G.O.P. Group Warns of 'Defector' List If Donors Uncheck Recurring Box

[teach1st]

Source: New York Times

The political arm of House Republicans is deploying a prechecked box to enroll donors into repeating monthly donations — and using ominous language to warn them of the consequences if they opt out: “If you UNCHECK this box, we will have to tell Trump you’re a DEFECTOR.”

The language appears to be an effort by the National Republican Congressional Committee to increase its volume of recurring donations, which are highly lucrative, while invoking former President Donald J. Trump’s popularity with the conservative base. Those donors who do not proactively uncheck the box will have their credit cards billed or bank accounts deducted for donations every month.

The prechecked box is the same tactic and tool that resulted in a surge of refunds and credit card complaints when used by Mr. Trump’s campaign last year, according to an investigation published by The New York Times over the weekend. The Trump operation made the language inside its prechecked boxes increasingly opaque as the election neared. Consumer advocates and user-interface designers said the prechecked boxes were a “dark pattern” intended to deceive Mr. Trump’s supporters.

The Trump operation issued more than $122 million in refunds in the 2020 cycle, which was 10.7 percent of what Mr. Trump’s campaign, the Republican National Committee and their shared accounts raised. Refunds increased as the campaign began prechecking the boxes, which at one point withdrew donations every week as well as introduced a “money bomb” that doubled a contribution.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/07/us/politics/republicans-donations-trump.html

---

[bluestarone]

1. WOW! THIS in it self would make a person

Tell them to GO TO HELL!!!!

[SoCalDavidS]

11. You're Giving The MORONS Way Too Much Credit

When they read that their Cult Leader will learn of their defection, they'll be sure that box stays checked.

[RVN VET71]

26. To be fair, Bluestarone said it would make "a person"

tell them to go to hell, a person, not a moronic Trumpist cypher without enough sense to know when they’re being abused -- or, perhaps, who just like being abused.

[mac2766]

37. Understand who you may be calling "MORONS"

Just like telemarketing scams, this may be a scam that is targeting older people who watch Fox "news". I generally give a pass to elderly people who, to be fare, in their time didn't have to endure the constant barrage of scamming techniques being used today. While they are probably either less informed or mis-informed about quite a few things, they certainly don't need to be called a moron. A more constructive approach might be that we help them become better informed, or that we push to have changes made that will limit the amount of mis-information being broadcast on Fox "news" and hateful talk radio broadcasts.

[brush]

49. I know, right? What are they thinking? Because of that, many won't...

donate at all. That's borderline extortion as it implies, no, it promises that if a donor doesn't continue to donation something bad will happen to them.

That party is becoming out-and-out criminal.

[cloudbase]

2. Better than being defective. n/t

[Bristlecone]

19. Knowing these clowns, that's what they meant and they misspelled it.

[sop]

3. What'll they do, send you to a gulag?

[unweird]

17. Stop, that'll encourage them

They would like to able to banish those of us they consider the others.

[LakeArenal]

4. Oh gosh to be a trump defector. Sounds about right.

[Justice matters.]

36. I hope they'll defecate.

Defecate meaning: Discharge feces from the body.

[LakeArenal]

42. Maybe at the sentencing hearings. 25Years maskholes.

[aggiesal]

5. Here's more rope. GQP, please continue with this course of action n/t

[Wingus Dingus]

6. LOL, what kind of idiot responds to this sort of thing?

I think they know their idiots, actually.

[SWBTATTReg]

7. These thugs are using their time honored business practices of fake universities, fake rump steaks,

fake fancy hotels, and now, donating to a fake national party, called the republican party, forever!

It was a nice touch too, to threaten donors too, with regards to their choices on these in-house, republican created, distributed to no one else but republican party entities, that if they didn't chose the box/choice to endlessly donate forever until said donor died or passed away or unchecked the box, resulting in multiple donations not intended originally by donors, that these same donors would be considered to have went over to the dreaded 'Dems'!

This elegant and ongoing ripoff, authored by only the one and only, donald j trumpt (who else?)!

These guys are nothing but crooks.

[ancianita]

40. Yep, good way to look at it -- the old time honored racketeering, now brought to campaigns.

No matter how dressed up crooks are, they're still mafia, the time honored henchmen of fascism. For those who recognize it, racketeering is never elegant.

[SWBTATTReg]

46. Well put, well put! The new crooks of America, made valid by the likes of rump. I hope that

one day, these thugs are taken down a notch, and they're doing a fine job of taking themselves down, they've lost the House, lost the Senate, lost the presidency, and lost the respect of most Americans. The only one standing are those supporting the moronic djt. I can't wait until they start prosecuting trump for his stealing campaign funds (his daughter) among other things.

Take care and be safe!

[ancianita]

47. ...

[machoneman]

8. Dumb indeed! Great for us.

[bringthePaine]

9. face it: refuKKKchickens are no longer a party, just a shitty gang of pissy losers...

[Eugene]

10. Which totalitarian country are they using as their example?

You want to give your absolutely full support to The Party, don't you? Don't you?


Unconscionable. Unethical. Unfortunately, this might just work with many too many Trump supporters.

[BumRushDaShow]

12. What is this, a "Sopranos"-style shakedown?

They need to do some serious FEC investigation into the NRCC.

[Captain Zero]

27. Thugpublicans.

Now I think.

