They just needed $1000 for something (I can't remember what) so the company spent $5000 on a party to raise the money and came up $50 short. I never could figure out the logic. Any one of the executives could have given the band the $1000 out of their pocket change.

If Sanders is the nominee - I will do so in the GE too.

And no - I don't throw $250K parties. It would take away from my community kitchen and the local food bank. We live a simple life for a reason.

So yeah, I can imagine that.

I just realize that there is no capacity for me or anyone I know or associate with to actually do that.

You're about an order of magnitude ahead of my imagination right now.

But a lot of people do have enough disposable income that they could (and do) make large contributions to politicians. The reason the individual contribution is limited to $2700 is to keep them from donating more, thus allowing us the illusion that politicians can't be bought by rich donors. Of course, the big money goes to the PACs, which are adept at buying politicians.

I've known lots of people, though, who were and who did. All were Democrats. Some were attorneys. Others were medical professionals. I knew these people because I was a classical musician on a semi-pro level and a political activist. That often let me move in social circles that I normally wouldn't have been part of.

Simply because someone earns enough money to make such donations says nothing whatsoever about them. That's something I have learned. A lot of candidates for local and state legislative offices depend on such donations to fund their campaigns. Without them, they wouldn't be able to campaign in a way that let them win. Campaign donations are part of most campaigns for office. Running for office costs money.

I could do away with my family's cell phones. That's an extravegance. That would get me close to half waybthere, but that seems to be about all the fat I could trim in order to maximize my voice in the political conversation.

Donate whatever amount you are comfortable with. If enough do that (as he has already proven) he will have plenty.

But I still have plenty in savings & manage to put a few hundred away every month.

I can't and that is a whole other world to me which I certainly don't live in at all.
You know, I wish someone would come up with something decent. Something along the lines of $1 per person for an entire campaign cycle.
The amount of money in politics is absolutely astounding and it speaks volumes our country as a whole. It's sad and pathetic. All of our voices should count as important as everybody else's, no matter what side of the aisle you're on.

The whole "some people's lives are worth more than others" is a complete Randian thought process.

Pretty sure I have spent at least that much on his campaign and will probably reach the limit on donations alone. That said, I feel fortunate to be able to what I can and it is a sacrifice.

my charitable deduction was about $2k last year including $1k to the local food bank.

Bullshit to attack Bernie, I push the donate button. I may hit the max next week.

I'm not real likely to donate that much, but I might make an effort to do so for Bernie. I've already contributed a couple of hundred dollars and will be giving more as things move on.

I will not donate a penny to Hillary, even if she becomes the nominee. She'll have plenty of money from big donors and doesn't need, and probably doesn't give a rip about people like me.

That has some tax benefits that contributions don't, though, so even if we gave up on charity we still couldn't donate $2400 together, let alone $2700. I've donated $75 to O'Malley and will probably round it up to $100 before Iowa.

for both primary and general elections.

that… is as much as 5% of households make in a year

so over the course of the entire campaign process I will have given the full 2700.00 that i am allowed to give...but I would not be able to give it all at once

They go to charitable organizations. I don't consider Clinton or Sanders to fall into that category.

A good portion of your thought experiment here use to be based in the American Dream. Not so much anymore as fewer and fewer people have real disposable income and the prospect that they can get there has been severely diminished.

Although I am in a position to give a lump sum of that amount I wouldn't.