Posted on 07/28/2015 9:06:55 AM PDT by Starman417
It’s sometimes said that you can tell a lot about a person by the friends they keep. That makes sense. Friendships are generally based on complementary personalities, shared values, and a variety of intangibles that cause people to bond.
Money in politics is a similar barometer. The vast majority of Americans never donate any money to politicians or get involved in politics at all. For all of the kvetching about money in politics, there’s really not that much there. In 2012 a total of $6 billion was spent on politics. That includes spending by campaigns, outside groups, and independent organizations. To put that in perspective, Americans spend almost twice that amount on bottled water each year, five times as much at McDonalds and twelve times that on the lottery.
In addition, it’s only a small minority of Americans who donate to political campaigns at all, about 11% on average. Eleven percent sounds low, but that’s actually enormous when compared to the .05% of donors who provide $2.7 billion of that $6 billion by making contributions of $2,600 or more. Talk about “The 1%”! Campaigns seem to be funded largely from “The .05%”. Here’s the breakdown: 89% of Americans give $0 dollars to campaigns, 10.5% give a total of $3.3 billion, while .05% of the population give the other $2.7 billion. That means that a total of about 15,000 people are responsible for almost half the money spent on our elections… out of 315 million people.
Although the money is relatively evenly distributed between the parties, within the GOP there is an interesting dichotomy. Jeb Bush and [mc_name name='Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)' chamber='senate' mcid='C001098' ], who raised similar amounts in the June 15 to June 30 period – $11.4 million and $10 million respectively – make for a good illustration. When Bush released his fundraising numbers, they showed that 97% of his money came from donors who gave more than $200. For Cruz that number was 61%. More interesting however are the average numbers. Overall, Bush had a total of 12,334 donors who gave an average of $926. At the same time Cruz had a total of 175,000 donors who gave an average of $81. Cruz had fifteen times as many donors but raised $1.4 million less!
This is not a screed against the rich. Rich people are often successful businessmen and that’s something we could use more of. What we don’t need more of however is crony capitalism. And that’s what makes these reports so compelling. They came out just a week before a report that the Chamber of Commerce, the shill for big corporations, is planning on targeting small government conservatives in the House, many of whom are strong Cruz allies. Their goal is to derail true border control, maintain the Export Import Bank and harness government to shield big businesses from competition whenever possible.
(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net...
There are no real conservatives supporting ¡Yeb!, only fake conservatives.
By definition, NO “conservative” could possibly support Yeb.
The media want Bush. They’re the only one’s. They know a Republican loser when they see one.
Bush is the safety valve if Hillary fades. Anything to keep the Bush/Clinton political cartel in power.
Nice to see Cruz getting a little love.
Ted Cruz Ping! This is why I don’t believe polls.
11% of 142.2 million registered voters donate = ~15.6 million registered voters who donate (roughly).
12,334 donors for Bush
175,000 donors for Cruz
So, in a truly random sample, a pollster would have 14 times more chances of getting a Cruz supporter than a Bush supporter on the phone, but somehow Bush is polling well ahead of Cruz.
Did I do that right?
Can we say coalisesing ?
Yes we can !
Conservatives are coalisesing around Ted Cruz.
ALL POLLS are SKEWED!
FUJB ! Peice of cow dung !
Yes, paid for by Jeb’s croneys and the media.
Media ? Jeb Bush ?
YOU LIE !!!
Your tagline could use a little work FRiend, not to mention your posts.
Still trying to remember how to fix it.
I am on a cell phone.
Posting from a cell phone? No wonder. Bummer.
Can’t even minimize the browser like in Windows and do multitasking , or listen to music on YouTube while browsing.
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