- Kamala Harris is already seeing a wave of big money donor support since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.
- Some of the party’s top financiers opted to hold back funds after Biden’s June debate performance drew concerns from Democrats about his mental acuity.
- The progressive donation platform ActBlue said it raised $46.7 million after Biden endorsed Harris.
Why do they even need money? I don’t get it. Other democracies work just fine without these massive amounts of money.
Well they simply have gaps in regulation around elections. They tried to reform campaign finances with HR 1 For The People Act but it was never called for vote in the senate due to Senate Speaker Mitch “The Legislative Reaper” McConnell who was notorious for refusing to call things to vote.
One of the parties simply does not want to fix democracy.
The money gets spent on billboards, flags, yard signs, pamphlets, door to door outreach, renting out venues to campaign, etc.
And why is the campaign needed? People can just go vote. Why do they need ads for voting?
If you choose not to campaign and your opponent does, what do you think will happen? If your opponent convinces everybody that you’re going to raise taxes and increase the deficit, that you’re corrupt and racist, and people don’t even know your name from anything else then how many votes do you think you’ll get?
Aren’t most people watching TV anyways? Or internet? In Germany, we also have this independent website called Wal-o-mat where you can answer a long set of political questions to determine your political views. Then it’ll make a tierlist of multiple parties to vote for that’ll best fit your political views. Almost everyone ignores posters and ads and there is barely any ads anywhere; some on city exists and that’s pretty much it. Just don’t understand why ads for defaming the political opponent can be so effective. Is everyone really that dumb to believe in them?
Yes
Yes, Exhibit A is that Vladimir Putin’s opponents have been defamed and shamed into dropping out or being arrested every single election for over a decade, usually involving a sex tape that vaguely resembles them or allegations of substance abuse.
Exhibit B is that in the USA older people with exposure to Cable News like Sinclair Broadcast Group and Fox News are far more conservative and more evangelized than their younger counterparts who mainly use the internet but radicalizing in the opposite direction, and yet another stark contrast to the new generation of voters who have been exposed to YouTube and TikTok algorithmic pipelines to extreme ideologies. I believe Germany itself has experienced this firsthand with recent election upsets and hard right youth activists.
It is highly effective, you are not immune to propoganda. If you want to read more about the mechanisms of how or why it works, start with the works of Siegmund Freud on suggestion and work your way to more modern theories.
Have you ever been outside?
I’m from Germany. We have a totally different political landscape and understanding of democracy here.
If you think politicians don’t do campaigns in Germany, you’ve never been outside.
They do. But that’s usually limited to just posters plastered all over streets.