Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/08/16/reverse-bribery.html
…
3 Likes
Bribery. Nice.
2 Likes
No no… when it’s politics, the correct term is “Lobbying”.
15 Likes
Hmm, I prefer that we get them to vote against Kavanaugh and beat them in the next election.
2 Likes
It is a fucking shame that bribery is about the only way to get a politician’s attention.
5 Likes
This is how the game is played people. If you want reform and change, paying off politicians is how it happens. Marching and demonstrations may change hearts and minds but it’s money that changes votes
5 Likes
Dammit, too bad beaherofund.com is using crowdpac.com to collect the donations. crowdpac.com, like a lot of other sites with lawyers with CYA inclinations, require users to give up their rights and agree to arbitration. And unlike a few braver sites, there is no provision to opt out.
Sorry, I’d do it, but ^ this.
For some reason I am reminded of the ditty below, even though it’s about British journos, not US politicos, and does not require bribery, when US Senators apparently do. But despite its off-topicness, it’s always good to trot it out every now and again.
You cannot hope to bribe or twist
(thank God!) the British journalist.
But, seeing what the man will do
unbribed, there’s no occasion to.
(Humbert Wolfe, some time in the 1920s)
And then maybe attempt to mimic it:
The Senators will represent
The people who have always sent
The biggest bribe or lobby cash,
But not the voters in their mass.
2 Likes
But Collins often expresses regret before voting for abominations. She’s probably nice in a way!
Except Collins isn’t getting the money either way.
1 Like
But if they fell for that old trick they’d already be Democrats.
“Please know that while these demons may eat the flesh of your children, I was deeply regretful about my vote to unlock the seventh seal and release them. McConnell even promised me a floor vote on a bill to formally declare their release to be a ‘damn shame.’”
[note, the ‘damn shame’ bill never made it to the floor]
2 Likes
As a piece of political performance art this is fine (and I don’t mean that dismissively) but let’s just take a quick peek at reality.
- Collins’ funds from all other sources, including individual donations from reg’lar folks, are going to be at least three and probably four orders of magnitude bigger than this, and that’s making some generous assumptions.
- Collins is not up for re-election this year and probably (correctly) figures this will not be what tips a lot of votes the year that she is.
- If she even hears about it, she will assume this money is going to her opponents regardless.
- It probably ought to regardless.
There are “swing” voters out there, but if you’re thinking about donating to this, you ain’t one of them and you should make your political donations accordingly.
2 Likes
Interesting, but isn’t this just an electronic version of “voting tip jars”? I mean, one person or another gets the money, leaving the GOP Senator out in the cold no matter what. How difficult would it be for her to go to a deep-pockets contributor and say “hey, they have this fundraiser to encourage me to block Kavanaugh: if you match them, it’ll make me feel a lot better about confirming”?
not really - once they agree to vote against the court nomination to avoid your donation to the opposition, the donation is simply directed to other entities who in turn donate it to their opponent anyway. See? Cake and eat it too.
Its an old GOP trick.
Yeah, my joke was intended to be about moderate Democrats constantly taking shit votes in the hopes of triangulating and then losing their elections anyway, but it didn’t land.
So I spend $20.20 and no one gets bribed?
2 Likes
Add
5.She consistently has one of the highest job approval ratings in the Senate. Her constituents love her, she’s not going to lose no matter how much money her opponent has, and she’s not going to change her vote based on fear of losing (but she might vote to confirm in retaliation for this attempt to bribe her).
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
