During the election campaign, I gave money to candidates in races across the country. Every time I made a donation, my email was passed along to other candidates, who passed it on to other candidates.
Every day, I had 10-15 apppeals for money, sometimes more. I learned to press the “unsubscribe” button at the bottom of the email or to write STOP on text messages. But other candidates quickly sent new appeals.
Here are the kind of apppeals I hope never to see again:
“It’s all over.” Please send money.”
“We are falling far behind.” Please send money.”
“It’s hopeless. Please send money.”
“I’m a sure loser. Please send money.”
A notice to all candidates: I never contribute to sure losers. An appeal based on pessimism and despair is a complete turnoff.
Please send future messages based on hope and optimism. If you tell me your campaign has already lost, I will not send a penny and I will block all future emails from you.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
If it’s all over and hopeless, whats the point of sending money?
And why would you ever want to send money to a sure loser?
Or to a sore loser (like Trump), for that matter.
And similarly, why would you ever want to send money to sure winner?
Surely, you must have something better to do with your money than to send it to a sure winner or sure loser.
Send money. I’m sure a loser” — Donald Trump
Campaign Ad
I’m hapless
It’s hopeless
A loser for sure
So fund me
For laundry
To keep the whites pure
That was a campaign ad for Trump, of course.
I do not want to see any campaign requests for donations. Too much money is spent on too many ads for far too long. Campaigns should be no longer than six months. Period.
I, too, unsubscribe, quickly. I moot the TV when the ads come on. After a month of ads I have heard/seen all I need to hear/see when it comes to the campaigns.
I agree completely! And I’d like to add another category: the politicians who tell me everything wrong with their opponent(s) but nothing about what they hope to accomplish to move the country forward in a positive direction.
Not me.
I like to read about the opponent’s closet skeletons.
Amen!
Re “During the election campaign, I gave money to candidates in races across the country.” This is a fundamental flaw in our political system. People who will not be represented by a politician are allowed to give money to their campaigns. This needs to stop. The only people who should be allowed to give money to a campaign are those who live in that candidate’s district and who would be represented by that candidate were he/she to be elected.
The system we have now is organized influence peddling because studies show that politicians pay attention to their donors far above their constituents, and big donors, therefore, can have all of the access and influence they want, even though that politician doesn’t represent them.
Steve, you are so right. All the money raised should be from the district.
That approach seems worthwhile, but it could evolve to out-of-district folks finding ways to funnel money to in-district surrogate “donors.”
All donations can be on an “this is your own money, not given to you by anyone else” basis. Of course, people can lie, but now we aren’t even making them do that. Oh, and corporations, like voters need a “permanent residence” to establish their political location, so maybe where their headquarters are, would limit to whom they could give money.
already did this in September.
Ad I want to see again and again and again:
What an SOB! He’s lost my vote.
Haaa!!!
This is some high brow stuff here
I always check my phone when I get a text notification . This campaign season I was tempted to smash it .
“Have you abandoned us” Or something to that effect . Even hours after a contribution. No but I am about to!!!!!!!!!!!!
And it hasn’t ended !
It was crazy, indeed. Overwhelmed by these during this last election season. However, it’s important. Democratic fundraising has stayed a bit above that of Repugnicans recently, thanks be to all the Gods. Very important. And thank you to all those, including the host of this salon, for your giving. Happy holidays to you!
I say “thanks be to all the Gods because of my omnitheism.” If you have a god you would like me to believe in, just let me know, and I’ll add him, her, they, it, or to be determined to my list.
How many of us make return calls after checking message?: “Sorry, didn’t recognize the area code (or number), so I thought it was spam.” How often? And how understanding is everyone you finally connect with? Another unintended curse of modernity.
Agreed. It’s an issue:
On the other hand:
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2020/10/small-donors-give-big-2020-thanks-to-technology/
I was annoyed by this stuff for most of the election season, but then I realized how important it has been. So, it’s something I’m willing to live with.
I think I’m leaning in your direction. It’s a damned-if-you-do situation. One can unsubscribe. And I’m guessing those who were most upset weren’t really much with who they claim to support in the first place.
And anyone who votes based on a campaign ad gets what they deserve.
I contribute to local races almost without regard to what those campaign begging emails say. Others are selected based on the nature of the contest, the nature of the opponents, and my judgement about how winnable they are. Those factors can be changed during the campaign by, among other things, how annoying the begging emails become. In other words, new campaign recipients are rarely added, but it is quite possible for me to cancel a scheduled contribution because of scandal or offensive appeals.
The Greatest President ever, smarter than everyone on Earth, is running for president in 2024. Please contribute and give this patriot $100 or more (NOTE: don’t uncheck the tiny, almost invisible box at the end of this email that says you are donating your contribution monthly).
President Trump says, “Join me for life and let’s make America Great Again by taking my country back to September 17, 1787, so President Trump can rewrite the U.S. Constitution.”
I feel exactly the same way about such requests. If the best a candidate is can do is tell me “the sky is falling”, I know they are not someone I want to support.
Please ignore the word “is” after the word “candidate”. I need to do a better check before sending my comments.
Sometimes on the same day, I got emails from the same candidate: one says “we are surging! Send money!”
The next one says “All hope is lost! Send money!”
Yup
Set up a separate junk email for retailers, politicians, and any other annoying entities. That way, you can ignore them and their emails don’t clog up your real inbox. Works for me.
Yes, the famous organizer, Saul Alinsky, wrote that “you build from victory to victory.” You achieve nothing but more pessimism when you go on about likely failures. And, of course, we have the dictum: “Nothing succeeds like success.” Btw, this is also how you can teach children. Give them assignments they can do, then praise their success. Next time, you can (though you don’t have to) make the task a little more challenging. Etc.
I am very tired of the phony (or real) surveys that end with a request of money. When I see the request coming, I usually stop answering the questions. Not only is that practice annoying, it’s destructive of real research because it is very likely to produce skewed results. And I think the lack of solid information has been a real problem for today’s Democrats and various progressive or liberal groups.