You make it sound like Obama was handing out money on street corners yesterday to lure people into the voting booths. I donated money to his campaign to help him win the election. Period.
Typically the repubs have had a huge money advantage. Now Obama did. In either case public financing of elections would eliminate that. We need to stop lobbyists from having any impact in our elections. It would solve so many problems.
If the American electorate that donated money to Obama’s campaign now constitutes a special interest group, then, well…I don’t know where we are right now.
I sure hope money worked. Og knows I gave him plenty of my own.
Ed
I gave him $140.00, but I don’t have any special power to get him into the White House.
I used to say that, too, but in the last year or two (as is reflected in that post) I’ve changed my mind. There’s nothing wrong with letting the public vote for a candidate with their wallets as well as their ballots.
Whether you like it or don’t a rational mind can’t deny, that he bought the election no matter who gave him the money.
Effectively you are saying let the rich choose the president.
That’s not true, even with the word “effectively” in there. (And the rich do actually have the right to an opinion also.) If people are excited about a candidate, why can’t they offer financial support?
Let’s not pretend either that public financing removes money as an issue entirely. For one thing, someone has to decide who gets public financing.
I like the way Obama financed his campaign for a lot of reasons, but in particular, it showed a lot of marketing savvy.
A $2300 donation from a big donor doesn’t get very many votes. Maybe it supports a mailing or one paid campaign worker. A bundle of a hundred $2300 donations just ties strings around you and makes you beholden to whatever organization built the bundle.
One hundred $23 donations is incredible by comparison. Forget the money itself. You’ve now recruited 100 unpaid, avid supporters who are going to stick by you through thick and thin and talk you up to all of their friends. People who have donated money to a campaign really do not want to see their candidate lose. Especially if they live on budgets and that money really meant something to them.
We do indeed have public financing of the Presidential election.
Do you think it is another kind of democracy? A fusion of capitalism and democracy. Is it comparable to the way some people believes consumerism is also a form of democracy?
“Another kind?” Capitalism and democracy can conflict, but I don’t see them as opposed.