Begging for Money Will Not Resolve This Election

 I am sure many of you are probably receiving the same e-mails and text messages I have been receiving in recent months.  Democratic candidates across the nation are clutching at pearls, asking, pleading, even “begging” for contributions to their campaigns.  Their general message is “all across the country, Republicans are attacking us with ads, and we need Democrats to help us respond if we're going to win this race.”  In many instances they claim their campaigns are beginning to fall short of the fund-raising goals they need to reach in order to “Stay on track” and to be competitive.  And I can never understand these “time sensitive requests” and the “midnight” and “quarterly” deadlines they claim they have to meet to receive matching funds.  From whom??  They rarely say.  No one seems to be discussing issues facing the voters in November.  Just money.

Caveat emptor!  If they are going to buy votes, they need to tell us what they are selling.  Senator Bernie Sanders has stated on numerous occasions that the Democratic Party should be talking issues.  Yet all I seem to hear these days is the need to defeat the Republican candidate.  I agree with this, but how?  What else do the voters get in return for putting their faith and their vote in the Democratic party?  All I am getting are pleas for more money.  And everyday day and several times daily!  There has to be more than this!  Candidates should be articulating their strongest case against the MAGAGOP’s promise of a more undemocratic and authoritarian government.

Should this election hinge on who can raise the most money?  And will just a few dollars really make a difference when this country is so terribly divided?  It sure seems like it from all the messages I am receiving these days.  Following the recent George Stephanopoulos ABC interview with President Biden after his disastrous performance in the presidential debate, there were widespread news reports that top Democratic donors were going public with plans to withhold or redirect their dollars if Biden insisted on staying in the race.  Money, money, money!  

I will grant that the Democratic Party is stuck between a rock and a hard place, largely of its own creation.  The concerns causing so much consternation now existed long before the recent disastrous debate and subsequent interview and pressers which did not seem to mollify the doubters.  Many of these problems existed before the primaries.   All of a sudden new e-mails and text messages began to flood in pleading and begging for more money to keep the President in the race.  The more money we give, the better chance to keep the Republican candidate from reclaiming the White House.  Really?  Is that how it works these days?  And where is this money going?  A great many of these pleas come from unrecognizable websites and e-mail addresses.  Text messages come from phone numbers that keep changing.  Who is really asking for this money and where is it going?  To President Biden or to whomever the Democrats eventually choose to replace him should he decide to step aside? 

Let’s stop talking about money and get back to the issues at stake in this election.