funding

OP-ED : You Scratch My Back and I’ll Scratch Yours

The famous idiom, “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” or you do a favor for me and I’ll do a favor for you can be used in so many different levels of any kind of profession. Maybe more commonly, but very unnoticed in Politics. In politics you have an obligation to your constituents because they are the ones who voted for you and will keep you there if you decide to run again, but running a campaign requires money and this money does not come from you or a single person, rather a collective group, but unfortunately your constituents can sometimes be the people that contribute the least amount of money to your campaign. When you have a person or a group with a wealthy background, you might want to get on his or her good side. This is where “You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” comes in hand. When someone needs something and in return you get something out of it, this is what politics is all about. From the nation to the state to the local governments, everyone needs something done and there are many willing to give something in return.

According to many politicians, they don’t solicit services that aren’t beneficial to their people, but how can a politician know what someone needs if they don’t listen? Listening to your constituency is a major requirement to maintain a good relationship with “your people.” Once you listen to their problems and suggest a solution to it, these people soon become numbers and the more numbers you get the better it is for you when election time comes around. Sadly, the real numbers that count is dollars. Money is what gets things moving everywhere around the world, and it isn’t any different here in the U.S. If we take one example, there was a recent legislation regarding the LGBT community, their right to legal marriage. They got their well-deserved human right, but at a cost. According to financial documents released from the offices of four republican state senators, they each received $10,300 from Mayor Bloomberg, a strong advocate for gay marriage. Also, one republican senator, Mark Grisanti “who had initially opposed gay marriage, but later changed his mind, had pulled in $50,000 from gay marriage advocates after the vote.”[1] The transparencies amongst the nations legislators are demeaning, when you start looking for the truth and you find it, don’t say we didn’t warn you first.

If you need to make something happen, you’re going to need money. The money you get working for politics isn’t much, but the money you get working from politics can be a lot. An organization in your neighborhood will be willing to contribute to your campaign, if and only if you look out for their interests, hence “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.” In a world where money rules everything, this makes politics, on any level, no different at all.