Carly Reilly is a senior adviser to Humanity Forward and was the national finance director for Andrew Yang’s 2020 presidential campaign.
Louis C.K.’s money is no good here — at least, that’s what some Democratic leaders have decided.
In March, the disgraced comedian donated $2,800, the maximum allowed in a primary, to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign. But last month the Biden campaign announced it had returned that donation because … umm … well, because Louis C.K. is canceled, don’t you know? Former president Barack Obama once cited C.K. as one of his favorite comedians, but that was before five women told the New York Times that he had sexually gratified himself in front of them. I guess the thinking is: Better to keep the alleged sex offender in the White House than use the money of the guy kicked off the comedy circuit for predatory masturbation.
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In April, the Biden campaign did it again, returning $2,800 from Bank of Oklahoma chair George Kaiser because he owns stakes in oil and gas businesses. To be clear: A contribution that’s worth a fraction of the cost of a campaign bus will not put Biden in the pocket of the oil industry, but it could help his team cover one of their smaller campaign bills. In a presidential election that’s likely to be as expensive as this one, we must choose pragmatism over purity.
I don’t blame the Biden campaign in this dynamic. When I was the national finance director for Andrew Yang’s presidential campaign, I too had to return contributions from people deemed politically toxic by the team of professional vetters we used to scrutinize our money. Among the donations I had to refund were those from a friend and professional associate of a Russian American mobster and a former attorney for Trump confidant Rudolph W. Giuliani. Both these men, as it happens, are Democrats, and knew better than to look for favors in exchange for their combined total gifts of $5,600 to a presidential campaign that raised over $40 million.
No matter. The people, the press, the amorphous public Twitter mob might be angry about it, I was told. What would it say about us?
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That we want to win, mostly, I figured. That Democrats are better off dirtying their hands with a no-strings-attached $2,800 than losing more seats on the Supreme Court.
I would not have cared if Giuliani himself wanted to give us $2,800, and I certainly do not care if Biden takes $2,800 from Louis C.K.
There is an experiment in the field of moral psychology where students are offered $2 to take a sip of juice into which a sterilized cockroach has been dipped. They are assured that no germs could live on the roach. Nevertheless, most students won’t do it. They can’t rationally explain it, they just find it unappealing. Disgust is a powerful thing. Much more powerful, it turns out, than common sense.
Louis C.K. is accused of harassing women and abusing his power in the comedy industry to do it. He feels gross, so his money does, too. By extension, taking that money feels gross.
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But, for the love of God, President Trump raised $212 million for his reelection campaign in the first quarter of 2020 alone. We’re going to quibble over $2,800?
Share this articleShareAgain, this queasiness is not specific to the Biden campaign. Rather, the problem is the larger environment in which Democratic politics is forced to operate. Finance directors are told by their communications directors — the ones who clean up the public scandals — that the money must go back, lest their candidate be accused of approving of every action taken by every one of their donors.
But this moralize-first, win-second approach that Democratic voters eagerly apply to our politics is a losing strategy. Every dollar matters in this fight. As I used to tell prospective donors: “A $1,000 gift affords us another month’s rent in our Portsmouth, N.H., campaign office.” To expect a candidate to forgo that support so he can signal his virtue to the base is politically foolish at best and fatal at worst. We can’t have candidates held hostage by an outrage machine that would rather win the battle even if it means losing the war. Instead, let’s accept tactical moral compromise to salvage the greater righteous triumph.
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At the end of the day, the Biden campaign just gave almost $3,000 back to someone who admitted to sexual misconduct. That seems like an odd moral victory if ever there was one. Moving forward, let’s agree Joe Biden can keep whatever $2,800 comes his way and give ourselves a real chance to win this thing.
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