The Problem with Political Contributions

Curmie did something last week that seems to have been sort of stupid: he contributed some money to a couple of charities and a couple of political candidates.

All four recipients texted Curmie shortly after receiving the funds.  Three of the four, including both politicians, coupled their thanks with a plea for more money.  Yes, in the same text.  Those of you who know Curmie personally will understand that these solicitations make it less rather than more likely that he will make further contributions, at least in the short term.  Curmie already makes it a practice to ignore calls from places identified only as “non-profit.” 

The two politicians in question are Gina Hinojosa and James Talarico who, respectively, are running for Governor and Senator in Texas.  Curmie doesn’t usually send money to political campaigns, but these two are different in two or three ways.  First and most importantly, Curmie really likes these two.  He supports them not merely because they’re running against loathsome opposition, but because he actually likes their priorities.  Secondly, they’ve actually got a chance to win.  Even in Texas, GOP incompetence and corruption are wearing thin. 

Finally, their opponents are as heinous as it’s possible to be without being part of the Trump administration; this is especially true after Ken Paxton—you know, Gentle Reader, the guy impeached by his own party for bribery and misuse of public funds (before getting let off the hook by the Senate), the guy who worked out a deal for a rich SOB who admitted to repeatedly raping a young boy… yeah, that guy—won the GOP nomination for Senate over incumbent John Cornyn, who is merely a rather dim-witted party hack rather than being outright evil.

The problem is that Curmie has been inundated with texts—he’s lost count overall, but he’s willing to bet he’s sent “stop” to “unsubscribe” (he never subscribed, of course) more times in the last week than the total number of texts he’d sent for the entire calendar year.  Yes, literally.  (To be fair, Curmie doesn’t text that often.)  There are three varieties of suppliants.  First, there are the candidates themselves.  It doesn’t matter that you’re asking “humbly”; the inevitable inference is that you’re a lot more interested in Curmie’s financial contribution than in his support per se.  And it makes you look desperate.  So do repeated requests from the same campaign even after the voter had opted out of receiving more texts.

Then there are the appeals from the state and federal Democratic Party bureaucracy and one from the Congressional Black Caucus (Curmie might be getting the exact title wrong).  Curmie gets it; if he’s supporting both Hinajosa and Talarico, he would probably rather see the Dems rather than the GOP in power, and it’s not too much of an over-simplification to suggest that greater representation by black voters would, in general, help the Democrats.  But there’s a reason he thinks of himself more as an anti-Republican than a Democrat.  “We’re awful, be we’re not as corrupt, mendacious, or fascistic as those guys” isn’t a rallying cry that a lot of people are going to get behind.   

Finally, though, there are the appeals from candidates in other states.  When Curmie started writing this piece, he’d received three such texts.  It’s now ten: two for Governor, four for Senate, four for House.  There will, no doubt, be more.  Here’s the thing: Curmie considers it unethical to interfere in an election in which he has no franchise.  He might prefer Labour to the Tories in the UK, but he’s not going to send them money.  And he’s not going to write a check (metaphorically, of course, Curmie isn’t that old) to someone in New York or South Carolina or wherever.

Yeah, yeah, everybody does it, and the billionaires sure do get generous when it comes to buying supporting lackeys minions candidates.  That doesn’t make it reasonable, though… or rather it doesn’t seem so to Curmie.  If you want to send a contribution to Mark Kelly or Jon Ossoff or whoever, go for it, Gentle Reader, and Curmie won’t think less of you for doing so.  It’s certainly true that one of these races could conceivably tip the balance of power in one of the houses of Congress, and who gets control will indeed affect us all.  But Curmie will refrain.  If he makes any more political contributions this season, they’ll be to Talarico, Hinojosa, or maybe someone running for the Texas legislature from his district.

More problematically, Curmie is now less likely to participate in the electoral process in this way.  If sending a candidate a contribution opens a donor up to what amounts to harassment from every other campaign for someone with the same general political perspective, then a lot of folks, Curmie included, will think twice before making that same mistake again.  And that tilts the scales even more towards the billionaires and their PACs. 

<Sigh.>