Why do politicians ask for money? Because money influences votes. How does money influence votes? Money pays for private intelligence companies, PR firms, thin

Why do politicians ask for money? Because money influences votes. How does money influence votes? Money pays for private intelligence companies, PR firms, think tanks, and social media influence. What does this mean? It means that politicians are influencing the voter base, rather than the voter base influence politicians. What is the corollary of all this? A foreign government can influence American voters either via more direct means (such as running a private intelligence company) or indirect means (offering resources in exchange for favors). Is there precedent? Yes. America institutes regime change in other countries in many ways. France funded and offered aid to the pre-american rebellion against British rule resulting in the formation of a new state. At some point people stop being individual actors and become statistics. It might be even more correct to say people are in A/B testing groups and there are engineers literally experimenting on these groups to achieve an outcome for the purposes of whoever paid them.