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Below (between the double lines of asterisks) is the bulk of the text of a mass e-mail that arrived my e-mailbox this afternoon:
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GET INVOLVED IN VIRGINIA DEMOCRATIC POLITICS!
AND GET PAID DOING IT!
Description:
Northern Virginia Democratic political campaign is looking to hire paid canvassers for the final weeks of a June election. This political experience is a resume-builder and will help build connections for future political work.
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What’s this?! A major political party is offering money – actual $$$$$ – to people to politic! Should such a thing be legal?!?!? Will not the honest voice and unalloyed will of The People be drowned out and polluted by such a nefarious influence?!
Sure, apologists for monied interests will concoct some half-baked story of how knowledge of the candidates and of the issues is not a free good that is rained down upon The People by nature. These dollar-wad-wagging influencers will “explain” that money is “necessary” to call forth the resources (including campaign workers) that must be used to make the body-politic more informed about elections. Shamelessly catering to the greed of their oligarchical masters, clever talking heads and pundits will assert – fantastically! – that offering to pay people money to spread information about elections is protected in the United States by the First Amendment. Ha! We all see through these lame and self-serving excuses.
I do hope and trust that Ms. Clinton, the editors of the New York Times, and other sensible souls who understand that people should not be free to spend money in politics will condemn this and other efforts to distort and even destroy vox populi with avari pecuniam.