Our President’s leadership style has sometimes been described as “transactional.” That’s a delicate way of saying he sees the world as a marketplace where buying, selling and trading are the sole forms of human interaction, where money can buy anything and virtually anything goes.
You’re a tax cheat who needs a Presidential pardon? Donate to my campaign war chest. A foreign sheikh who wants an air force training base in Montana? Give me a gold-plated Boeing 747 to serve as Air Force One. Need to get laid without Melania finding out? Pick up a porn star (buy now, pay later with a $130,000 non-disclosure contract). Scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.
Simple. Reward those who appease, flatter, bribe and spread their legs. Be equally zealous to insult, bully and prosecute anyone who offends or calls out your behavior for what it is: shameless and mercenary.
Now Trump is taking the “art of the deal” to new levels with attempts to buy the upcoming midterm elections.
Money has always had purchasing power at the ballot box. At twelve billion dollars and counting, the contest to see who controls the next Congress promises to be the most expensive ever.
But never has the sales job been so brazen or naked. Just this week, Trump doubled down on his pledge to give $5000 to every U.S. citizen provided MAGA retains ownership of the House and Senate. He's already mailing checks for $500 to roughly one million Affordable Care Act enrollees a month ahead of Election Day, and checks for $90 to twenty million more Americans on Medicare. Each of these checks will be accompanied by a letter, signed by Trump, touting his accomplishments at lowering healthcare costs for ordinary Americans.
That’s the transaction. I send you money (actually your own money, since these are taxpayer funds being disbursed). In return, vote for me. Quid pro quo.
Is it too cynical to imagine that Trump might resort to other kinds of “financial inducements” to win? Bribe a County Clerk here and there? Cause a polling place in a Democratic District to temporarily lose power on November 3? You don’t have to imagine worst case scenarios like declarations of martial law to interfere with the election. Just money being passed into the right hands.
What recourse do we have? Voting early and in overwhelming numbers is probably our best bet. To paraphrase a very different President, you can buy some of the people some of the time, but you can’t buy all of the people, not this time. Republicans may corrupt a precinct captain here, a presiding judge there. But record turnout and ballots banked early will still turn the MAGA majority of the 119th Congress out of office, sending them back home and many off to jail, where they belong.
For early voting times, places and locations visit SantaFe.vote
