What reaction do you get when you have get a political fundraising email?
I get a lot of political fundraising emails. A lot of them from people I genuinely support, would be interesting in continuing to support and have financially supported in the past. Many of them written by people I know are professional political operatives who are successful at converting these emails to actual
Some of them though are from lists I never signed up for, from people I’ve never heard of, and groups often viewed as scam PACS. I tend to have this reaction.
So now, just for fun, I’m going to deconstruct a fundraising email I got “from” Lara Trump today in an effort to make a total mockery of stuff like this. My comments are in italics.
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Lara Trump <info@americanpatriotupdate.com>Unsubscribe
To: Brian Griffiths
Tue, Jul 14 at 2:04 PM
If you’re wondering what americanpatriotupdate.com is, it’ nothing. It’s just a holding page.
Friend,
BG: I’m not your friend.
Where have you been?
BG: Not voting for Trump, that’s where.
I just found out that you STILL haven’t accepted your invitation to join the Trump 100 Club and I wanted to reach out to give you one more chance to join.
BG: Lara Trump hasn’t heard of me or anybody else who is receiving this email. Lara Trump probably doesn’t even know this email was sent out. If she did, she would know why I STILL haven’t accepted my invitation to join a club I wasn’t invited to nor would never join.
Because you’ve always been such a loyal Patriot in the past, I’ve been authorized to EXTEND your offer until 11:59 PM TONIGHT.
BG: I’m still a loyal Patriot, but think about how loaded that statement is; if you don’t sign up for this verkakte club you are not, in fact, an American patriot. I assure you, that by extending this deadline until 11:59 PM tonight I will still be a patriot, but will still not be giving you a penny.
After tonight, your offer may be given to the next supporter in line who’s ready to fight for their President.
My husband, Eric, joined, Don Jr. joined, and so did Alex from Wisconsin! We’re just waiting on you now, Friend.
BG: Those are their italics not mine, believe it or not. Can you imagine how dumb the people who wrote this email think the recipients of this email are? Eric Trump joined a club to support his dad! Don Jr. joined a club to support his dad! I mean, no kidding, they’re chips off the old block insofar as they have stumbled into their important station in life without actually doing anything. Of course they support their Dad; I doubt highly they gave a penny to join this club, too.
I feel bad for every Alex in Wisconsin, though.
Please contribute $42 TODAY to join the Trump 100 Club. >>
BG: $42? $42? Who came up with $42? Trump is the 45th President. The club is called the 100 Club. And they decide on $42 for the ask?
Look, part of the appeal of fundraising is asking for enough without asking too much. Most people will contribute $5, but you don’t want to ask for $1,000 and make people feel like they are being priced out. But unless somebody was trying to talk about the meaning of life, $42 is a random number to settle upon.
BG: They must have gotten tired of all the winning when they designed that image.
CONTRIBUTE $250CONTRIBUTE $100CONTRIBUTE $50
CONTRIBUTE $42CONTRIBUTE ANY AMOUNT
President Trump needs to know that he can count on you right now, Friend.
BG: Good luck with that.
He only selected his TOP 100 supporters to join this prestigious club, and I know he’ll be disappointed if I have to report back that you passed up this opportunity.
BG: Again, this email completely flies off the rails. I’m betting over one million people received this email. One million people are among the TOP 100 supporters, a list that includes me, a conservative who wouldn’t vote for him under any circumstances.
Please contribute $42 by 11:59 PM TONIGHT to join the Trump 100 Club and help us win BIG in November.
Thank you,
Lara Trump
Senior Advisor
Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.
___________________________________
This message was sent by the Trump Make America Great Again Committee, which is described as “a joint fundraising committee authorized by and composed of Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. and the Republican National Committee.”
I should probably tell the RNC that they had no unsubscribe button on this nonsense.
The worst part about these emails? They’re effective. They don’t prey on people in the political know, they go after the money of people of more modest means who have limited money to spend on political endeavors but are highly supportive of their party or their issues. In this instance it’s President Trump but it could be anybody.
It actually gets worse than this. In some instances, you get high falutin sounding committees they prey on elderly donors but only spend 2.7% of their funds on political purposes.
Fundraising is a necessary evil in politics. There are some candidates and vendors who are very good and very professional when it comes to fundraising emails. But there is far too much money to be made for the good actors to have the field all to themselves.
This email, it’s somewhere in between. Clearly for a lot of campaigns and groups, their email content policy is to send in the clowns……
Brian I am not sure how you consider yourself a conservative if you decide to vote for Biden rather than Trump. Frankly I am tired of these excuses of why people won’t vote for Trump. Please review his accomplishments and tell me whether the Democrat way forward makes sense by comparispn
Then I assume you aren’t voting at all or are you wasting your vote on a third party candidate? What’s the point? The Democrats have tried to get rid of Trump before he ever took office and did so illegally. What is your ideal leader of this country regarding policy and governing this country? What would you like to see regarding foreign affairs as well as changes in domestic policy? I suggest you write a column on that. Frankly I am tired of the columns saying our current President is racist, tweets too much, etc. Absolutely no truth to most of those charges nor relevance to the job of running this company.