Cross-posted from “How elderly dementia patients are unwittingly fueling political campaigns” by @[email protected] in [email protected]
A CNN investigation reveals how deceptive political fundraising has misled elderly Americans into giving away millions of dollars
Excerpt:
But as dementia robbed him of his reasoning abilities, he began making online political donations over and over again — eventually telling his son he believed he was part of a network of political operatives communicating with key Republican leaders. In less than two years, the man became one of the country’s largest grassroots supporters of the Republican Party, ultimately giving away nearly half a million dollars to former President Donald Trump and other candidates. Now, the savings account he spent his whole life building is practically empty.
The story of this unlikely political benefactor is one of many playing out across the country.
More than 1,000 reports filed with government agencies and consumer advocacy groups reviewed by CNN, along with an analysis of campaign finance data and interviews with dozens of contributors and their family members, show how deceptive political fundraisers have victimized hundreds of elderly Americans and misled those battling dementia or other cognitive impairments into giving away millions of dollars — far more than they ever intended. Some unintentionally joined the ranks of the top grassroots political donors in the country as they tapped into retirement savings and went into debt, contributing six-figure sums through thousands of transactions.
I really hate the “interactive” stories like this where they spoon feed you details as you scroll, but about 1/3 down is the actual article.
Harris should strongly put her foot down on this. No dem organization should be employing pre-checked recurring donation boxes. If that’s what it takes to win, then we don’t deserve to win. Let the US turn into a militaristic Christian dictatorship before we cheat our own.
How about no to both
That would be ideal. In a less than ideal world, though, we should still remember the importance of ethics as a principle and how some voters at least, do take note of it.
We need to go to further and make pre-checked recurring illegal.
While you’re 100% correct, this is why Dems lose. The GOP doesn’t make thus sort of morality check. They just say, “survival of the fittest,” and move on.
Not necessarily. I think dems lose for quite a lot of different reasons, and not sufficiently abusing the trust of their own people is not one of them.
And that is why having laws prohibiting things like fraud and political dirty tricks and then actually enforcing them, Merrick Garland, you useless piece of shit is essential to preserve democracy.