They Really Do Think We're Stupid

And maybe they're right.

I got a fundraising email from a Democratic Party outfit yesterday:

We wish we had better news.

But Democrats are about to lose our shot at winning the North Carolina Special Election.

And almost no one -- seriously NO ONE -- is donating.

The numbers don’t lie: if we don’t hit our mid-day fundraising goals, Trump will CRUSH us.

The implication was that a donation before noon on election day could affect the outcome of the election being held that day. Which, of course, is BS. The only situation in which it might do so would be a recount situation, which couldn't be predicted in advance. There's almost no way that a donation sent at, say, 10am could have been received and deployed on anything that would have impacted the outcome at the ballot box.

Yes, it was weasel-worded so that if called on it they could say "oh, no, what we really meant was that if we don't raise money now, we'll lose future elections, including the 2020 presidential race." But there's no doubt what impression they were trying to convey.

I wonder how many recipients pulled out their debit cards, honestly believing that their dollars might make a difference yesterday in North Carolina. I have to assume that at least some did. These guys aren't new at this stuff. They monitor which kinds of emails do well and what kinds don't, and they wouldn't have sent this one if they didn't expect it to bring in money.