The Mothership Vortex: An Investigation Into the Firm at the Heart of the Democratic Spam Machine

[Celerity]

How a single consulting firm extracted $282 million from a network of spam PACs while delivering just $11 million to actual campaigns.

https://data4democracy.substack.com/p/the-mothership-vortex-an-investigation



The digital deluge is a familiar annoyance for anyone on a Democratic fundraising list. It's a relentless cacophony of bizarre texts and emails, each one more urgent than the last, promising that your immediate $15 donation is the only thing standing between democracy and the abyss.

The main rationale offered for this fundraising frenzy is that it's a necessary evil—that the tactics, while unpleasant, are brutally effective at raising the money needed to win. But an analysis of the official FEC filings tells a very different story. The fundraising model is not a brutally effective tool for the party; it is a financial vortex that consumes the vast majority of every dollar it raises.

We all have that one obscure skill we’ve inadvertently maxed out. Mine happens to be navigating the labyrinth of campaign finance data. So, after documenting the spam tactics in a previous article, I told myself I’d just take a quick look to see who was behind them and where the money was going.

That "quick look" immediately pulled me in. The illusion of a sprawling grassroots movement, with its dozens of different PAC names, quickly gave way to a much simpler and more alarming reality. It only required pulling on a single thread—tracing who a few of the most aggressive PACs were paying—to watch their entire manufactured world unravel. What emerged was not a diverse network of activists, but a concentrated ecosystem built to serve the firm at its center: Mothership Strategies.

From Party Insiders to Extraction Engineers................

snip

[CloudWatcher]

1. Makes me ill

Think of how much better our elections could have turned out without this soul-sucker taking over 98% of the contributions.

The financial waste, staggering as it is, pales beside the deeper damage. Every fabricated deadline, every manipulative text, every email screaming that democracy will end without your $15—each one burns through something more valuable than money: trust. The party that claims to defend democracy is systematically deceiving the very people who believe in it most.

[cadoman]

2. is it really that bad? is this an age or tech skills thing?

I am judicious with my STOP and UNSUBSCRIBE commands but maybe the average donor isn't? I really don't experience the spam that so many on here describe.

I have seen my poor parents suffer under a deluge of fundraising mail. My poor father makes the mistake of sending small amounts to dozens of charities. But it's his money and I guess maybe he like the attention?

[progressoid]

3. I briefly switched texting apps and felt it

I had purchased a new phone before the last election. After a few days of use, I decided to try the built in app for texting instead. When the new app opened, I was flooded with over 80 texts from people I have never heard of. That's when I found out how many spam texts the Google texting app had quarantined.

Ironically, I preferred the other app to the Google one, but ultimately went back to Google because their spam filter was superior.

[Abolishinist]

4. Thanks for this, more people need to be made aware.

The majority of our donations anymore are to animal welfare groups, the performing arts, and children's organizations. I've had it with adult people.

[NoPasaran]

5. I must be getting a bargain rate

I can save democracy just by ponying up three bucks according to most of the texts that I get.

[Akakoji]

7. I guess you haven't tried it yet.

They are just making you pay to collect your information. For spare change to pay to run their database systems.

[Akakoji]

6. I just responded to this at another post

Amen! But it still does not explain why Democrats have not taken action to stop it.

Ask yourselves why I have this prepared response all set up. I'm not retyping it 50 times a day. I'm never, ever giving money to a Democratic politician again. I'll vote for them, unless they have completely worn me down when the time to do so comes around

Democratic nominees keep insulting and demeaning voters with texts, calls, and emails.

They still are not list listening. Some even use information I consider private. When someone out of the blue - at least 50 new people a day beg for money every single day - uses my first and last name along with other information, contacts me to ask for money, or claims they are introducing themselves while begging for money, I immediately got to info on my phone and block that number. Then, I delete and report the caller. I know that will NOT do anything, that the candidate most likely has contracted with a company to do this trawling, but it's a form of self affirmation for me at this point. It takes me at least 45 minutes a day to do this, as you can't just do it from one device anymore. Once it comes through any device it has to be deleted on that device. I typically use a phone, tablet, and desktop.

Besides, the carriers bill me anyway for this ongoing predation, so why would they actually do anything but ignore it? I can still see on my monthly bill the hundreds of calls and texts made by people harassing me. If you try to respond directly to them, or go to their websites to communicate with them, all you get is a form to donate money, then an onslaught of new texts and calls and emails asking for money. This even happens when you donate money to them according to colleagues that still do so.

Democrats just don't understand that people are being forced to hold their money more tightly, and that many of us are being buried alive by the GOP policies that are being instituted. They think only of themselves, and collecting money. Why would I ever believe, or even listen to anyone that comes at me in this manner? I accidentally blocked a doctor who was following up using a text based system that everyone seems to have adopted. Along with an AI based system that does not understand my responses.

Ask yourselves why I have this prepared response all set up. I'm not retyping it 50 times a day. I'm never, ever giving money to a Democratic politician again. I'll vote for them, unless they have completely worn me down when the time to do so comes around. I don't want to hear the mewling that everyone collects money this way, or that it is impossible to talk directly to each potential voter and as them for their vote and their money. Because that's a reality that exists only in their head, or the plan conconted by their handlers and campaign managers.

If anyone wants my vote or my money, they will ask for it in person. At this point, they probably have no way to even hear this feedback and declaration of agency if indeed they are trying to listen. The system didn't change. For 50 years of my life I've voted for and given money to people that asked me for it, sometime in very early morning or late hours while I was commuting to work.

Until recently, Republican have had no problems doing this. That's why they keep winning. Not because they have better policies, or even beneficial policies, than Democrats. They just make sure that people feel heard. Because in this attention driven world and economy in which people believe that being heard is a sign of support and affirmation, that's all that maters.

It's just the latest incarnation of the bread and circus form of politics that has previously been described as resentment politics. People desperately want to feel like they belong to something; that they have connected. Responding to an online or otherwise invasive communication doesn't get anywhere near there.

[MadameButterfly]

9. I think we need to distinguish between

PACs created by the Mothership that take most of the money for themselves and politicians who need grass roots donations because they don't have PACS and don't take corporate money.

Without fundraising, you won't have any Democractic candidates to vote for. The Republicans have more billionaires. Obama won on small dollar donations raised online.

Yes, the system needs to be changed, but we need a majority for Campaign finance reform and a SCOTUS majority to end Citizens United.
The low hanging fruit here is the DNC allowing the Mothership pacs to take 98% of donations. This is a self-inflicted injury and we can't win if the DNC isn't looking out for us.

[red dog 1]

8. Thanks, Celerity, for posting this,

and thanks to Adam Bonica for writing it. L

To DNC, DCCC, and DSCC, SHUT IT DOWN!

[dickthegrouch]

10. Was there ever any authoritative response to this fraud?

Did any of the Dem hierarchies do anything to curb this theft of our money from the candidates we thought we were giving it to?
It sure doesn’t seem like it, I’m getting just as many emails and texts as ever. All of which are being reported as spam or junk.