Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Lesson (Being) Learned: Politicians And E-Mail Addresses Are An Aggravating Combination

The daily receipt of dozens of fundraising e-mails -- 'your contribution by the upcoming reporting deadline is vital to demonstrate that our campaign is [viable] [dominant] [noticed] [leading]' or 'my opponent has called people like you [communists] [rednecks] [traitors] [sub-human], so please send the resources I need to stand up for us' -- has established a new first rule of politics:

Never provide any e-mail address

you care about to any politician.

It's impossible to determine how candidates acquire the addresses, in part because some of the beggars' names are unrecognizable and their races four states away, but it appears lists are sold, bartered or otherwise circulated among campaigns. These messages currently evade spam filters (a mark against spam filters). This plague seems to get worse every week. Save yourself now.

2 comments:

MH said...

I've e-mailed politicians without getting fund raising messages back. Except the local and state ones, they'd all send me newsletters and whatnot, but no fundraising. The real trick is never give a politician money.

Infinonymous said...

That might be a good point.

On the other hand, if we didn't contribute to politicians, they'd be driven out of politics, and our streets would be overrun by axe-murderers, perverts and battle-tested, extremely persistent beggars.