And then you can also donate much more to the various party committees, and you can do it as a "directed donation", so that the money is credited to Politico X

And then you can also donate much more to the various party committees, and you can do it as a "directed donation", so that the money is credited to Politico X and the party committee immediately forwards the money back to Politico X. But corruption talk that centers on the individual donations made to politicians is mostly wrong. That's not how corruption works. That's a reflection through a mirror of the actual corruption happening, which is mostly about influence, not money. Politico A and Entity B have made a deal to use their influence to support each other, and that is reflected in some puny $1000 donation somewhere, but it's not mostly about the $1000.