New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand wants to reduce the influence of wealthy white men, and make every voter a campaign donor by giving us all vouchers — drawn on the federal treasury — so we can contribute to candidates of our choosing. Candidates would agree to refuse contributions above $200 in order to receive these “Democracy dollars.” What’s the harm in that? Bill Whittle explains.
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“Democracy Dollars” to Make Everyone a Campaign Donor, Cut Power of Wealthy
New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand wants to reduce the influence of wealthy white men, and make every voter a campaign donor by giving us all vouchers — drawn on the federal treasury — so we can contribute to candidates of our choosing. Candidates would agree to refuse contributions above $200 in order to receive these “Democracy dollars.” What’s the harm in that? Bill Whittle explains.
15 replies on ““Democracy Dollars” to Make Everyone a Campaign Donor, Cut Power of Wealthy”
Thanks for the shoutout; I’m loving my membership. Does being 17 really make me a child around here? Gosh, the one thing that sucks about being young and “wise” (read: conservative) is that “my people” are all old XD. Y’all need to #connectwiththeyouths. Maybe a new Bill Whittle cartoon show? Something along the lines of his cookie firewall?
Sounds like it will achieve the same result as the Presidential Election Campaign Fund. Over time, fewer participants, more complex reporting requirements, and fund diversion for other purposes. I have never checked the box.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_election_campaign_fund_checkoff
Scott Ott (or anyone) – on the BW site are there financial downsides to running ad block or tracker removing addons? I use one called Ghostery and while I have my ad blocker turned off here I still get notices that some ad blockers/trackers are removed. I have it set to whitelist BW, but I don’t know if it interferes with Youtube with the player embedded or if it is just mistaken/lying to me.
If Bill’s opening message is just for the Youtube audience and not us, that’s cool too.
Karl, I honestly don’t know the impact of ad block on YouTube monetization. Frankly, the fact that you’re a Member is far more important than subscribing on YouTube, or clicking the notification bell there. Thank you. BTW, we now have a notification system here for new content, and I don’t know if ad blocking extensions or software would hide that either.
In summary: there’s a lot I don’t know.
I thought my patronage here would over ride anything my impact might have via Youtube but I thought I’d ask since I usually don’t see ads on the videos but from time to time there will be an overlay advertising some junk software. I don’t see them just here but on other videos on Youtube itself.
I have subscribed to the BW notifications and as long as I remember to click the green bell before I post it works fine. The little bell icons in the corners also show up and when I log in I can see all of the tracked replies so I don’t have to go via e-mail for all of them.
I love watching the steam come out of Bill’s ears, but the channel needs a more appropriate name. It should be “Tell us what you REALLY think, Bill”.
I prefer democracy Pennies.
Like the amount of damages Dr. Adam Kelno received at the end of QB VII.
This doesn’t look like vote buying so much as giving the appearance of doing something while not actually doing anything. If somebody giving $2,800 to a candidate gives them significant influence the fact that you’ve got a candidate available at fire-sale prices is a bigger problem. The real influence is bought by giving to all the PACs and super PACs and various party committees and of course the various “interest” organizations that don’t directly support a particular candidate.
That is without a doubt ONE of the most perverted ideas I have ever heard these slimy politicians. $20+ Trillion in debt and they want to use the US Treasury to fund their campaigns. To me that sounds like it should by illegal at a minimum it shows there are no moral of ethical standards that exist in Gillibrand’s world.
Let us check a few numbers:
Balance this political “grab” with the reality of a real National Emergency:
I think I got those numbers right…
AND ANOTHER THING!
How many dead or homebound “voters” will politicans help w/ figuring out how to get and donate their vouchers?
It’s a new angle on the DNC dream of federally funded elections. And thereby move closer to elections being about the important people voting for each other and reducing the importance of the plebes.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand wants to launder campaign donations through the federal government.
Strike that. Reverse it. This is laundering that $3 trillion/yr Federal monies pile through the voters to individual campaigns and candidates.
Yes, like the federally funded concept you mentioned, this sounds more like a slush fund for campaign consultants and advertising staff, since the rich people can still give to the dark money PACs the Demos like to squeal about but then never decry when they spend on behalf of Dems. (witness the State Supreme Court race in Wisconsin).
The idea might backfire if the voucher obtaining is too difficult for un-engaged voters, but if the process can be simplified by campaign web sites to a “click here to subscribe to our list and select our campaign for your free voucher” then the money can come pouring in (freshly stolen from people working for a living).
Also, candidates do NOT need to go hat in hand to the “wealthy vote controllers” to get money for campaigns. When Ron Johnson was essentially written off in his last campaign and the money stopped flowing, he did a few of his own, low budget ads and did his usual get out and talk to people campaign and Won. With the rise of social media and viral videos, high priced ads and rich campaign staff won’t be as required in the future, I suspect.