These days, almost all of us are inundated by text messages soliciting money for political candidates and parties. Sometimes it seems we’re getting one every three minutes—and maybe we are. It’s a form of internet pollution—there are many—that could drive a good man or woman to drink.
I even got several in one day, putatively from Donald Trump Jr., saying his father just personally asked what had happened to me, was I still a supporter? They hadn’t heard from me. Had I switched parties?
Who writes these things? (Not DTJr., I would wager.)
Years ago, I wrote a screenplay for Paul Mazursky about a screenwriter so down on his luck he was forced to write fortune cookie messages for the local Chinese restaurant. This may beat it.
Yes, to my everlasting regret, someone once constructed one of these text ads so that I gave something, making me a target for life, but I promised myself I’d never do it again, and I haven’t. (Of course, that hasn’t stopped them.)
Nevertheless, I am politically engaged and I do, occasionally, back up my beliefs with a donation to a candidate or incumbent I like, but never via an online solicitation and, more importantly, never to a political party.
Donating to a political party is one of the more obvious areas of misspent money in our culture today because, like it or not, in our “big tent” world, some of that cash is going straight in the hands of people with whom you partially, even wholly, disagree.
Often, you are paying for policies you hate and officials you could even despise. (I won’t go into names here, but fill in your blanks.)
This goes for Republicans and Democrats both, although I haven’t donated to the latter since the last century, so that one’s pretty much academic in my case.
Donate only to individuals or, at best, small groups of individuals you know well.
And make sure you really do know them well. Do your research, because a lot of masquerading goes on. Also, be careful about your method because it can happen that when you think you are making an individual donation, you are actually giving to the party.
Recent national Republican Party solicitations did a lot of piggy-backing on Donald Trump’s popularity when many of those receiving the largesse were anything but Trumpists. (Trump has started his own PAC in response.)
Furthermore, if you wish to shape your favorite political party in a certain direction, you have all the more reason to select individuals that you prefer rather than the party itself, because by choosing the right individuals you are, in actuality, shaping that party. General donations just preserve the status quo.
In that sense, this method resembles the approach of a website I admire and have been meaning to write about for some time—2ndVote.
2ndVote also advises you to “vote with your wallet”—in its case to direct your purchases away from “corporations and organizations that are funding liberal advocacy.”
As most readers are aware, these days, those that do not fund “liberal advocacy” are increasingly few and far between. 2ndVote has researched how to deal with this, scores many companies for their levels of advocacy and, in a number of instances, shows you alternatives to the most egregious ones, educating and thus empowering the consumer.
They are enabling change. Have a look. You may even be able to undertake that most difficult of tasks—weaning yourself from Amazon.
In both cases, where you give your political support and where you buy soap, be selective.
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