Wednesday, January 16, 2002
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Wednesday, January 16, 2002 |
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To pick your candidate, just follow the money If we believed everything we read in the newspapers, we'd soon come to this conclusion: political campaign contributions are given by people who hate to give them, and they're given to people who hate to ask for them. Ask any politician, and he (or she) will tell you how much he hates raising money. Ask lobbyists, and they'll tell you they give the money only because they have to. What gives here? Actually, the answer is simple and can once again be found in the old adage, "Follow the money." People who give money to politicians want to buy influence. Just say to someone, "I want to see you," and you'll often get an answer that is a variant on the theme of "get lost." But just say, "I'm on the magazine gift-giving patrol and I want to see you to give you some money," and you'll probably hear, "Come right over!" Smart politicians know that, and so do smart members of the public. But let's follow the money and see what happens to it. You guessed it! A lot of it is spent trying to raise more money, through all kinds of solicitations. It's amazing the excuses politicians use to scare money out of people. Usually, they hint (or say outright) that something or other you like is in danger of being taken away from you. Your money could be taken away in taxes, your Social Security benefits could be cut, your guns could be taken away, your religious values or liberties could be threatened. You think of it and these guys will try to exploit it. The next step is spending what's left of the money on TV commercials designed to influence those who are susceptible of being influenced that way. The key here is saturation. That, by the way, is the same technique children use on their parents, but with a twist. You can have a child who whines, whines, whines, and finally you say, "I give up," and give the child what he wants, confident you'll at least be rid of the whining. Commercials are designed to do the same job. The advertiser wants your brain to reach the stage where you unwittingly think, "If I vote for this guy like he wants me to, maybe he'll go away." By election day he will, but believe me it won't be because you voted for him. There's a lot of manipulation in the political process, but thankfully a lot of us Americans have been trained to resist and thwart the influence peddlers. Moreover with e-mail we can now compare notes on politicians with each other, and smoke out the most undeserving. Here are a few rules and techniques on handling politicians. 1. Give them no money. It's like giving peanuts to the elephants at the zoo, it only encourages them and spoils their diet. 2. Try and find out who gives them money. These are the people who'll be looking for favors later. The information is pretty much all there in reports filed as public records, and I must say I don't understand why the newspapers don't go look it up and publish it all. 3. Consider voting for the politician who raises the least money, not the one who spends the most. Of course, if the candidate is a complete flake you can move up one notch on the list. If nobody wants to buy your candidate by feeding him contributions, that's a good sign he's not for sale and that's good. Moreover, a candidate who can resist spending a lot of money on his campaign is more likely to resist spending public money on pork-barrel projects and other unnecessary items. 4. Disregard party label. Politicians who realize they can't be elected on one party label simply switch parties. We have liberal free-spending Republicans just like we have conservative tight-fisted Democrats. Don't be fooled by the label: it's just that, a label. A banana is still a banana, no matter what label you put on it. 2002 is an election year, and the political manipulators are gearing up for business. Not everyone's sense of smell has been developed enough to alert them to the traps set for them, so it is wise to sound the alert now, before this year's campaigns get under way. Let's force the candidates to compete on the basis of their character and the worthiness of their ideas, not the size of their wallets. Claude Y. Paquin Fayetteville cypaquin@msn.com
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