The one constant in politics, liberal or conservative, is fundraising. In fundraising 101, it’s well known that belief and support are nice triggers (“I agree with you!”) — but these positive vibes are knives at a gunfight compared to rage and disgust (“I hate what he stands for!”).
Rage and disgust — that’s what really opens wallets. That’s why the leading GOP candidate for president, Donald Trump, is able to fundraise off his mugshot — the MAGA faithful react with rage and disgust to what they’ve been convinced is the “weaponization” of the Justice Department and the two-tiered justice system in America, charges that — were they true — would be cause for actual rage and disgust.
The trigger works because people act to stop what they hate with more fervor (and financial sacrifice) than they act to enable what they love.
But if Trump takes financial advantage of the rage he helps foment, he also stirs a bottomless rage on the other side — and for many on the left, the more Trump appears to flout the law, the more he appears to mock the weak, the more he appears to dog-whistle anti-Semites and white supremacists, the more rage and disgust (and despair) he triggers.
It follows then from Fundraising 101 that a lot of people will give money to those who promise to fight Trump. As a campaign message, a candidate with the bona fides that prove he’s really a Trump antagonist needs little more to loosen purse strings.
Trump scourge Adam Schiff, the Democratic California Congressman running for the Senate, knows this. Having been censured by the MAGA-led House of Representatives in which he serves — an action he met with pride, saying “You flatter me with this falsehood” — Schiff knows how to distinguish himself by the enemies he keeps.
Trump is Schiff enemy #1, and with Trump headed to California to do some fundraising, that means Schiff is doing fundraising in opposition to Trump’s appearance.
(AP reported in July that Schiff, “the lead prosecutor in then-President Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial, announced earlier this month that he had raised $8.1 million over the past three months, ending with nearly $30 million in his campaign stockpile.”)
Schiff just sent out a fundraising email about Trump’s imminent trip, promising he could save Trump donors money and reveal in advance what the former President will say during his trip:
First, he’s headlining a rally for the CA Republican Party to fire up the base with some of his usual mixture of extreme victimhood and hate.
Then, he’s heading to a high-dollar fundraiser in Costa Mesa — an event where tickets are selling for as much as $23,200 per couple.
To save you $23,200, I can summarize what we’d expect to hear from Trump at his fundraiser:
That there’s a witch hunt — led by me — going after him.
That he is absolutely, unequivocally innocent of all the charges against him (all 91 of them).
That everyone is being so terribly unfair to him. Poor fella.
That I cannot make it to the Senate, no matter what.
You get the gist. More of the same BS we’ve heard for years now.
Adam Schiff
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