donating to campaigns

[rm]

Today I want to talk to you about donating to political candidates. Everyone who only gives to charity (as opposed to groups that pursue political agendas you care about) and never gambles can stop reading this, as I'm not talking to you.

Who I am talking to are the folks with a Friday night poker game, the folks that buy a lottery ticket from time to time. The people who, pay some sum of money, not to get a small chance at winning some larger sum of money, as we too often think of gambling, but to buy a brief experience of hope, of fantasy.

If you're one of those people, and I am one of those people - I grew up in a gambling family, dressed up by my mother to sneak into the casinos in Atlantic City when I was well underage - and you feel strongly about a political candidate in this race, consider buying in.

Sure, you can worry you might not get anything for it - but that's how it is when you sit down at the table, at the machine, or scratch the card. If you're a gambler, if you buy for yourself a certain fantasy from time to time, why not this one? why not now?

Obviously, I hope this entreaty skews to my candidate, but the challenge is out there to all of you. (And seriously, if Clinton raising just a little bit more money means she'll stop asking for _weekly_ debates, sure, give her cash).

Comments

[saltbox.livejournal.com]

Sorry about such a late reply, but I've been running over and over in my head exactly why this post bothered me. And I think I finally figured it out--I actually know people for whom donating to political candidates is a gamble, and it makes me nervous (though I'm tempted by the mindset). I don't blame you for it (after all, you're writing to a different audience); it just happened to strike me differently, given my particular background.

Let me clarify. I think I realize what you're urging--that donating in the primaries is risky, yet you get the chance to win big, get this wonderful candidate you really love. But the win big you're talking about isn't personal in the sense that you yourself get monetary gains, it's just a sort of yay-the-nation-might-head-where-I-want sort of win big. A public minded winning big, as it were.

The closer analogy (and not the one I think you're making) is where someone, like in a lottery, wins big for themselves. Which donating a lot in the primaries isn't about, not for most people.

But it is for some people. And unfortunately, having been in the DC-wonk scene for awhile (and now the near Chicago scene), I know a bunch of people like that. People who've hitched their horse to a wagon because they think it'll get them a great appointment. Not that they don't also believe in that candidate for idealistic reasons--just that there's also a level of self-interest for some people that isn't present for most of your audience. Honestly, I admit that fluttered through my mind, and my desire to resist that self-serving part of me is the main reason I am *not* donating in the primaries, convoluted as it seems. I don't want that kind of desire to even a bit factor into my decisionmaking, yet I know I don't have the will to weed it out.

Anyway, sorry about the long-winded response. I'd just been thinking about this for awhile.