Political Donation Requests/Demands a FORM LETTER for response to bazillions of requests for money

(2008 Feb blog post)

In the two years leading up to the 2008 Presidential elections --- including 2007 state and federal representative elections --- I have received repeated requests (even demands) for donations, for Democratic Party candidates. These requests have come from all sorts of organizations --- national, state, individual candidates --- even Senator Schumer (sp?) of New York, apparently on his own behalf, even though I live in Virginia. If the Democrats in Congress actually seemed to be trying to do something useful --- to justify the most generous high salaries and retirement benefits that they have awarded themselves, I might feel inclined to donate periodically. However, it seems as though 90% of Democratic congress-persons are simply following the directions of lobbyists --- just as about 99% of Republicans do. Anyway, to make it easier to deal with the repetitive process of responding to requests/demands for donations, here is the text of a form letter that I now use to respond ... over and over and over again, if need be.

START OF LETTER :

Date: To _______________________________ political organization (national, state, out-of-state, local, individual-candidate, whatever) from whom I received a request for money : In the past few years (2006-2009), I have received, repeatedly, requests and even demands for donations --- such as notifications that my membership dues are required or are over-due. I always write on the donation form some verbiage to the effect that I have no intention of giving money to either major party --- nor to any subgroup of candidates of either party --- nor to any individual candidate (with VERY few exceptions). I provide some reasons on each donation form that I return. I am tiring of repeatedly writing those responses --- especially since my responses are ignored and seem to just trigger the sending of another request/demand for a donation. I need a more efficient and consistent way of responding. Hence, I have composed this form letter to use for replies to donations. I want to say here, in one place, that I am totally disgusted with the way 90%-plus of the U.S. Congress is in the hip pocket (wallet) of lobbyists who seem to write most of the laws that the Congress rubber-stamps. Examples: pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, the sugar industry (in all its forms), big farming companies, lumber companies, oil companies, the AxA, where x = M or B. With all these sources of funds, why does Congress need to keep awarding themselves way-beyond-cost-of-living salary increases --- and retirement plans that even retiring CEO's with golden parachutes must envy? It is no wonder that surveys show that the approval rating of Congress is around 17%. I wonder why it isn't about 4%.

In short, I will be glad to send a substantial donation to your organization when the following laws are passed. 1. Whereas there is no progress in resolving issues in most war/terror zones, Congress needs to pass a law that states --- All Congress-persons must spend 3 months each year in a war or terror zone. (A lottery will be used to send them to their first zone --- such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Columbia, Darfur, the Congo, Rwanda, Kosovo, Lebanon, Israel, the Gaza strip, etc. etc. If a Congress-person gets assigned to the same place twice, he/she can choose to be randomly assigned to a place they have not been assigned. Their wife and kids are to go with them. And for single or gay congress-persons, they may pick at least one significant-other to accompany them.) [I considered requiring the draft to be reinstituted, in lottery form --- like in the early 1970's. We saw how that got the parents and students out of their complacency and resulted in them taking to the streets. No doubt this is why the Pentagon and Congress has decided not to go that route again. They want to avoid any more 'four dead in Ohio' situations, on our own turf --- with parents taking to the streets. A revived draft would probably work to get Congress to consider actually doing things about these war/terror zones to which soldiers (and mercenaries) are being sent. But Congress needs stonger motivation to actually get something done. Hence the need to require Congress to actually spend 'quality time' in hot spots each year --- to bring home the reality of bombs, beheadings, and not being able to sleep at night for fear of waking up dead.] 2. A national sugarS tax needs to be passed, somewhat like the tobacco tax --- but proportional to the number of grams of sugar(s) in a product --- with no tax for products containing less than 2% sugar by weight. For example, 0.2 cents per gram of added, refined sugarS. A sugarS tax will do something really significant about the national epidemic of type 2 diabetes and obesity --- which is going to drive our already over-priced and over-medical-errored medical system into the economic and statistical stratosphere if something concrete is not done soon. The sugarS tax will wake people up to how much sugar(s) they are consuming. And it will provide an alternate source of tax revenue to replace the god-awful Alternative Minimum Tax . I have had the pleasure of wending my way through that form, and if this is Congress's idea of tax simplification, then Congress has a really twisted sense of humor.

