In all of my life, I have voted for exactly one Republican. It was a very specific election for a very specific reason. I never could imagine voting for a Republican. And while I’ve often been quite disappointed with the Democratic party, it’s never ever dissuaded me from voting for a Democratic candidate. I never sit out an election. I always vote a straight ticket. I’ve been a generous donor as well. I’ve maxed out as a donor in more than one local race. And over the years, I’ve given generously to lots of campaigns – local, state-wide, and federal.
In the last couple of years, though, even as my outrage and disgust at the autocratic and fascist turn our country has taken has mounted, my donations to Democrats have dried up. Partly, this is political. The current leadership of the party, I just don’t trust. Not that I think they’re (any more) mendacious (than any other politicians). I think they’re foolish. I think they don’t understand the predicament we’re in, and don’t know how to use the power they have. And since I don’t trust them with the power they already have, why would I trust them with my money, with more power?
A second issue, though, is more pernicious. And it has increasingly persuaded me not to donate even to the candidates whom I exempt from the judgment I just expressed. And that is the steady flow of spam I receive on my phone in the way of personalized text messages.
I get literally five, ten, fifteen texts a day from politicians all over the country telling me how high the stakes are, how vital it is that I support them. I respond to each and every text with STOP. I block and report each one as spam. Each of them represents an intrusion on my already busy and somewhat overwhelming stream of texts. Why would I give to anyone when I have no way of preventing my donation from metastasizing into further harassment?
I know I’m not alone on this.
Surely the party could find a way not to antagonize its most natural, most generous, most ardent supporters.
I’ve registered my phone number with every existing registry to not be called. I’ve written to ActBlue, and to other Democratic fundraising groups. I’ve responded to texts ostensibly from candidates asking where they got my number from. None of this has resulted in anything – anything other than more texts.
It’s as if the Democrats think that because things are so dire they have a right to harass me. As I said, this is counterproductive. It leads me not to give when I otherwise might.
I am for you. Stop it. Stop sending me multiple texts a day. Find some other way.
If you can’t solve this seemingly simple problem why would you expect Americans to trust you to solve the far more complex problems our dear leader is creating every day?
