2 MCCUTCHEON v. FEDERAL ELECTION COMM’N THOMAS, J., concurring in judgment limits “operate in an area of the most fundamental First Amendment activities” and “implicate fundamental First Amendment interests.” 424 U. S., at 14, 23. But instead of treating political giving and political spending alike, Buckley distinguished the two, embracing a bifurcated standard of review under which contribution limits receive less rigorous scrutiny. Id., at 25. As I have explained before, “[t]he analytic foundation of Buckley . . . was tenuous from the very beginning and has only continued to erode in the intervening years.” Shrink Missouri, supra, at 412 (THOMAS, J., dissenting). To justify a lesser standard of review for contribution limits, Buckley relied on the premise that contributions are different in kind from direct expenditures. None of the Court’s bases for that premise withstands careful review. The linchpin of the Court’s analysis was its assertion that “[w]hile contributions may result in political expression if spent by a candidate or an association to present views to the voters, the transformation of contributions into political debate involves speech by someone other than the contributor.” 424 U. S., at 21. But that “ ‘speech by proxy’ ” rationale quickly breaks down, given that “[e]ven in the case of a direct expenditure, there is usually some go-between that facilitates the dissemination of the spender’s message—for instance, an advertising agency or a television station.” Colorado I, supra, at 638–639 (opinion of THOMAS, J.). Moreover, we have since rejected the “ ‘proxy speech’ ” approach as affording insufficient First Amendment protection to “the voices of those of modest means as opposed to those sufficiently wealthy to be able to buy expensive media ads with their own resources.” Federal Election Comm’n v. National Conservative Political Action Comm., 470 U. S. 480, 495 (1985); see Shrink Missouri, supra, at 413–414 (THOMAS, J., dissenting). The remaining justifications Buckley provided are also flawed. For example, Buckley claimed that contribution