by
William A. Gralnick
My mother was an active member of the National Council of Jewish Women. My dad did public service announcements on dental health for the state. I was brought up as a thoughtful supporter of democracy. When my mother went to vote, she began taking me with her. I was eight. We subscribed to at least three newspapers: The New York Times, The New York Post, and the Brooklyn Eagle. My brother, at that time, had started his meteoric career in television news. He covered the political conventions, which we watched, some times until the wee hours. Many nights, especially over cards, I heard the discussions about politics and politicians. No one was surprised when I became adamant about Adlai Stevenson and JFK or when I became a political science major in college and grad school. I’ve voted in every election since my 18th birthday and for almost every office and amendment on the ballot.
Those are my bona fides. I wish our political system had ones that were as good. Since the election of Donald Trump and then worse, his non-election four years later, I have begun to fear for the safety of the democracy I have spent so much of my life involved with. Is this tumult the country to which I am going to leave my grandchildren? A country with a president like Hungary’s or Brazil’s? G-d forbid! That and the fact that I’ve begun to believe that Chicken Little was right. The sky may be falling.
So many things need to be fixed to keep elections from being fixed. Today’s fix is money, which from one aspect is almost comical and from the other scary. Let’s start with scary. It’s called “dark money.” The simple explanation is you can’t see where it’s coming from. It’s the opposite of transparent money. The stunning parts of it are the equally stunning amounts allowable because of stupid Supreme Court decisions and the numbers given from stupidly rich individuals who, for a variety of reasons, want to buy the election of a particular candidate or ‘dates.” Citizen’s United and any other laws that allow the giving of, or transference of, sums without explicit transparency of its who, what, why, and when must be outlawed.
Then you have the “good guy” candidates who proclaim that will take no such money and some who place limits on gift sizes. It seems almost suicidal, but it takes a hell of a lot of work to find someone who is both filthy rich and has the right political leanings. Then comes the convincing–and often promising–of rewards. Yet there are scads of folks who are willing to give five or fifteen or thirty bucks and do so more than once. In some states the imbalance is huge but in others, no so much. It is the tactics used for farming those small donors that makes me wild.
It starts with the first gift. Giving the first gift is like letting one roach get into your house. Within weeks, sometimes days, you see a few more, then many more, and then the exterminator you called tells you your house is infested. So too with my inbox. Then to compound the mistake I answered a poll on my phone. Now it’s gott’em too. I now get emails from every level of government. They are multiple emails from congressional candidates in whose district I don’t live, then multiple emails from congressional candidates running in states I don’t live in. I am appealed to by US senatorial and gubernatorial candidates from coast to coast, Maine to Florida. North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Indiana to name a few. Then the stars come at me from the firmament. Political stars, movie stars, G-d help us social media stars. Most of the latter I’ve never even heard of.
Here are examples of pleas by small gift candidates.
From the same candidate on the same day: We’re thrilled. The latest polls show us up. Send money so we can hold our lead. That night: We’re behind. Send money so we can catch up. (You can’t make this stuff up!)
Variation on the theme: We’re surging. Send money so we can place our ads to keep the surge going.
And finally: the opposition is pouring tens of millions of dollars of dark money into my race, but we won’t take that kind of money. Send…and then there’s a choice of money board.
We’re of course all on a first-name basis. Hi, this is Bob or Betty, or Ken. It reminds me of when George Carlin posed this question: Why do banks have these big corporate names. Why isn’t there a Sam’s Savings or the Al and Helen Bank and Trust? Politics is too important and too complicated for its participants to be buddies.
Some of the races seem hopeless, like the race to unseat Greg Abbott in Texas or Ron DeSantis in Florida. The appeal here is: if only we had the money, we could change that. Maybe so, but if I were a betting man,I wouldn’t take that bet.
Some candidates come hat in hand, apologizing for yet another ask. Others have a whole team of folks posing as your best friend or next-door neighbor, they are so cordial. They apologize for themselves or the candidate, or want you to believe that the loss of their race will be the loss of America as we know it. Since that has already happened, those appeals no longer move me.
Then there are the personal ads: wives, children, scenes of a poverty-stricken childhood, a relative who did great things for the country, all making the candidate worth a few bucks.
Have you gotten the ad that says send five dollars that we will split between… What’s the sports show where they do a segment called, “C’mon!” Or the one that says, “Hi, I’ve got 15 minutes before my next appointment so I thought I’d drop you a note.” Significant others aren’t so attentive.
How about the attack ads? My opponent’s third cousin was a communist, or a strike-breaker, or was thrown out of the Coast Guard, give to Whistle-clean, me!”
There’s a Minions’ shirt, Bob’s I think, that says, “Me, Sarcastic?” Ok, I cop to it. I’m being sarcastic. This is very serious business. Democracy thrives when the electorate is informed and active, when people register and vote. And when people give money.
It is the system that is so bad. Election day should be a holiday. To the victor should go the spoils, hence you should make a decision about how you feel concerning the Electoral College and act on it. In this day of electronics, one should be able to register from anywhere and do it up to a week before the election. And why do we have to vote in the precinct assigned to us? Mail-in voting is excellent, but electronic voting is better. I think standing in line is an experience everyone should have, but one that makes voting very difficult for segments of the population, and that before the extremists in the name of the constitution begin making rules about how you stand in line so it becomes even more difficult. Balderdash.
We’ve been told over the centuries in different ways and by different people that Democracy is the best and worst form of government. Which one it is has to do with what the “demos,” the people do with it–at least from my perspective.
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