The amount of money raised, collected and spent during each election cycle is beyond ridiculous. Who winds up with all this money? The media does, with money spent on advertising, the political consultants, the ad agencies. the political parties building a war chest for the next election. It is obscene. We could probably fund infrastructure, provide health care, reduce student debt and fund countless other programs with the amount of money given to politicians and political fundraisers. People will end up donating hundreds or thousands of dollars to political candidates who promise to save them a few hundred dollars in taxes. I am not talking about the billionaires like the Koch Brothers who reaped huge benefits. I am talking about the typical Republican voter who thought the 2017 tax bill was such a great thing for them.
Now what do we know that Donald Trump loves almost as much as himself. Money. I am not even sure that is is power for the sake of power. He wants power because he can make a lot of money with that power. .
So hear me out. My idea straddles the fine line between snark and serious.
What if we took up a go fund me page and got 50 million Americans to contribute an average of $100 each? Some can give a lot less and some can give a lot more but the average needs to be $100. I am sure that there are 50 million Americans, out of almost 300 Million People, but let’s say 125 Million eligible voters, that would gladly pay $100 to never see Trump’s face again.
50 million times 100 is 5 Billion dollars. Would Trump be willing to leave the White House forever in exchange for $5 Billion dollars? He loves money and he might even be able to pay off all of his debt with 5 Billion. He could free himself from uncle Vlad. He could build a lot of golf resorts and play a lot of golf without the headache of having to hire and fire cabinet officials and chiefs of staff.
If we really felt altruistic we could offer similar deals to McConnell and Graham and 4 or 5 other Senators to assure control of the Senate. I do not see anything illegal about this. We are each allowed to give up to $2800 to the candidates of our choice. We are not buying votes. We are not committing fraud. We would be open to the nature and purpose of our contributions. We are paying someone not to run. We can give money to candidates, why not non-candidates. Go Fund me donations are perfectly legal as long as the money goes to where it is promised. The money would be put in escrow and only paid out when they lost or withdrew from the election. Otherwise it would be refunded back to the donors.
I have donated thousands to various races for the general and primary elections since the beginning of the year. To Senatorial Candidate, House Candidates, Gubernatorial candidates. Collectively the nation spends tens of billions of dollars every year on Federal, State and Local elections.
Now this would not work against most Democratic candidates because most of the are not motivated by money. Most Rethuglican candidates are motivated by power because they see it is a way of lining their pockets. Well let’s find a way to line their pockets without them having to screw the entire country.
Again, this is intended as a bit of snark but the more I think about the more it makes sense. Let’s give the Republicans a way to get rich without having to do things like take away our healthcare, or destroy our environment, or screw with our civil rights to protect their time in office. If they can get rich without having to pay for staff or finance campaigns it is literally a win win. It can be a new approach to campaign finance reform. Paying people who are motivated by money not to run for office.
Do I want to see Graham, or McConnell or Trump get even richer? Of course not. But if we can get them to retire in exchange for a nice big paycheck then maybe it could be something at least worth considering.