[Sucha NastyWoman]

13. In so many ways the Republic Party seems bent on self-destruction

Only the racists and extreme crazies will keep sticking with them if they keep this kind of stuff up.

And they don’t seem to be able to learn from their mistakes.

[keithbvadu2]

14. You don't have to uncheck it. Shred your name/address, and the form.

You don't have to uncheck it.

Shred your name/address, and the form.

A recurring zero donation.

[NH Ethylene]

16. Exactly. After hearing about Trump's shakedown with recurring donations,

The sight of that checked box - threat combo should make it all sink in once and for all.

[NCjack]

34. And, have your credit card account number changed.

[monkeyman1]

15. if this is all they got !!

republican party remind's me of the every day comedy's on late night tv. better not uncheck the box's or the ex- illegitimate president will have a fit & crap his depend's ! people , goony donny is officially irrelevant now. if the media would just ignore him , he,d end up in the mental ward from lack of attention . plane & simple .

[Escurumbele]

18. Call to good reporters, an investigation must be made on what trump has on republicans that they are

so afraid of him.

No one, and I mean, NO ONE, who has any sense would bow to the buffoon named donald trump. It is so obvious that HE IS a buffoon, an ignorant, a con etc.

What trash does he have on all these republicans that they have become such sheep, so afraid of an ignorant like trump? What is going on?

I really thought this was Andrew Borowitz who had written this. This is not normal, this is out of a fantasy book where the evil magician takes hold of the minds of his followers...There has to be so much trash that trump accumulated on so many of them, he may have even extended their corruption, and I say it like this because I do believe 99% of these republicans in public office were already corrupt.

"we will have to tell trump you're a DEFECTOR"...the boogie man is coming after you if you defect, and that boogie man is trump!

Where did these people leave their dignity, did they ever have one?

[rpannier]

20. "If you UNCHECK this box, we will have to tell Trump you're a DEFECTOR."

If you gave them money, how does that make you a defector?

[birdographer]

21. Well, if you uncheck it

you are defecting and leaving the party, of course! What a traitor you are! Kind of unbelievable, but they will believe it.

[oasis]

22. "Deplorable For Life" was pre-checked when they first embraced the sorry

piece of shit.💩

[bahboo]

23. they gonna send a decoder ring or something to donors next....

Adolescent fucks...

[rickyhall]

25. I remember when they used to call this organised crime.

[calimary]

28. It's highway robbery, dammit. What a shakedown.

They’re really shameless, not to mention devious, sneaky, and criminal!

[cstanleytech]

29. Just when you think the Republicans cannot sink any further they prove you wrong.

[elleng]

30. Scared, eh?

[monkeyman1]

31. there scared of pence might beat the x-fat man now ! what a joke the party is now!

[Mickju]

32. That's really, really ugly.

[dobleremolque]

33. It's the Monday thru Saturday message that these people

hear in church from the pulpit on Sunday: "Jesus isn't going to make you rich if you don't give ME money."

[Martin68]

35. Once you join the Cult, they never let you leave.

[Kid Berwyn]

38. NAZIs kept lists.

From Edwin Black:

Newly-released documents expose more explicitly the details of IBM’s pivotal role in the Holocaust — all six phases: identification, expulsion from society, confiscation, ghettoization, deportation, and even extermination. Moreover, the documents portray with crystal clarity the personal involvement and micro-management of IBM president Thomas J. Watson in the company’s co-planning and co-organizing of Hitler’s campaign to destroy the Jews.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ibm-holocaust_b_1301691

[mac2766]

39. If this image, and story, were to be broadcast correctly....

It could bring to light the manipulation that the right has been using. My in-laws, who are in their 80's, were Democrats until they got cable and started watching Fox "news". Now they only know that they hate the liberal Democrats. Why they hate them, they can't explain. They just know that they hate them.

The terms "Radical Left", "DEFECTOR" (in caps), "sided with the Dems", and "get Trump to run in 2024", are all triggers to get supporters to leave the box checked. They invoke emotions like hate, fear, and excitement. I believe that Fox "news" and hate media use the same tactics to keep people tuning in. I also believe that those who are using Facebook to propagate hate are using the same tactics.

Just ask a person who hates the liberal Democrats why they hate them. They'll spew nonsense, but generally they don't have a valid reason. They simply know that they hate them. It's the same group of emotions that a Green Bay Packers fan feels toward the Minnesota Vikings. They simply know that they hate them. Of course, a football fan might have a few examples of why they hate their opponent. The NFL generates a ton of money by promoting rivalry tactics.

Edit: I forgot to include the emotion guilt, which is a big one. Guilt is probably the most important emotion to take advantage of.

[riversedge]

41. I read the first paragraph and thought it was the Onion -then looked at was NYT!! 4th grade bullies

are in charge of the Repug party.

[lagomorph777]

43. Hilariously idiotic. This will drive away donors en masse.

Scare the shit out of 'em. Brilliant.

[cynical_idealist]

44. T-shirt:

TRUMP SUCKER

(No money left for your scam).

[Paladin]

45. That right there is some sick, fascistic shit.

That's goose-stepping, Josef Goebbels-level bullying. Too bad the present-day version of the Republican Party has lost all capacity for shame. Thanks for nothing, trump.

[Mysterian]

48. Der fuhrer vill be vellly deespleezed!!

Ve are making lists and checking them twice for undesirables!

[tonekat]

50. The smell of desperation...

...and flop sweat nearly comes off the screen.