I’ve been a life-long Democrat. I’ve never voted for a Republican & as near as I can tell, I never will. That being said, I’m now retired, living on Social Security as my sole source of income, which means I don’t have a lot of disposable income. I was disabled before I willingly was forced to retire or I would preferably still be working, but have learned to deal with what life hands me.
Since being retired, I have learned to live within my lower, limited means; trying most of the time to not let the money run out before the month does. I have 1 bank card & if I can’t buy something with that, or make payments, I don’t buy something. I have learned to be financially responsible.
Keeping all this in mind, there are a few non-profits that I support monthly for causes that are important to me & a few LOCAL politicians that I feel can use my support, in addition to the President & Vice President.
When I started donating to political causes, I didn’t realize that the Democratic PAC behind most of them was ACT BLUE. They want your address & phone number but what they don’t tell you is that they seem to share that information with every Democratic candidate’s PAC that comes along & wants to raise money.
While I do understand the reasoning behind sending additional money to the Democratic party to flip seats & take back the majority (I get it, I really do), the relentless assaults I receive via text message & email from candidates I have never heard of in districts across the country who I don’t doubt can use the financial support are mildly, an annoyance at times, & at other times, just a royal pain in the Tush. The fundraising is often worded in such a cryptic manner that it’s often not possible to tell the name of the organization making the request, except that they want my donation.
I have tried asking them to identify themselves & the only organization I ever got a response from was Gabby Gifford’s Gun Control group — which was cogent enough to actually get my attention as it was answered by a real person. Surprise!
Less prolific but still irritating are the phone calls. Again, I understand, those of you who are making the calls, you are doing a job. But when you call me asking for $75 & I tell you I’m living on Social Security, that means I don’t have that much disposable income to give you. When you drop the donation amount to $50 & I repeat my response, I know you’re reading from a script, but the answer is still the same & I hope you’ll realize you may be in the same boat someday. Finally, I told the caller, “How about I give you my vote & my thanks for the hard work you’re doing & we call it a day?” Frustrated, she thanked me & finally ended the call rather than my hanging up on her.
The more frequently I get these un-named or unknown PAC fundraising assaults, the less likely I am to really donate anything to them. Deleted & blocked. Sorry, but stop assaulting my phone & going after my time & money.
ActBlue needs to come out from Behind the candidates & let constituents know they are the ones responsible for the fundraising. Let me know there is a responsible entity handling the fundraising for someone running for office. Otherwise, stop giving them my information. Period.
When I get e-mails, the connection to ActBlue is more transparent, which is appreciated, but still there. It’s usually on the bottom of the e-mail, right next to the unsubscribe link.
While ActBlue is capable of doing a lot of good, maybe it’s time for them to reevaluate their practices to see how they may be alienating their own base. Come up with a way to allow me, the donor to determine how many & which entities are given my information to avoid donor burnout.