The 2014 election cycle will go down in history.
One reason this election cycle is exceptional has to do with email.
If you ever gave political contributions over the web, this is the election cycle where the parties mastered algorithms to trigger a merciless assault of your in-box based on your giving history on the web.
If there was an appeal to fear that could be made in a word or two, to get your money on the web, it was used.
If there was an appeal to catastrophe that could be made in a word or two, to authorize your credit card or Paypal account, it was used.
If there was an appeal that you hadn't given yet, or had given lightly, or had ignored prior urgent emails from the Pope to the Emperor, it was used.
By the time the clock struck One, I was convinced this blatant, perverse assault on privacy was designed by an infiltrator from the opposition. A double agent tasked to suppress voters as cheaply as possible.
We always sigh, 'enough is enough!', but when it comes to money in American politics it is evident that enough is never enough.
The upcoming mid-term election is the most important in a generation. The flood of dark corporate money to the extremist right is driving a massive push for small donations.
Some of the email solicitations read like extortion. This feeling of violation competes with anger that one has to tamp down one's fury because the result of the upcoming elections could bring even worse to our nation.
I, for one, cannot wait for the election to be over. My in-box can't take it anymore.
One reason this election cycle is exceptional has to do with email.
If you ever gave political contributions over the web, this is the election cycle where the parties mastered algorithms to trigger a merciless assault of your in-box based on your giving history on the web.
If there was an appeal to fear that could be made in a word or two, to get your money on the web, it was used.
If there was an appeal to catastrophe that could be made in a word or two, to authorize your credit card or Paypal account, it was used.
If there was an appeal that you hadn't given yet, or had given lightly, or had ignored prior urgent emails from the Pope to the Emperor, it was used.
By the time the clock struck One, I was convinced this blatant, perverse assault on privacy was designed by an infiltrator from the opposition. A double agent tasked to suppress voters as cheaply as possible.
We always sigh, 'enough is enough!', but when it comes to money in American politics it is evident that enough is never enough.
The upcoming mid-term election is the most important in a generation. The flood of dark corporate money to the extremist right is driving a massive push for small donations.
Some of the email solicitations read like extortion. This feeling of violation competes with anger that one has to tamp down one's fury because the result of the upcoming elections could bring even worse to our nation.
I, for one, cannot wait for the election to be over. My in-box can't take it anymore.
6 comments:
totally agree.
I get 10 to 20 of these a day. I will never give a penny to these appeals. I don't even read them, and delete when I review my email. No one has figured out that it annoys voters, and may alienate them to the point that they might not vote for them. I wish I could get my name off the list. I may never give a dime in a political campaign again in life. One or two is ok in an election cycle, but 20 a day for two or three months? Too much!
It is really an interesting development, but as a fifth generation democrat who has never voted republican in my life, I get these things from both democrats AND republicans. They must be operating from the same list.
Same here! I am a three-generation Republican who has never voted Democrat. I get daily requests from every Democrat candidate in the State. I have tried getting off their lists to no avail.
I get at least 5 or 6 daily from the DCCC, the DNC, the FDP, assorted PACS and candidates for a total of 30-40. Same amount from Republicans and then the phone calls from all of them plus the ones from non-profit organizations nobody ever heard about. I am the point that I don't answer my phone.
Well, at least I don't get the phone calls. I have something to be thankful about. One thing for sure I am not giving my phone number out.
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