Funny Thing About the Republician Party and Donations

[Tripwire]

I found this strange. A recent Fox News report (need link) stated that the republican party gets most of its money from donations from orginary middle class people and not soft money resources (aka perks like giving jets, renting rally places, etc.).

On the other hand, democrats rely heavily on soft money contrubutions.

Most soft money contributions come from corporations and the wealthy elite. So it makes you think? If the wealthiest of Americans are believed to be supporting Republican ideas (aka tax cuts), then why are they giving their my to the Democrats?

[larcain]

I'm pretty sure that's true, though following money trail isn't all that easy. Different sources give different "facts". I think I posted a link to that earlier. But then again, I don't really blame the corporations for trying to look out for their own interests by contributing. I blame the cheesy freaking politicians for changing their stances based on money. Seems like both sides of the aisle do it and it makes me ill.
I grew up watching movies like "Mr. Smith goes to Washington" and wanting to grow up to be that character. When I see that we now vote for (and could be we always have, but if so, I hate that fact also) for the lesser of 2 evils in every election. I happen to have voted for GWB. This wasn't because I thought he was any sort of great statesman, I was because the alternative sucked worse. Gee, that's swell, we make our decisions based on "who can hurt me least". That sucks.

Somebody started a thread about GWB going on vacation. That's actually not a bad thing. I wish we could get congress to go vacation more often so they would stop "helping" us. For some reason they seem to think that because they are called "lawmakers" they need to keep making more and more laws for stupid reasons and with even more stupid results.
I understand Liberal's complaints about our government, the problem is both sides suck. We just have different ideas as to who sucks less. Now theres a compaign slogan, "Vote for me, I suck less".
...sorry...end of rant.

[Obscure]

I actually think it's great when Congress is out of session. That way there is no way they could possibly screw up anything.

[SithDrummer]

Originally posted by Obscure
I actually think it's great when Congress is out of session. That way there is no way they could possibly screw up anything.

You don't know the power of the dark side.

[freeo]

Why give money to people who you know will give you what you want? It's simple: bribe the ones who won't do what you want.

[Cain]

A recent Fox News report (need link) stated that the republican party gets most of its money from donations from orginary middle class people and not soft money resources (aka perks like giving jets, renting rally places, etc.).

Try again.

This site (http://www.opensecrets.org/parties/) contains numbers relating to both parties.

Indeed most of the contributions to the DNC are in the form of soft money; 246 million dollars, or 53%. And indeed the RNC gets most of its contributions in the form of "hard money"; 402 million dollars, or 62%. But here's the thing: Republicans also raise more soft money (about 250 million dollars). In 2002 the Republican Party raised $652 million; Democrats raised 466 million.

Both parties get paid off by the same corporations (Ken Lay, for example, contributed to both GW's campaign as well as Ann Richards. Freedom of Speech is great!).

Also keep in mind that many of the top contributors to the DNC are unions which, ostensibly, represent lots and lots of people. There's a distinction to be made between the American Federation of Teachers and Phillip Morris.


We need fully publicly financed elections.

[larcain]

"We need fully publicly financed elections"
WOOOHOOOO !! Cain and I actually agree on something. My suggestion is that all people competiting for offices recieve the exact same quantities of air time and the exact same franking privileges. That way pacs have less ability to influence our elected officials. I'm sick of voting for a guy that says one thing and does another. I believe this is rampant in both the major parties.

[philly]

I agree, I'm also in the mindset that those running for election should be limited to and not to exceed a certian amount of campaign finances allowing more candidates to compete and not just those that can shell out a couple million every month for a year. Sigh.....someday, someday....:rolleyes:

[Tripwire]

I personally think unionized labor vote is stupid and evil these days. The USA is going continue to decrease the number of jobs in the manufactring sector and increase the jobs in the service sector. The means the workforce has got to more and more think on their own.

A union vote for a political party canidate is corrupt in my opinion because it is evil for a political party (aka the democrats in this case) to bribe the leaders to force the members to go one way or another.

both the democrats and the republicans get tons and tons of money from donations. anybody who tells you otherwise is bullshittin. and half those donations are corporations that are trying to get legilation passed in their favor. to a certain extent, i think this an ok thing. its when a single company donated so much that they arent just swaying legilators, they're buying them, that this is unacceptable.

[snaggle]

So now we're in the habit of editing posts in here that we don't agree with, eh mr. all powerful admin...cool.

[philly]

wtf?....explain plz?

[AGT-WildBillGates]

Originally posted by philly
I agree, I'm also in the mindset that those running for election should be limited to and not to exceed a certian amount of campaign finances allowing more candidates to compete and not just those that can shell out a couple million every month for a year. Sigh.....someday, someday....:rolleyes:

I dont know if you will see it under the current campain finance reform bill. Before the bill say you were one hot shot upstart well use democrat. You dont have a lot of money but people really like you. You could in theory raise enough money to make yourself well known enough to win. Now you have to have more personal wealth to run then before.

I dont know what to think about that yet though. All I know is its going to be harder for me to be president.