"Anybody can be bought". Really?

[survivor999]

My uncle from rural Georgia visited. He's a cynical, rich bastard, and kept insisting that he COULD ofer me enough money to make me vote Republican. What is my price? I said no way in hell, but when he said he'd write me a check for 50Ks I started to wonder, to be honest... :) Do you have a price? How much would someone have to give you for you to vote Republican in Nov?

[MuseRider]

1. HELL NO!

I can't be bought at all. All we have is ourselves and our integrity, how could someone sell that?

[C_U_L8R]

2. How about this?

Hold out for 10 million and then turn around
and donate it to the Dems ???

Well maybe keep just a liiiittle bit just for the
pain and misery of having to take one for the
team and vote Republican hahahhahahha

[TahitiNut]

7. Think of it this way.

How much would it take to buy TWO reichbots and get them to vote straight Democrat? I figure it'd be cheap. So, I'd happily pocket the profit!

:shrug:

[Hav]

3. .

Interesting. How about taking the money and still vote Dem ;)?

[Mythsaje]

4. I'm a bastard...

Literally.

I might take the money. But how would THEY know how I voted? I might lie.

:evilgrin:

[survivor999]

8. Ahahahaah!

I should call the old bastard back and tlel him it's a go! I'll donate 5K to DU. 'K?

[soothsayer]

5. Saw Ibsen's "Enemy of the People" last night and realized how

complicit we ALL are in keeping the political game going as it is. Your uncle is probably right in some way, unfortunately.

[survivor999]

9. I don't have a mortgage, but

I can imagine people with kids, and mortgages being rather vulnerable to this kind of offers.

[soothsayer]

26. Precisely! But in Ibsen our hero never did give in, but the future of

his family was very, very uncertain (and seemed sort of doomed) at the end.

[Mythsaje]

6. I'm reminded of a quote...

Damned if I remember where it comes from...

It goes something like this. "Everyone has a price. But the price of a good man is more than evil can afford."

[TheWraith]

10. Other.

I'd accept the money, then vote Democratic. I have principles. Honesty isn't always one of them, but seperating fools from their money is. Besides which, I have bills to consider.

[SoCalDem]

11. Take his money, say you voted for a republican and

then vote for a democrat.. he cannot go inside the booth with you :evilgrin:

[johnaries]

34. Yep, and donate half the cash to the Dems. nt

[Warpy]

12. Other

My price would be enough trillions to change this world forever, starting at the bottom.

According to Jim Wallis, it would cost 8 billion dollars to have basic education worldwide.

It would cost only a little more to feed the hungry worldwide.

It costs less than that to vaccinate kids against diseases they don't need to catch and which occasionally kill them.

It only costs a few billions to assure people of clean water.

It only costs a few hundred millions to get micro loan programs for women started worldwide.

It would only take a few billion to pour into research for renewable energy wordwide.

And it would take a million per Congressman to buy their votes for national health insurance in the US, getting a progressive taxation system written into the constitution, and publicly funding SHORT campaigns for public office.

Then we could work on getting rid of the corporations as persons fiction and the money is speech and not property fiction.

So yes, I'd have a price. It's a price the rich and powerful would not be willing to pay, whether or not they had a clue what I'd do with it.

[Mojambo]

13. This is to vote Republican in one election?

If so I'd do it for 50 grand.

Yes, that makes me less principled than everyone else in this thread, but it would also retire my parents comfortably and put my nephew through college.

All for one vote in one election. Yeah. I'd do it.

[survivor999]

14. Yup. Only Nov 2006 election; vote straight Repub ticket.

[Lilith Velkor]

29. Make sure the check clears first

You know how Repubs are about spending money they don't have.

[Greyhound]

15. A million for sure, $320K gets me thinking real hard. n/t

[bigluckyfeet]

33. I would take the money

then give it to Democratic candidate's

[Union Thug]

16. I'd take the money and then tell them to F* off. Simple :-) n/t

[bluerum]

19. Second that! nt

[bobbolink]

17. Not Shirley Chisholm.

Maybe he doesn't remember character and integrity.

Goddess, I miss Shirley! :cry:

[bluerum]

18. This is the mentality of the rich - and the squatters in the white house.

Fuck-em.

Take their money and vote for every Democrat on the ticket.

edit: sp.

[MADem]

20. For a million dollars, I'd vote Republican in a heartbeat!!!!!

I'd write in RICHARD NIXON :evilgrin:

[survivor999]

21. Hey, where are your principles!

:)

[MADem]

24. I'd write in RICHARD NIXON for every contest--that's a Republican vote

Then I'd take the money and donate it to Democrats and PACs in the run up to 08. I'd put a bit by to do a few scathing TV ads, too, if need be.

