Learned a disturbing new aspect to "Bush Pioneer" Fundraising Technique

[lostnfound]

Bush has raised so much money by 'bundling', getting "Pioneers" to get 50 or 100 of their fellow executives to contribute $2000 each to the campaign -- a grotesque way for corporate America to wield power over us mere human beings in the political arena. (In exchange for letting said corporate executives be heard on (in some cases, apparently, single-handedly rewrite) laws and regulations affecting their industry and their pocketbooks.)

I received a VERY disturbing message the other day which revealed to me this scary fact:
Fortune 100 companies bigshots also "invite" THEIR SUPPLIERS to attend Bush fundraisers.

In this economy, the loss of a single contract can mean death for lower tier corporations. There is TREMENDOUS leverage in customer-supplier relationships. Within a company, an individual executive may have a momentary spike in ethics that causes him to refuse to contribute personally. But the chances that a soulless, profit-driven corporation would offend its customer by turning down such a request (and thereby risk the contract) is nearly zero.

Mussolini said fascism could more properly be called corporatism. Think about the web of corporate relationships -- not between people, but between corporations -- and recognize that we are up against the full force of that web in the Bush machine.

[Jackpine Radical]

1. I never thought about that angle (being congenitally unCorporate), but

it makes total sense and is not a whit surprising.

[central scrutinizer]

2. this is the reason for "privatizing"

The more legitimate government functions that can be privatized, the more cronyism. This is the whole reason for the Civil Service - to remove politics from government service work. Once a contract is awarded to perform some government service, there is a powerful incentive for all of those workers to support the party in power to keep their jobs. Plus you can undermine public employees' unions.

[bryant69]

3. Where did you receive this information?

Just out of curiousity?

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[lostnfound]

4. Via a telephone call.

I.e., a personal contact -- it is not anything I read about or heard about over the airwaves.

I can't give specifics..although I would if I thought it would be REALLY worthwhile for the cause.

[Caution]

5. This is standard and unsurprising

Happens all the time. A good example is the venture capital business. I know someone who routinely inviteds prospective company personel to fund-raisers (mainly liberal causes). The people from the company looking for funding will generally make some form of donation. If you start attending some fund-raisers (auctions generally are a great example that you can attend for free) you'll start seeing the same people over and over but they'll often have different guests. The example you cite above is pretty sleazy (ie if you don't donate you wont get my business) but not surprising at all and it goes both ways. Anyone who tells you that Dems don't benefit in the same way is either naive or a liar.

[lostnfound]

6. Sleazy isn't the issue; it's that it's an INCREDIBLY powerful approach.

On a collision course with the future of the nation and the planet.

Big corporations get caught doing espionage at times to get business. Attending a political fundraiser to keep it is absolutely a no-brainer for all but the most principled, or most politically active, people. Everyone else is doing it... It's only $2000.

To the purely corporate mind, it would be IRRESPONSIBLE to say no, and thereby -- potentially -- to jeopardize your company's financial future.