Wow. How do you get out of bed in the morning? I’m a school teacher. At most, I come into contact with a couple hundred students each day. Even with that small sample, I sure think I make a difference in the world. It’s the aggregate that matters.
It isn’t a cheap shot. You posted things that deserve to be corrected, like small donors don’t matter and implying that bumper stickers are useless. Few people who have any experience with political campaigns would agree with either point.
It isn’t cheap to say that your views have no substantive weight in the eyes of campaign professionals.
(Bolding mine)
Feeling a stabby urge building…
Kind of. Its a lot more complicated than that, and the definition of “winnable” tends to be pretty malleable too.
Bullshit. I said a small individual contribution doesn’t matter, and I used bumper stickers as one example of what the OP’s $100 might buy, to illustrate the point that $100 is pissing in the ocean when it comes to trying to make a measurable impact on a House race, and even less significant when considering trying to flip the House.
You then proceed to “correct” points I did not argue. That’s a cheap shot.
If the OP can convince a thousand (or ten thousand) of his closest friends to drop a Benjamin on the same campaign, then he’s done something that matters.
ActBlue is a great tool for finding little causes or getting cash to underserved causes and ballot measures.
I *really *need to learn to multi-quote.
Thanks for input. DCCC it is.
And yes, I will be suggesting it to my friends too … midterms don’t generally get many us psyched and opening up our wallets. This time I think many more of us will be clicking and entering in our credit card numbers. We’s mad as hell and not gonna take it anymore. Yeah I’m betting there will several tens of thousands of us.
To all of us on these board. Donate what you feel comfortable donating and social media about it too!
Has anyone donated to any of the Democratic conglomerations orgs mentioned here before? If so, do they harass you constantly after that? I was wondering the exact same thing as the OP, but would prefer not to be put on some sort of donor list for my efforts.
I have never given to a political campaign before. The past five years had already taught me that I would never be able to vote for the GOP in its current form: this brinksmanship has taught me that they simply have to go. It’s not just a theoretical investment in the future of America: it will be an actual investment in the safety of my retirement portfolio, my job, and my wellbeing.
Yes, if you give to the DCCC or any other campaign operation you will be on a list. That list will be reminded that giving is a good thing and you’ll be asked to do so again and again. Go into it aware of this fact. You can break the relationship if you want, but most don’t.
I speak as a long-term donor to D candidates - and the occasional R candidate - and am on more lists that you might imagine. Heck, I just got a LinkedIn connection from a candidate up in Ohio that I can’t stand. I know she can’t stand me, either. Still, I know why she sent me the connection…cold hard cash.
And Oakminster is still wrong. “Every little bit, said the old woman as she pissed in the sea”. I speak from long experience that each and every donation is helpful because it all goes into the hopper. One might say - and I believe Oak does (but correct me if I’m wrong, Oak) - that your specific $100 isn’t enough to do anything in particular. But it all goes into the war chest and aggregates with others to become something worth spending. To view it any other way to is despair of having any effect.
Now, if you really want to help do these things:
- Go to your county committee meetings and volunteer.
- Make phone calls to raise money or GOTV
- Drive like-minded elderly to the polls on election day
- Put signs in your yard - name recognition in local elections is key
- Give speeches and represent your cause where you can
- Donate money
- Vote, always vote
- Should you feel the call…stand for election. Even if you lose you’ll be glad you did.
No, I’m not wrong. Just misunderstood. In some cases, but not necessarily yours, intentionally and willfully so. All I have said in this thread is that the OP’s $100 is meaningless by itself. The OP asked where he should give HIS money to get the most bang for the buck. That’s the specific question I answered. I have not argued, nor would I argue, that the aggregate effect of many others giving to the same cause is meaningless.
That said, I think control of the House is in play in the coming election. The GOP rolled the dice, and the dice came up snake eyes. The shutdown was a foolish gesture, and one that I expect will prove to be costly. Sometimes I really wish the GOP would check with me before they do things like that.
Well it’s too late now, I’ve sent in my donation, as meaningless as my small pebble is. Not my phone number though. E-mails I don’t mind. Phone calls will drive me to never donate again.
I never have and do not ever plan to donate one cent to political causes. I view such actions as similar to some sort of inverse of “tragedy of the commons.” Instead of a common good being destroyed by public, unrestricted use, you have a mostly private benefit (election to political office and the power it brings to a select few close supporters) being subsidized by the public who derive little benefit from the outcome.
If you find five trustworthy people (who you can absolutely trust to do what you say) that would vote for a vulnerable Republican in the House and bribe them $20/each to vote for their Democratic opponent then you probably are achieving more than you could with a $100,000 donation.
For House races in off years with poorly known candidates I think bumper stickers and yard signs are important. I know that yard signs are very, very important to municipal elections in small towns and such. Basically the less known and less exposed an election is the more important that stuff is. Local politicians sometimes go around ripping down signs of their opponents because when you’re dealing with small issues no one cares about you’re basically getting votes through personal relationships, word of mouth, and vague name recognition.
I do question how important such low level advertising is for something like a Presidential or even gubernatorial/Senate race ends up being given the large amount of exposure all involved parties will have regardless of that level of advertisement.
Do not give any money to political campaigns or organizations. It is not an investment, it is taking money from you and giving it to people that don’t need it.
