Our incumbent governor is running for re-election against a raving loony, a guy who has announced that he would ban all abortions, no exceptions. His opponent is a batcrap cartoon of a far-right conservative wackaloon. So what is Walz doing about it?
Every goddamn day he sends me these fundraising emails. That is all they are about, how much money he has, how much money his opponent has, whether his opponent raised more money than he did in a specific 24 hour window, what the latest dismal poll says, etc., etc., etc. It’s what Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic party does every time, shouting about crisis after crisis after crisis, demanding more donations or the world will end. They have to meet their arbitrary fundraising goal by midnight! Or else!
I agree that his opponent is an evil jerk who must be stopped, but they’re not getting a penny from me if their only strategy is to do a minute-by-minute call of the horserace. This is why Democrats lose, because they lose sight of their principled differences and get the idea that we vote for a candidate based on how much money he has — that the only metric is this one-dimensional parameter of current funding.
Who is advising the Democrats that makes them all sound the same, all irrelevant, and eradicates any difference in policies?
Oh jeez. Just got another one. It begins:
Paul,
I don’t want to scare you, but I need to be transparent. Fundraising numbers from the last public reporting period are out, and we were outraised by Scott Jensen and Matt Birk.
I DON’T CARE. Republicans are bankrolled by wealthy people and corporate interests (actually, so are establishment Democrats) so telling me where you stand in a fundraising horserace means absolutely nothing to me.
And you do want to scare me. It’s just not working.
Fuck. Just now I got another one. Multiple times a day! I’m just going to have to block the word “Democrat” now.
Paul,
Berrett and I are giving a fundraising update to the Governor and Lt. Governor at noon, and I’ll just be frank: given where we’re at right now, it’s looking like it’s going to be a tough conversation.
Please, please, please, learn this: VOTERS DON’T CARE ABOUT YOUR FUNDRAISING. Your money-making suite of guys in suits care. Find something relevant to talk about, and maybe I won’t feel the need to roll my eyes and hit delete again.
I, too, have received a number of fundraising emails from various Democratic campaigns. The ones I most despise present themselves as polls of one sort or another, and when you click the convenient link to get to the poll… it turns out that it’s a fucking push poll, which ends with “how many dollars you want to send us now?” and various radio buttons with various associated cash amounts. That is, it’s a deceitful money raising tactic.
I also don’t like the ones which say omigod we’re not getting enough money we’re just gonna die if you don’t send us cash right now!!1!11!. Dudes. You’re running against blatant fucking fascists. And you’re telling me you’re so fucking incompetent that you can’t persuade people to donate money to you? Are you shitting me?
Ah, the Oral Roberts school of fundraising.
The establishment Democrats exist to tick along with the minimum of effort.
Remember who their major campaign donors are.
From their point of view the big problem are the grassroot candidates in their own party, who are upsetting a system that has been comfy for so long.
Mark it as spam and unsubscribe. Walz quits right away. Steve Simon is the Ur-spammer of the DFL. You can route him into spam but he never stops spamming. There is a thin line between righteousness and O/C behavior and he crosses it regularly.
Something happened this summer and the DNC finally got the message. Biden stopped junk phone calls almost overnight with just one bust (probably to get us to start answering our phones again in time for GOTV). Then something happened that suggested spam was truly out of control and the DNC finally started honoring unsubscribe requests. They even appear to have finally removed me from their mailing lists (they followed me to Wisconsin and back and then the WisDems started piling on).
Unsubscribing can be done and, I suspect, you don’t have to scrawl obscenities on their snail mail fundraisers if you “return to sender” like I do.
I don’t think this is their only strategy. I think these are just what they send to people who they believe are already on their side. So they can use the proceeds to message to persuadables, via TV, radio, social media, etc. But yes, it’s annoying, and no, I don’t wanna hear about their imaginary deadlines.
The death of American Democracy within the next few years should put an end to most of this when SCOTUS declares the Democratic party unconstitutional. Chin up!
At least Walz is leading in the polls.
Jensen is so fruitbat crazy that it shouldn’t even be close.
PS I usually just walk into the local Democratic party headquarters and write them a check. That way they never spam my email.
Is anyone in Minnesota campaigning or advertizing more effectively against Republicans? If so, who?
I participated in a local campaign, and once the DNC/DCCC favored “consultants” came in, it was ALL about fundraising. Nothing else mattered – no GOTV, no meaningful web presence, no youth outreach, nothing.
“coincidentally,” those consultants say they’re raising the money for TV ads, and they also act as the ad agency, which means that – along with their fees – they get a big cut of all funds raised.
The whole system is corrupt as hell. And it doesn’t even work. As the Daily Kos guy wrote a decade ago, if the campaigns win, the consultants take all the credit, but if they lose, they blame the candidate and keep on getting recommended for gigs by the DNC/DCCC.
As a lifelong Democrat, I have to agree with No.9 here. Unfortunately, Trump’s biggest line was that Democrats talk but do nothing, and so far that’s all I’ve seen regarding his many crimes. Democrats should send me notifications of what they have accomplished and ask for money to do specific things. They don’t and won’t, they actually are mostly talk with little action. At least Biden has a list of accomplishments he could trumpet, but he doesn’t.
I am so right with you on this! And I live in Wisconsin, where the repugs rule the legislature and have done their all to keep the rest of us from being able to vote. Asking me for money, especially for electing folks to the utterly gerrymandered legislature, is galling. I always respond mentally when I get these multiple-times-daily begging threats, ‘What will you use it for that will change anything?’ It’s pathetic and angrifying.
@#9, hillaryrettig1:
Not only was Hillary Clinton the choice of those consultants, she outraised and outspent Trump and still lost. That should be enough proof for any sane person that said consultants should be ignored.
I also donate locally to the lowest level of the Democratic party.
Which is the county level here.
I’m guessing that the money is more likely to stay and be used locally than trickle down from the state or national party.
The locals rarely spam me.
I’ve contributed what to me is a lot of money so Mandela Barnes can replace Ron Johnson in the Senate. I get so many emails, mostly from senatorial candidates around the country. Like you I’m mostly bothered by the constant horse-race coverage. It seems that it’s not about replacing wackaloons with reasonable people; it’s about beating some arbitrary fundraising goal every day.
I’m sure the people who write those emails are constantly doing A|B testing to see what message is most effective, and it frightens me that they find these to work best. It doesn’t speak well of their audience.
“Please, please, please, learn this: VOTERS DON’T CARE ABOUT YOUR FUNDRAISING.”
Unfortunately the voters care even less about issues and arguments. The only thing that gets candidates elected is money and so they are obsessed with it. America truly is the greatest ‘democracy’ money can buy.
@#5 Nemo
I am not a Democratic Party (or a Republican Party). I am Green. If there’s an alternate message from the Democratics other than “MONEY!!11!!!eleventy!!” I haven’t seen it.