So, the other day I made my first political donation ever. Well, actually my wife made our first political donation. Not counting the boxes you can check off on your state income tax to fund judicial elections. A canvasser for the DNC came by our house seeking donations, and my wife made a $100 donation to the cause. Under ordinary circumstances she would have said no, but I’ve been mentioning all summer that I think we should pump some of our hard earned dollars into the political process, and I even made sure that she gave them our name and other information so we could get on the mailing lists. (Now that I think about it, I imagine that they have to take down your information anyway to make sure you’re not violating election laws by donating too much.)
My reasons for donating are pretty straightforward — I’m interested in how much it costs to buy access to politicians. I figure I’ve taken the first step, which is getting my name on the list of people who are willing to cough up money to support Democratic candidates. The question then becomes how much money you have to give yourself or get other people to give to get someone to listen to you. This question has been much on my mind since I read somewhere that Robert Rubin couldn’t get an audience with the movers and shakers in the Democratic party until he brought in massive amounts of campaign money. He then became Secretary of the Treasury, and by most accounts did a great job.
I’d be pretty interested in talking to some politicians about various issues, especially those near and dear to my heart and more in my area of expertise, like DRM. My theory is that I have to pay them to get them to listen to me. That donation was the first part of the experiment. Given the fact that I’m not rich, it will be interesting to see where the experiment leads.
Political donations
So, the other day I made my first political donation ever. Well, actually my wife made our first political donation. Not counting the boxes you can check off on your state income tax to fund judicial elections. A canvasser for the DNC came by our house seeking donations, and my wife made a $100 donation to the cause. Under ordinary circumstances she would have said no, but I’ve been mentioning all summer that I think we should pump some of our hard earned dollars into the political process, and I even made sure that she gave them our name and other information so we could get on the mailing lists. (Now that I think about it, I imagine that they have to take down your information anyway to make sure you’re not violating election laws by donating too much.)
My reasons for donating are pretty straightforward — I’m interested in how much it costs to buy access to politicians. I figure I’ve taken the first step, which is getting my name on the list of people who are willing to cough up money to support Democratic candidates. The question then becomes how much money you have to give yourself or get other people to give to get someone to listen to you. This question has been much on my mind since I read somewhere that Robert Rubin couldn’t get an audience with the movers and shakers in the Democratic party until he brought in massive amounts of campaign money. He then became Secretary of the Treasury, and by most accounts did a great job.
I’d be pretty interested in talking to some politicians about various issues, especially those near and dear to my heart and more in my area of expertise, like DRM. My theory is that I have to pay them to get them to listen to me. That donation was the first part of the experiment. Given the fact that I’m not rich, it will be interesting to see where the experiment leads.
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