Do not let the people in this thread speaking with the veneer of professionalism fool you, they are absolutely right political donations from small donors are important, to the professional politicians and close hangers on that benefit from their election. But they are a terrible value to you. They give you nothing in return.
This ignores the point. Should we all donate $100 to Apple so they can give Tim Cook a bigger stock grant for Christmas? Of course not, that’s a bunch of private individuals giving a rich, powerful person a bunch of money for no reason. That’s what political campaign donations amount to at the Federal level. At lower levels of government the people involved may not be rich or powerful in ways most people think about (even though a lot of the most important governing happens locally), the return is probably even worse than the near-nothing return from donating to Federal elections in that local politicians often direct their largesse with great precision to key supporters while ignoring all others. Just from the breadth of what is covered by Federal legislation and activities at least with a House member or Senator you’ll get hit by the blanket of whatever special interest they are trying to satisfy. Sort of like how lower middle class people who give money to Democratic causes will get hit by the proximity-effect of the targeted Democratic purchasing of the black vote with massive urban welfare spending.
This year? DCCC. There’s also a version for the senate, DSCC.
Next year? Consider ActBlue. Somebody will probably have set up a swing district fund.
If you care, swing districts can be IDd by visiting the websites of Charlie Cook, Larry Sabato, and the Congressional Quarterly. Nate Silver and Sam Wang at the Princeton Election Consortium are also worth a look.
I just donated $100 to DCCC. Who’s with me?
Martin_Hyde and Oakminster, please back up your assertions. National campaign organizations matter, Howard Dean proved that almost a decade ago.
Elections seem often to turn on how great the turnout is on election day.
If you’re willing to do some personal campaigning (even if only to stick a bumper sticker on your car), you aren’t going to change any minds. But you might motivate someone to vote who might not have otherwise.
So if you’re willing to volunteer some time, then the best thing you can do is anything that will help get out the vote of those voters who see things your way.
Storytime:
When I was quite young, a gentleman from Arizona ran for president against incumbent Lyndon Johnson. My father felt so strongly about this that he walked door-to-door to help the incumbent get relected. I walked with him for part of that. He explained these things to me:
- He had gone to a local Dem election headquarters and gotten a list of registered Dems in the neighborhood. We only went to those doors.
- The whole idea was to impress upon those potential voters the importance of the election, and the importance of voting. There was no point at all in visiting Republican doors in a delusional effort to change any minds.
So there really is some logic in preaching to the choir.
I can see the distinction you make, though I think it’s angels on the head of a pin reasoning. Political action is always made up of individuals taking specific action and the sum of those actions leading to outcomes.
On the subject of the house flipping I’m skeptical. I think actually changing control is a long shot but that - should the Tea Party folks keep up their fun times - shrinking the Republican majority by ten or so might be in the cards. That would make the political calculus even more insane that it is now.
My second try at posting this (thanks hamsters!)…
Martin, you’re simply wrong in a few ways.
First, you posit that donating at the national level is similar to tossing money at a CEO. Well and good. But what you’re missing is that donating money at the federal level is one of the variants on voting. Even if you want to go full cynic (which I, a veteran of both working and reporting on 20 years worth of campaigns, refuse to do) there’s no denying that political donors receive access. My few thousand dollars per year makes sure my congressman (in Ohio as a D…down here in SC not so much) returns my call when I give him a ring. No kidding. That was useful on a few occasions.
Simply put, you have causality wrong. Look at the way you phrase your example of the black vote and the democratic party. You posit that the party buys black votes with massive urban welfare programs. That’s exactly backwards. Instead, the party provides those programs out of a mixture of civic justice and so forth and abject fear. That’s an important voting block and the party caters to it to make sure it keeps voting D. Fortunately, the other guys continue to drive away black voters so that where there are seams in the interests of the party and the black community - say on the subject of same sex marriage - the votes stay put.
You’re also wrong about the impact of local donations and elections. I think if you did a survey - and someone must have - you’d find that most donors consider their local donations better spent. Yes, the news media gets all heated up about the national level issues. Fine. But most people find that - when it comes down to what they care about - where the county is going to put in a stop light ranks WAY higher in terms of ‘impact on daily life’. Hell, I knew one winning city candidate who campaigned pretty much only on ‘the sidewalks are in desperate need of repair. Elect me and that’s what I’ll do.’ Bang: city councilman.
The simply fact is that, while people may complain about the war, or abortion, or guns, or the budget, those issues are too abstract for most people unless they hit them in the face. People will say they want the war to end, but unless someone they know got hurt or killed they’re mostly paying lip service. But smaller things like crosswalks and water bills? That gets them moving. There’s a reason Alphonse D’Amato was called ‘Senator Pothole’. Even after elected at the national level, he knew what people gave a damn about.
So not true! The $10 I gave to a candidate for state office got me Christmas cards for 4 years from the candidate. The cards were very nice - a photo of the candidate, his wife, their herd kids and the dog all decked out in Christmas finery. The best part was seeing all their kids had crazy names.
And, I got an invitation to a holiday party at their house! The best part of that was when I went upstairs to use the bathroom (and to snoop) and I saw that rich folks are just a sloppy as us $10 donators.
Best $10 I ever gave to a campaign! 