Sign in / up

back to article US networks: Political donations by text? Rlly nt a gud idea

American cellular networks are unhappy with a Federal Election Commission decision to permit political donations by text message, despite the fact that such a facility could change politics entirely. The decision was made by unanimous vote of the FEC last month, and will allow political parties and candidates to accept up to $ …

COMMENTS

House rules Send corrections
This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. LarsG
    Facepalm

    Love to borrow a friends phone and send a few donations, oooh it will be a plague for life.

    Imagine, borrow a phone, send donations to the Lib/Dems here in the UK, unauthorised of course, when the phonen owner complains and asks for his/her money back,

    "no you can't have it back, we took the payment in good faith so.... Stuff you!"

    0 0
  2. Pete 2 Silver badge

    Greater democracy?

    > Proponents reckon it'll lead to greater democracy, as politicians are always answerable to those who fund them

    Gets my vote for the most cynical justification of a new means of taking money from the credulous and dim-witted.

    5 0
    1. Vector
      Reply Icon
      Facepalm

      Re: Greater democracy?

      Silly me. I thought politicians were supposed to be answerable to their constituents.

      I know...SO 19th century...

      2 0
    2. Tom 13
      Reply Icon

      Re: Greater democracy?

      Nah. The credulous and the dim-witted don't have money to donate. So it's really the most cynical justification for money laundering we've seen since, well, the last election.

      0 0
  3. frank ly
    Devil

    "... politicians are always answerable to those who fund them ..."

    When some mega-corp plans to build a toxic metals recycling plant at the end of your street, just phone your local politician and remind him of the $200 donation you gave last year (with the implication that you won't be donating this year). Watch him get off his backside and start to fight the mega-corp.

    4 0
  4. Tom 35

    More like

    Watch politician's assistant get off their backside and start to ask the mega-corp for another $200k to ignore the locals.

    7 0
  5. Christoph

    Can a big business put an app on all the company-issued phones that it makes all the employees carry, so that each phone makes a donation every month? Out of company funds, but not linked to the company.

    0 0
    1. James Micallef Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      I'm sure some enterprising bod will work out a way to do that

      0 0
  6. AB
    Holmes

    A modest proposal

    "those who don't (by waving the fee as the operators do for some charities) are guilty of contributing to political parties that might be supported by their customers but perhaps not so popular among their shareholders."

    I take it that the inference here is that the network operator could be seen to be supporting a particular party by not taking a cut of the donation (as they would for, say, a reality TV vote).

    If that is a concern, perhaps a truly non-partisan charitable cause could be found - surely there must be such a thing - and the cut taken and diverted to said charity. Cancer research comes to mind, because it takes a special kind of person to publicly say bad things about it...

    ...not that an American lawyer hasn't already taken the trouble to do exactly that: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/18/carreon_sues_oatmeal_operation_bear_love/

    Finally: I think that donating via text sounds great but will likely lead to exactly the sort of circumvention of already breaking-at-the-seams US campaign-funding legislation that the author fears.

    0 1
    1. Martin 47
      Reply Icon

      Re: A modest proposal

      Although as Cancer Research spends a reasonable chunk of money on lobbying MP's ......... What goes around comes around.

      0 0
    2. Tom 13
      Reply Icon

      Re: A modest proposal

      No! No! And I say again No!

      The company should either take their cut, or not take their cut. They shouldn't force me to donate to some group I may have no interest in supporting, no matter how "non-partisan" you feel it is. If it is important to me I can damn well send them a donation myself without some goody-two shoes insisting on doing it for me.

      0 0
  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Next up, Texting derivatives in lieu of money for politics

    I smell a derivatives crash, I wonder what BOFH would do?

    0 0
  8. JDX Gold badge

    Just go the whole hog

    And set up America's Next President, a reality/talent show where the contenders are forced to live in a house together. Each Saturday they have to debate on certain topics and viewers vote by phone/text who to save. At the end, the most popular wins.

    2 0
  9. Al Jones

    One Dollar, One Vote

    Just like it says in the Constitution!

    (apparently)

    1 0
  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Impulse decision

    Filling in an eForm is so tedious. My choice of who I'll support to govern me for five years should be an impulse decision, so I don't have to think about it.

    1 0
  11. mfritz0
    Unhappy

    This at first looks like a good idea

    That's the trouble with politicians, too often they perform the knee-jerk action when someone suggests an idea that looks good on paper, but with some deeper thought, (which I'm sure none of those responsible for this did) it's not a good idea at all. Yet still there is no accountability for their mistakes.

    0 0
    1. JDX Gold badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: This at first looks like a good idea

      Of course there is accountability. Their party can fire them. You can vote them out in a local election. You can vote the whole party out.

      0 0
  12. cs94njw
    Thumb Up

    I never thought I'd say this, but...

    Wow, I feel sorry for the operators. In an amazing piece of seeing into the future, they've done well to envisage all the unreasonable crap that could come their way. Fair does to them.

    0 0
This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like