I live in a bright blue state, so I'd rent my principles to benefit national contests.

[sandnsea]

22. He'd just sue you

over some legal loophole and steal it all back - so no, no Republican could pay me enough to trust them with my vote.

[iamahaingttta]

23. This year?

I would vote a straight Republican ticket for $50,000.

I live in New York City, so it wouldn't really matter.
Our Republicans are like Democrats most other places.
Wouldn't bother me, because there aren't any races here this year that I would need to be concerned about.

Of course, nobody's offering, so I'll vote Democratic...

[FormerDittoHead]

25. It would have to be like $40k *JUST* *TO* *BREAK* *EVEN*...

Considering the added debt plus the interest. THIS IS PER ELECTION...

[karlrschneider]

27. You could actually "vote republican" without much effect...pick out

some local race like county commissioner, judge, district attorney, dog-catcher...and vote for the pub in ONLY that one...you could honestly say you DID 'vote republican'
:D

[MADem]

28. Or follow my plan, and write in a Republican--preferably a dead one. NT

[ccinamon]

30. 1M - only cuz I live in DFW

and Dems have a hard time winning in this area.

[BlooInBloo]

31. It's posed as a "difficult conundrum", but it really isn't....

There are a jillion ways to make it PERFECTLY right/moral/whatever to take the money - without lying.

Just one example for the unimaginative among us. Take the $1 million, and give $500k to Democratic GOTV campaigns. It's guaranteed that that money will get you FAR more Democratic votes that the single republican vote it cost you. Hence you get $500k, AND you helped the good guys AND you didn't lie/cheat/deceive.

There are jillions of other possible routes to taking the money being the moral choice. One just needs a little bit of imagination.

[survivor999]

40. But then, why did all the early Christian martyrs die

Just because they refused to SAY that they renounced Christianity? Some people have a certain pride that has nothing to do with pragmatism... Not one of them, BTW :)

[BlooInBloo]

43. huh?

[Arkana]

32. Not under any circumstances.

I don't trust Pubes. Even if I agreed, a neocon would just stop payment on the check.

[NuttyFluffers]

35. i'd take him for all that i could...

preferrably for a few million, perhaps more.

why?

because with that money i can bribe 100s (possibly 1000s) of otherwise non-political, or too busy poor people, to actually go vote *and* potentially sway them to vote the way i tell them to. and i might end up with a profit at the end of the day, too.

:)

cynical? not really. effective? yes! profitable? yes!

see, the trick is not to see it as a selling out of your values, but as the means to get what you want and parting a sucker of his ill-gotten/deserved gains (if you vote republican, one or the other is true -- because otherwise "why do you hate america?"). so why not? you do a good deed and reallocate the fortunes of the universe for the greater good. there really is no downside to this -- as long as you are creative. oh, there's the "means don't justify the ends" idea, but if you really think about it you are doing far more good in your means and ends than by being so obstinant.

:7

[MrSlayer]

36. I'm not in a position to be turning down hundreds of thousands of dollars.

I would take the money even down to 80k. Less than that doesn't really change my position much.

[tinfoilinfor2005]

37. I think there are a lot of liars posting here.

I'd turn down a million bucks. :patriot: Sure I would. :rofl:

I donate to the democratic party, I work for the democratic and I am a good democrat. But I'm not stupid. I could do an awful lot with a million bucks, including feeding thousands of hungry kids and their parents that the republican party has left homeless and helpless.

[readmoreoften]

38. I'll take any amount of money.

And then vote straight democratic ticket in the privacy of the voting booth.

[readmoreoften]

39. OR....

I'd turn them in for vote tampering and cause another republican scandal.

[survivor999]

41. Hmmmmm. That's a nice idea.

[zanne]

42. Ummmmm..........

Talk about a million dollar question! I don't know what I'd do if somebody offered me a million dollars to vote Republican. I'd like to think I'd refuse the money, but I doubt it. Would I only have to vote Republican once?

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

44. 50 Grand? I'd Take It.

I know every vote counts, but I'd think the chances one in a billion that my one lost vote would change the outcome of the election I was voting in. Therefore, I'd be a fool to not take a free 50 grand based on meaningless principle.

I would not take it, however, if the race was soooooooo close that my one vote might definitely make the difference, or if it wasn't just me being offered the 50g, but a ton of voters, thereby really reducing the number of dem votes because we were bought off. But if it was just me, and everybody else was to vote legitimately, fuck yeah, I'd take it.