1. S-T-U-N-N-E-D [via TrainDemocrats.org] Beto O'Rourke takes the LEAD [!!!]
2. TEXAS STUNNER - Democrats 2018 Beto O'Rourke DEFEATED
3. TEXAS TEXAS TEXAS it's OVER (Beto O'Rourke)
4. Republicans TREMBLING Beto BARELY takes the lead
5. Beto vs. Cruz -- UPDATE NEW POLL: Beto O'Rourke WINNING
6. TEXAS STUNNER - Democrats 2018 Beto O'Rourke DEFEATED
This is what I woke up to this morning when I perused my inbox. And this is just the email for Beto. I had over 300 emails this morning. 250 or more were political. It seems that the more you donate the more they ask for money. And the emails are all over the place. So within a span of 24 hours I am told that Beto is winning, Beto has a slight edge and that Beto has lost and the race is over.
Of course the bottom line is they want more money. We give. We give what I consider a lot. My wife and I are retired but we give what we can. Now in all honesty, my last name not being Koch, I am not sure how much it helps. I probably gave close to $500 to “Stop Kavanaugh Now” groups including the ACLU, NOW, Planned Parenthood etc in the last two weeks. Considering the results, it did not generate a good Return on Investment.
It is not just the volume of political emails, it is the tone. There are things I do not understand.
Take the emails like number 2 or number 3. These fall into the “All hope is lost” category. Why would I want to take my sizable but limited political dollars and donate to a campaign where all hope is lost? At least let me donate to a campaign that has a chance.
Then there are the ones that say we are up against a deadline, give now. It seems these deadlines exist every day. They are always up against a deadline. Now some deadlines I can understand. You want to run an ad blitz the week before an election you need the money probably two weeks before the election. But I really question these arbitrary deadlines that they always mention to create urgency.
One of my favorites goes something like this. “A loyal and wealthy supporter has agreed to a 3 or 4 times match of your contribution. You donate $100 and this supporter will match that with a $300 contribution”. If this so called supporter really supports the candidate why are they tying how much they give to how much I give. Just donate whatever you want and can afford and shut up. If you believe in your candidate than be my guest and contribute. Don’t allow my resources or lack thereof influence the amount you give.
I also hate the ones that basically state that “Paul must support Trump”. The gist of this is that I haven’t made a donation to this particular party or candidate within the last 24 hours so I must not be a good progressive and therefore I support Trump and the GOP. Those just get deleted right off the bat.
I give what I can afford to give but in reality I am not really sure how much it makes a difference. Maybe someone like Beto needs to get name recognition but lets face it, we are a polarized nation. You are going to do one of three things and for 95% of the people I am fairly confident that your mind is made up.
1. You are going to vote for anyone based on the letter (D, R or maybe I (for supporters of Sanders and King)) next to their name.
2. You are not going to vote and then complain about the corrupt system and how all politicians are the same.
3. Or you will vote for someone with no chance of winning just to send a message such as Ralph Nader or Jill Stein. (And that worked out really well for the environment and the courts didn’t it).
Is another campaign ad really going to swing a lot of votes?
We complain about big money in politics but we are continually reaching into our pockets to hand over more. One million dollars in political ads buys the same whether it comes from 10 people donating $100K each or 10 thousand people giving 100 dollars each.
There are billions of dollars spent every cycle on Local, County, State and Federal elections. Forget tax refunds, think of how much money we would all save if we did not feel the need to fork over money with each email we get. Heck, lets take all the money we spend on political ads and put it into a general revenue pool and subsidize health care, or clean up the environment or fund disaster relief.
What we saw transpire this past weekend was the best government that money can buy. It is the culmination of Citizens United which has made politics nothing but I high stakes con game. Money cannot buy good government and And now, with Kavanaugh on the court, it will be how the game will be played for the foreseeable future. Progressives are not going to ever be able to win by outspending the corporate elite. Yes we might have our Soros’s but there has got to be a better way.
Let’s GOTV and hope and pray that the elections are not compromised by the Russians or voter suppression by Republicans.
But these emails are, IMHO, just a waste of bits and bytes.