of professional journalism -- Journalism exits, stage right -- Digital politics: there is no such thing as "too much information" -- The right to vote: beginning the new age of reform