I am what is called a “small contributor.” I will sometimes give 20 to 50 dollars or so to candidates that I think are worth supporting or for whom I think are in a close race. However, it often seems as if I’m being punished for my act of contribution. Through some mechanism I don’t understand, it appears as if my act of support places me on some kind of list that all sorts of candidates have access to, so that I get dozens of emails and texts from campaigns I never heard of. Additionally, the number of solicitations from those I have given to also seem to increase.
Further, I imagine there must be some kind of instruction manual on how to compose these solicitations that is used by all campaigns. All seem to invoke some awful outcome if I do not donate immediately. These appeals come with words in all caps, multiple colors, and frequent use of emojis and exclamation points.
For me, at least, this experience makes it less, not more, likely that I will contribute to campaigns in the future. As a result, increasingly my dollars go to support GOTV organizations, rather than campaigns. Additionally, I will never give to Democratic campaign committees so long as they continue to spend money to influence the outcomes of primaries,regardless if the primaries are Democratic or Republican.
There is one exception to this. A few days ago, I gave a small contribution to John Fetterman’s campaign. Shortly thereafter, I received a message acknowledging and thanking me for my contribution. I realize that this was probably automatically generated in some way but it was still nice to receive it. Unfortunately, even this small acknowledgment is something most other campaigns don’t feel compelled to do.
Does anyone else feel this way?