Reps. Nancy Pelosi and Steve Israel spending their way to another crushing defeat, because money isn't everything in politics.
House Democrats are still
defending this crap?
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the party’s arm charged with winning House elections, outraised its Republican counterpart in 2014 by a substantial margin, and completely dominated when it came to small-dollar donations.
Some progressive activists are panicking -- not because of the party’s fundraising success, but because of how they went about it, with a relentless fusillade of emails that spawned a parody Tumblr blog skewering subject lines like "We've got nothing left" and "We. Will. Fail."
Those "parody" headlines are no parody at all, with
actual headlines like these from a single two-week period in early 2014:
humiliating loss, shocking defeat, crushing defeat, massive loss, agonizing defeat, painful loss, humiliating defeat, painful loss, debilitating defeat, it's too late, devastating loss, defeat, crippling blow, embarrassed, devastating defeat
There's no doubt this kind of headline motivated significant people to donate money, but at what cost?
"Yeah, I know, there's no question our emails can get pretty persistent but here's the thing: We don't have the Koch brothers, and we don't have these well-connected Washington groups that can spend unlimited amounts of money to advance their special-interest agenda," Israel said. "We have our grassroots."
The Koch brothers aren't out telling their party's grassroots that they've already lost a year before the election. And in any case, Democrats
outspent Republicans last cycle, even when considering the Koch types (the Kochs spent $100 million in 2014, but Democrats outraised Republicans by
$200 million). Money wasn't the Democrats' problem. It was base turnout. And there's no way that telling your strongest supporters every single fucking day that the election is already lost boosts turnout or excitement. None!
So congratulations, DCCC. You are the best money raising committee around. Huzzah! But remind me again what your mission is? Because last time I checked, it wasn't to raise the most money. It was to elect Democrats.
And if you can't spend that money to win, like in the disastrous 2014 cycle, then what good is it?