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The claim that money buys elections in its correct form is not totalitarian, but rather a claim about percentage. Moreover, two things that trigger exceptions are a) Name Recognition and b) Free coverage. This election had both. Presidential elections in general are most likely not to follow this rule quite as closely.
Also, consider the declining marginal value of campaign spending.
Even Trump spent a quarter of a billion dollars. That's a lot of money that even he thought was useful. (His affiliates spent another quarter billion dollars, but they're probably old-fashioned politicians with poor judgement about campaign spending.) I think that was comparable to the 2000 campaign. So if Trump is our judge of the value of money, maybe politicians are spending too much today, but maybe they weren't just a few years ago.
Clinton spent half a billion dollars and her affiliates ... (read more)