What difference is there between getting "industry" donations...

[Ken Burch]

...and getting donations from "people in the industry"?

If they are in an industry, it's pretty damn certain their donations are based on wanting to influence the candidate to support the industry.

This hair is too narrow to split.

[PeaceNikki]

1. I have a close family member who works for a major aerospace company.

They are known as part of the "Military Industrial Complex". His work is exclusively on projects wholly unrelated to war machines. In fact, he's engineering technology that will save thousands of lives. This company employs hundreds of thousands of people. Most of whom are not directly working to bomb the world. When he makes political donations and lists his employer, his donations are lumped into those deemed suspect by those who cannot and will not differentiate.

[jehop61]

2. I believe

private citizens can donate to any cause or candidate without being labeled unfairly. First Amendment and all that you know.

[PeaceNikki]

6. Right, but they must list their employers. Doing so lumps them in with those "in the the industry"

of their employer.

[Hoyt]

3. So Clinton gets donations from oil, environmental groups, solar/wind energy. Which one gets favored?

[geek tragedy]

4. Clinton and Sanders are #1 and #2 in donation from the Military Industrial Complex.

Each has received more money than Cruz or Trump or Kasich.

[w4rma]

5. She took over a million dollars from eleven gas and oil lobbyist bundlers.

I don't even care about the ~$300,000ish in individual donations.

Also, her primary Super PAC took about $4.5 million in large donations from gas and oil lobbyists.

[TM99]

7. We should all have learned the difference

at some point during our secondary education.

There is a difference between individuals that just happen to work in various industries and individuals and groups whose sole purpose is to support and push for those industries.

Individuals do not have the power or the money to peddle influence in the way that lobbyists, SuperPAC's, and industry groups do.

It is really just that simple. Please stop with the false equivalency. It is not the same thing nor is it a hair too narrow to split.

[azmom]

8. [phone]