On political fundraising, redux

Five and a half years ago, I wrote about my frustration with the machine of political fundraising as it operates in the U.S. I didn’t think I would be moved to write about it again, 1 except things have gotten worse (so, so much worse) in this area in the intervening time. ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ Despite the attempted insurrection on January 6, early 2021 was a more optimistic time. 2 Few of us would have predicted that Biden’s presidency would be barely a half-assed respite from the relentless fascism. Back then, I wrote (in part): “I knew and expected to receive emails from those campaigns when I donated, because we live in a never ending cycle of fundraising and campaigning. What I did not expect (but probably should have) is that those campaigns share their fundraising emails lists with other campaigns. Which, at first blush, makes sense for the party, as those running in local races in out-of-the way places need money too, and they probably calculate that their sending one email a week, or…