“It’s long past time we got money out of politics!”
That’s what pretty much every candidate that we like around here has said out loud at one point or another. I agree. And I get that candidates need to raise a lot of money, and raising money is important, in our current system.
But crowing about big cash piles is just tasteless and ugly to read about. Maybe you think it will get people excited about your candidate. Maybe you think that if enough people see how much other people like your candidate because of the money they’ve donated, the behavior will be contagious and other people will donate to your candidate. Maybe you’re right.
But I am not one of those people. If I see that your candidate is not struggling for money, I’m assuming that the situation is well taken care of. I keep seeing these diaries about record breaking money, or non-record breaking but very exciting amounts of money, in the first days, weeks, months, whatever, of these political campaigns which are supposed to be serious and determine our future, and it just makes me feel ill about the whole thing. Like tuning into a political rally and seeing, out of context, politicians leading crowds in chants that contain specific dollar amounts. It’s like tuning into a game show or a televangelist event.
And besides, it doesn’t matter one bit what they raise if they spend it wrong, like if they blow a bunch of money on ads in a market they stand no chances in, instead of a ground game. Shouldn’t the victory laps about money only come after we see what the candidates can do with their resources?