I have a big question which requires an answer.
I’m constantly inundated with emails asking me to contribute/donate to causes and politicians I believe in.
And I do contribute what I can, which isn’t much because there are so many causes and people that I want to support. (I am far from a wealthy person.)
So I support Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasion-Cortez, other progressive candidates, Indivisible, Robert Reich’s Inequality Media and Common Cause, several animal welfare organizations (Shambala.org, North Shore Animal League, Critter Camp in Illinois), and Berea College every month. Why? Because I know they are legitimate causes and representatives and that they genuinely need the funds to operate. Giant PACS and/or corporations don’t have any interest in helping them because they are all “disrupters” of a system that determines winners and losers and “worthy” and “unworthy” causes. These people and organizations help support what the powers-that-be consider “disposable” people and creatures.
But I get requests from sitting politicians and others who ARE paid (essentially bribed to allow them access to legislative powerbrokers’ ears and fears) by corporate donors and PACs (Political Action Committees) and I am now reconsidering donating to them.
THE QUESTION:
Among the politicians I have supported up until now are Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, Governor Jay Inslee, Insurance Commmissionaer Bob Ferguson, and others.
My question to these individuals is, “Why should I have to pay you extra in addition to the salaries you get to represent my concerns from your positions of power? You get a nice salary; you are in many cases already wealthy individuals (millionaires in several cases). You don’t need my $5 or $10 a month to squeak by. You’re already sitting in the catbirds’ seat, with the ability to influence legislation and make things happen. So why are you reaching out to relative paupers like me to get MORE money to do your jobs?”
Don’t get me wrong. I will vote for these people unless and until someone more progressive (and truly, legitimately competitive) comes along, but as long as these present office-holders are where they are, the likelihood of someone being able to out-raise and succeed them is achingly slim. And that’s not right.
THE MISUSE of MONEY IMPERILS REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACIES
Money shouldn’t be the determining factor in whether or not someone gets to serve as a representative and powerbroker. That’s what’s wrong with our nation right now, essentially. Those with less money (wage earners, people of color, women, immigrants, etc.) have less influence on the policies (and police forces) that rule their lives. The deck is decidedly stacked in favor of rich white men and (to a lesser degree) women who are already in positions of great power, and that needs to change, in my opinion.
THE QUESTION RESTATED:
“State the case for why I should donate additional money to you. My taxes already help pay your salaries and I’m not into paying extra to earn your ear and express my fears. I’m not a lobbyist: I shouldn’t be paying you anything more to do what you already know is right for our planet and its peoples.”
Since I’m a small donor, I probably won’t hear back, and don’t really expect to, because I suspect the answer would be unsatisfactory, and they know it. And I’m such small peanuts — although over the course of my life, I have donated hundreds and, in some cases with long-serving legislators, thousands of dollars to their reelection efforts.
If more money is what it takes for the powers-that-be to take the bull by the horns and support SURVIVAL against the pillagers of our state, the nation, and everybody’s earth, something is very, very wrong with the system and the first order of business should be fighting tooth and nail to change the conditions to ensure fair and balanced representation. Otherwise, the “bribers” and “lobbyists” continue to be heard and responded to in proportions well outside their actual “fan bases,” and that’s undemocratic. That’s undue influence and will result in Earth’s inability to support every being (animal and human) that it presently is doing its best to support.
MOST citizens support Medicare for All, equal rights and representation for all citizens, adequate public schooling for all at all levels regardless of income, and the right to use, refuse, and alter our bodies in any way we see fit.
Can anyone sitting in the catbirds’ seats explain to me why already powerful, corporation-supported or -influenced representatives still need more money to remain honorable servants of their constituencies?
I vote. I write my legislators about issues that concern me. What more should be asked of me by them?
