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OPINION

I'm about to do something I haven't done before.  I'm about to make a contribution--although a small one--to a Republican Presidential candidate.  Why?  Let me explain:

Talk about trying to buy the election!  Actually, not the election, but a chance to participate in the GOP Presidential debates.  

To be allowed to participate, candidates have to get contributions from at least 40,000 individual donors and reach 1% or higher in at least two qualifying national polls and two state polls. Former Vice President Mike Pence is OK on the poll requirement, but his number of contributors is still too small.

Three of the candidates are using tactics I find deplorable.  

Biotech engineer Vivek Ramaswamy is asking fundraisers to collect for his campaign, then take 10% of what they collect for themselves.  That's bad enough--but it gets worse.

Both North Dakota governor Doug Burgum and  Miami Mayor Francis Suarez will give you a $20 gift card if you make a contribution--even just a dollar--to their campaigns.  

I consider whom we elect as President of this country too important to be reduced to such shenanigans, even if none of the three, nor likely any other GOP contender, will be able to get the party's nomination away from Donald Trump unless (and perhaps even if) he is convicted of crimes before the primaries.

Mike Pence and I disagree on most political views.  I don't think he has even as much chance as two of the infamous three I've mentioned of getting nominated.  

But I believe Mike Pence is a decent human being--something that has become very rare in today's political world.  I don't think he deserves to be cast aside while three others use very undignified means to get a chance to speak.

So I think I'll send the former Vice President a five dollar contribution.  It won't help him get elected--that isn't going to happen--but it will be a statement that some of the old-fashioned values still matter, at least to some of us.  

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