Bitcoin campaign contribution trick... silly idea??

[evoorhees]

Okay I had a thought today, please tell me if and how it is silly/screwed up.

Many of us want to be able to use Bitcoins to donate to political campaigns  ::cough:: Ron Paul  ::cough::  However, it seems campaigns have strict limits on A) where money can come from and B) how much can be donated. If I'm a Bitcoin billionaire, say I want to donate a huge amount... how can I do it?

Suppose the following:

1) Anyone interested in this scheme signs up at a special website,
2) BTC is donated by X-number of charitable donors to a trusted account held at this website.
3) The BTC is then converted to USD. There is now one big pool of dollars.
4) USD is now distributed evenly to all the members of the website. It is given to them somehow - but they cannot control it.
5) The site then forces all members to donate what they received to the specified political candidate ($2,500 each max or whatever the rules say)
6) The political candidate then receives a huge sum of donations, each from an individual, and each within the allowable limit. The campaign never needs to know Bitcoins were involved. The campaign probably couldn't even reject it, because they wouldn't know whose donations were "authentic"

This strategy could certainly also be done with normal currency... and the reason it hasn't been done is probably good evidence that my plan is very silly and this will be addressed by you all =)

[Lupus_Yonderboy]

Strawman transactions for political contributions are expressly illegal in the US. Although a corporation apparently has unlimited rights to donate as they please. See Citizens United. Or the American Crossroads group. Republican groups have long figured out how to dump millions of dollars into their candidates' coffers by cirumventing the law, so look to them for guidance.

[evoorhees]

Okay, so perhaps it's as simple as, "anyone who was caught doing that would be in big trouble."   

[iCEBREAKER]

Strawman transactions for political contributions are expressly illegal in the US. Although a corporation apparently has unlimited rights to donate as they please. See Citizens United. Or the American Crossroads group. Republican groups have long figured out how to dump millions of dollars into their candidates' coffers by cirumventing the law, so look to them for guidance.

That's all true, but don't forget to include a study of George Soros and other limousine liberals' use of Foundations to fund Democrat BS.

There's no way, short of sting operations, to prevent BitCoin billionaires from using poor Ron Paul supporters as donation cut-outs.

Maybe it's easier to just contribute to the grassroots and meet-ups than the official orgs.

[Jaime Frontero]

Strawman transactions for political contributions are expressly illegal in the US. Although a corporation apparently has unlimited rights to donate as they please. See Citizens United. Or the American Crossroads group. Republican groups have long figured out how to dump millions of dollars into their candidates' coffers by cirumventing the law, so look to them for guidance.

That's all true, but don't forget to include a study of George Soros and other limousine liberals' use of Foundations to fund Democrat BS.

There's no way, short of sting operations, to prevent BitCoin billionaires from using poor Ron Paul supporters as donation cut-outs.

Maybe it's easier to just contribute to the grassroots and meet-ups than the official orgs.

That's all true, but don't forget to include a study of George Soros and other limousine liberals' use of Foundations to fund Democrat BS.

oh.  did we forget that the left side of the aisle learned the foundation-funding trick from Cato, and numerous other conservative foundations - all of whom were there first?

however, it doesn't really matter to me.

and my compliments on your correct usage of the apostrophe.

[evoorhees]

How about this... anyone should be able to send any amount of money to anyone, whenever. Liberal or conservative. (as if there's a difference)

[Jaime Frontero]

How about this... anyone should be able to send any amount of money to anyone, whenever. Liberal or conservative. (as if there's a difference)

agreed.  and i'll point out that it's quite possible.

given the Citizens United decision, all you have to do is incorporate.

[lemonginger]

I was just about to say. Form a shell corp. Donate as a corp. Or form a political action group that funds pro-liberty messages. Some laws there, but not near as many. See swiftboats, etc.

[billyjoeallen]

How about this... anyone should be able to send any amount of money to anyone, whenever. Liberal or conservative. (as if there's a difference)

I agree. Everyone has the right to be stupid. I won't tell you you can't donate to Ron Paul, but I think you'd be fooling to do so. Don't get me wrong I voted for him in 1988 before it was cool. I just learned a few things since then. The System can't be reformed. The problem is the system.

The State is inherently evil. You couldn't reform the mafia by selecting a good Don. You can't fix the KKK by electing a good Grand Wizard. The State is bad because it is a monopoly of initiatory violence and the ultimate arbiter of disputes, including disputes with itself.  Don't change that and you haven't really changed anything. Change that and it isn't a government anymore.

[Astro]

Don't get me wrong I voted for him in 1988 before it was cool.

Hipster.

[iCEBREAKER]

....Republican groups have long figured out how to dump millions of dollars into their candidates' coffers by cirumventing the law, so look to them for guidance.

That's all true, but don't forget to include a study of George Soros and other limousine liberals....

oh.  did we forget that the left side of the aisle learned the foundation-funding trick from Cato, and numerous other conservative foundations - all of whom were there first?

I am assigning blame to both sides of the aisle. 

You failed to comprehend that I already acknowledged GOP corruption tales as "all true" in your haste to pretend that one party is worse than the other.

Don't you realize that Obama is Bush on steroids? 

Get over the partisan nonsense, so we can move forward with BitCoins and a post-political economy based on actual production, instead of nepotism and printing fiat money.

/Watch out! The Koch Bros are buying up all the BitCoins!  Booga-booga!