Have you ever dealt with a junkie? I don’t necessarily mean someone addicted to drugs, although I am including that type of junkie, I’m talking about anyone who is addicted to anything. The way their mind works is perverted by whatever it is they’re hooked on. It can be drugs, food, buying junk, whatever. The way the junkie’s mind works is the same, only the objective changes. It is manipulative, conniving or just plain warped. I see it in Democratic fundraising emails.
As a former smoker, I am not above this. I could lie to others, and myself, about quitting. “I’m done after going out Saturday night” because if we were going out to the bars, I wasn’t going to be able to NOT smoke while drinking, so “I’ll just start the next day,” I told myself.
Well, on the way out that night I would swing by 7/11 to buy a pack of smokes, whether I needed them or not. Even though I had enough already, I just “needed to be sure I didn’t run out.” And you can’t just buy one pack, they gave you a buck or two off if you bought two, or sometimes you’d get a free one if you bought two. It would be stupid to pass that up, I’d rationalize to myself.
When I woke up in the morning with a few packs of cigarettes, well, it would be wasteful to throw them away. Then there was always something at work that week that I’d rationalize, “I have that meeting Wednesday, and that’s stressful, so I can’t quit before then, and it’s almost the weekend at that point, so I’ll doing it next weekend.”
There’s always a reason to kick the can down the road, always some excuse, if you want one. (BTW, I finally just stopped the day I got married. A couple of years later, after my mom died and my wife and daughter when to visit her parents for a week, I bought a pack and discovered, or realized, just how horrible it tasted. I could not remember what I missed. Gross.)
That rationalization is easy to spot in others, not so easy to see it in yourself. It’s different when you do it.
The end of July – the end of every month, actually – is a filing deadline with the Federal Election Commission. Other than the paperwork for the finance teams, it’s pretty meaningless. Campaigns like to make a big show of it because, they claim, it shows the depth of support for them or their candidates. However, whether someone gives on the 31st or the 1st, all that money spends the same.
Campaigns, however, are manipulation machines. Everyone on the payroll’s salary and bonuses are in those donations, not to mention the commissions fundraisers make off those donations (some people get a nice slice, even a majority of it), so there is a lot at stake for the people on the other side of that begging.
On the 3 days of July, I received 55 emails from Harris campaign, the DSCC and the DCCC containing the word “deadline.” There were even more that didn’t, but the use of deadline was specific to give it a sense of urgency.
An email at 10:56 pm on the 31st opened, “did you hear the news?! Top Democrats agreed to QUADRUPLE-MATCH all gifts until MIDNIGHT tonight to help the DCCC reach our End-of-Month goal and ELECT a Democratic House Majority ready to fight for progress alongside Vice President Harris! A quadruple match like this only happens when the stakes are higher than EVER.”
There is no such thing as any “match,” let alone a quadruple one. But the urgency – the junkie is spinning their story…
The Harris campaign wrote an hour earlier, “$50. That’s how much Vice President Kamala Harris is asking you to pitch in before our first end-of-month deadline at midnight tonight. $50 to support her historic candidacy and invest in our fight to protect democracy and defend our freedoms.”
Just $50, that’s all! Hell, if you’ve got that laying around, I’ll happily unburden you of it.
The DNC’s ask was smaller, and only 40 minutes earlier. It read, “$7. That is the donation we're asking you to make to the Democratic National Committee before our FEC fundraising deadline at midnight. $7 to help us defeat Donald Trump.”
Just an hour before that, Kamala wrote, “Derek, it’s Kamala. Last night I was on stage at a rally in Atlanta and I wanted to send you a quick note. Tonight is our campaign’s first end-of-month fundraising deadline. This is a huge moment for us, and I am counting on you to be a part of it. The support this team has shown me since I announced I am running for President has powered us through our campaign’s first week. With time running out before our end-of-month fundraising deadline, I am counting on you to pitch in a $25 donation today.”
Two hours before that they sent another ask for $25. Before that $7, another $25, 2 asking for up to $250, and so on.
On the last day of the month, Democrats asked for more than $2,000 in 20 different emails.
Junkies are relentless.
The saddest part is it worked. They raised a ton of money. It needs to serve as a wake-up call for Republicans that this race is not going to be easy, no matter how horrible the economy/border/inflation.
It’s important to remember that the record fundraising of the Harris campaign came after a month where donations to Joe Biden had dried up, so there was pent-up energy along with the excitement they felt over someone new, so the numbers don’t really indicate anything by themselves (if they hold going forward, they will). But Republicans need to get their act and their message together.
Campaigns aren’t won on cash alone, but they aren’t won without it. July was a good month for the junkies, but that’s like having a really good mile 15 in a marathon – it’s not about where you are at any point except the finish line.
Let the junkies beg, let the junkies raise, let the junkies burn out. We’re only at mile 19, Republicans need to run smart throughout the whole race, not panic over a bump in the road. Slow and steady doesn’t necessarily win the race – you will have to sprint at the end – but it will help put you in a position to.