3. Congress needs to establish a national Internet forum site where victims of medical errors can tell their individual horror stories. People like the Dennis Quaid family and the Andy Warhol estate and the Dr. Atkins estate can tell their stories there. A limit, such as 5,000 words per occurrence, could be established to avoid extremely long entries. Names of doctors, nurses, aides, drugs, drug companies, ambulance services, etc. will be allowed. (This medical error forum would be like a Wikipedia of medical errors. No policing by bureaucrats such as minions of the pharmaceutical companies and the AMA within the FDA or any other executive agency. Instead, removal of inappropriate entries would be done via a committee none of whose members are part of the medical industrial complex.) The medical error tragedies should not go on at the current (under-reported) clip. One way to stop it is to open up the reporting process. 4. Congress needs to pass laws to keep the BLM (Bureau of Land misManagement) and sub-departments of the Department of Agriculture from being used as a means to bypass environmental protections --- for clean aquifers, clean air, aged-forest preservation, clean rivers-bays, clean food, ocean and fresh-water fish stock preservation, etc. These protections are being honored (for the most part) by other agencies such as the National Parks Service, Fisheries Service, parts of the Forestry Service, etc. But they should be held to the same laws. 5. Congress needs to pass a law that increases the minimum wage each time that Congress boosts their own salaries. Since Congress has such large salaries relative to minimum wage earners, each time Congress gets an increase of X percent, the minimum wage is increased by 2 times X percent. It would be interesting to see if this would slow down the rate at which Congress gives itself raises, or if Congress wants raises so much and so often that the minimum wage increases would far outpace the Consumer Price Index. 6. Congress needs to pass a law that limits their term in office to 8 years. While this won't totally eliminate the influence of lobbyists on Congress persons, at least it will spread the graft around. This is a new form of the Republican trickle down theory.

That's about all I can think of for now. These laws, when implemented, would go a long way toward getting this country back to being a place we can be proud of. [Oh ... one more item. Beefing up the laws, continually, to rein in the predators in the financial industries and the top hierarchies of large-corporations would help. They are preying on their fellow citizens and investors. The phrase "free enterprise" has become a dirty word. In the minds of most citizens (like many in the 80-plus percent who disapprove of the job the Congress is doing), "free enterprise" = "free greed" = "it's OK to do ANY thing to your neighbor, to get his/her money or property".] If you would please see to it that the topics listed above are more than adequately addressed, then I would be glad to contribute to your campaign coffers. Sincerely,   [another donation-demand pounded citizen] How about some TRUTH, INSTEAD OF all this GREED! P.S. I realize that some letter opener person will probably just toss this reply away without passing it on to anyone with the means to act on these proposals. And they will probably use my response as a trigger to send another request. So I now stand prepared to send this reply … over and over and over … perhaps with a few updates … as I think of more examples of misbehavior (and stronger requirements-laws) to add. Cheers.

END OF LETTER. In 2008, I sent an earlier version of this letter in four pre-paid envelopes that I had saved from previous requests for donations. It felt good dropping that barrage-of-four in the mailbox. You are welcome to copy this letter and edit it to address your particular issues, with your own emphasis on them. Perhaps, you find, like I found, that it is difficult to overcome inertia and compose a reply to repeated unsolicited mailings that offend the senses. I think it would be great if this letter can be used to help others overcome their own inertia. Let 'em hear you.

Bottom of page on blog topic Political Donation Requests/Demands --- a form letter for response to a ridiculous number of requests for money. To return to a previously visited web page location, click on the Back button of your web browser, a sufficient number of times. OR, use the History-list option of your web browser. OR ... < Return to Top of Page, above. > < Return to Blog menu. > < Return to Home page. > Or you can scroll up, to the top of this page. Posted 2009 Feb. Changed, to facilitate better printing, 2009 Aug 25.