Political Donation
Money Requests/Demands

a FORM LETTER for response
to 'bazillions' of requests
for money

(2008 Feb blog post)

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This page on (repeated) Political Donation Requests
(a form letter for reply)

INTRODUCTION:

In the two years leading up to the 2008 U.S. Presidential election --- including 2007 state and federal congressional representative elections --- I received repeated requests (even demands) for donations, for Democratic Party candidates.

These requests have come from all sorts of organizations --- national organizations, state organizations, and individual candidates --- sometimes from individual candidates in states far from my state.

In many money requests, political 'organizations' obnoxiously demand 'annual membership dues' --- often to a large organization such as the

  • DNC (Democratic National Committee) or the

  • DCCC (Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee) or the

  • DSCC (Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee) or the

  • DLCC (Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee)

or others of that kind. (They seem to divide and multiply.)

    By the way, I am sure the Republicans are at least as aggressive --- and as obnoxious.

I consider myself an 'independent' --- and I give to only those individual candidates that I feel represent me best.

I have seen too many times when the DNC or other such 'machines' give donation money to a candidate that I cannot stand.

If the Democrats (and Republicans) 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 may use to respond ... over and over and over again, if need be.

Date:

To _______________________________
[national organization, state organization,
out-of-state organization, local organization,
individual-candidate, whatever --- goes here]

from whom I received a request for money :

In the past several years (2006-plus), 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 tired 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, and M = Medical and B = Banking.

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%.

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 (or two) 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 Congress pass a law for 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 to NOT 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 members 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) ADDED to a product --- with no tax for products containing less than 2 percent added-sugarS 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-awfully complicated and ineffective Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT).

    I have had the pleasure of wending my way through that AMT 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 (twins, medical error) and the Andy Warhol estate (NYC hospital over-perfusion, 'water intoxication') and the Dr. Atkins estate (NYC hospital over-perfusion) can tell their stories there.

      (The Quaid twins were given overdoses of blood-thinner in a California hospital. Warhohl and Atkins died bloated with fluid when the hospital nurses failed to properly regulate their respective intravenous fluid drips --- both in a New York City hospital.)

    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 database of medical errors. No policing is to be allowed by bureaucrats such as minions of the pharmaceutical companies and the AMA (American Medical Association) within the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) or any other federal 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 mis-Management) and sub-departments of the Department of Agriculture from being used as a means to bypass environmental protections --- which are meant for aged-forest preservation, clean aquifers, clean rivers-bays, clean air, clean food, fresh-water-fish and ocean-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 the BLM should not be allowed to undo environmental protections.

  • 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. (That factor of 2 can be dropped to 1 after about 50 years.)

    It would be interesting to see if this would slow down the rate at which Congress gives itself raises --- or see if Congress wants raises so much and so often that the minimum wage increases would far outpace the Consumer Price Index.

    Alternatively, the minimum wage should be adjusted upward every one or two years according to the cost of living increases.

  • 6.
    Congress needs to pass a law that limits their term in office to either 8 or 12 years.

    While this won't totally eliminate the influence of lobbyists on Congress persons, at least it will spread the graft around.

    Lobbyist graft is just another form of the Republican 'trickle down' theory of economics.

    This would be a law to limit the trickle down of graft to Congressional members.


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.

    Congress needs to beef up the laws, continually, to rein in the predators in the financial industries and the top hierarchies of large-corporations.

    These predators are continually devising new ways to prey on their fellow citizens and investors.

    The phrase "free enterprise" has become a dirty word to those on the receiving end of fraud.

    To Republicans, fraud is just another form of free enterprise --- and, as such, they think fraud (and fraudsters) must be protected.

    In the minds of many citizens, "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,

 

Congress persons,
How about some TRUTH, INSTEAD OF all this GREED!

As John Lennon said, "GIMME SOME TRUTH".

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 money 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 bad-behavior-modifying 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 political 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 a letter like this can be used to help others overcome their own inertia.

Let 'em hear from you.

For more info:

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Page history:

Page was posted 2009 Feb.

Page was changed 2009 Aug 25.
(To facilitate page-breaks in printing.)

Page was changed 2013 May 03.
(Changed page format slightly.)

Page was changed 2019 Jun 01.
(Added css and javascript to try to handle text-size for smartphones, esp. in portrait orientation. Also added WEB SEARCHES section to bottom of page.)