Right before the 2024 election, the House Administration Committee found evidence indicating that foreign donations from countries hostile to America may have been laundered straight into Democrat campaigns through ActBlue, the Democrats’ primary fundraising engine. That information came out during a Democrat administration. With Republicans in charge now in D.C., the investigation into ActBlue’s activities is being turned up a notch. That may explain why ActBlue is in complete disarray, with top executives fleeing the organization.

According to Wikipedia, which is probably accurate on this, ActBlue, which was founded in 2004, “is a major part of the Democratic Party’s fundraising infrastructure.” In the 20 years from 2004 to 2024, it raised $13.7 billion for Democrat causes and candidates. Indeed, most Democrat politicians and organizations used ActBlue as their clearinghouse for credit card donations.

Image by Grok.

By 2023, though, Republicans were raising questions about ActBlue’s practices. For one thing, for a long time, donors weren’t required to provide the little three-digit (or, in the case of Amex, four-digit) code that hides on their credit cards. The code is an important way to ensure that the person donating actually possesses the card, rather than the card number having come from information gained via electronic theft. (ActBlue eventually changed that policy.)

Another problem, alluded to in the opening paragraph, was the allegation that Act Blue’s security measures were so lax that the identities of legitimate, individual ActBlue donors were being used to launder illegal foreign money into Democrat party politics:

The Republican-led House Administration Committee has found evidence that illegal donations from China, Russia, Iran and Venezuela may have been laundered to Democratic campaigns through the party’s online fundraising juggernaut ActBlue.

Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) wrote to ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones on Monday “to demand information on ActBlue’s donor verification policies,” which are allegedly letting US adversaries use unwitting straw donors to make political contributions.

“Our investigation has indicated that these [foreign] actors may be exploiting existing U.S. [sic] donors by making straw donations without the individuals’ or your platform’s knowledge,” Steil wrote.

“This failure to verify donor identity may have allowed foreign actors to fraudulently participate in the political process.”

It’s against that background that the New York Times reported yesterday that ActBlue is, as my mom would have said, in deep doo-doo:

ActBlue, the online fund-raising organization that powers Democratic candidates, has plunged into turmoil, with at least seven senior officials resigning late last month and a remaining lawyer suggesting he faced internal retaliation.

The departures from ActBlue, which helps raise money for Democrats running for office at all levels of government, come as the group is under investigation by congressional Republicans. They have advanced legislation that some Democrats warn could be used to debilitate what is the party’s leading fund-raising operation.

The exodus has set off deep concerns about ActBlue’s future. Last week, two unions representing the group’s workers sent a blistering letter to ActBlue’s board of directors that listed the seven officials who had left. The letter described an “alarming pattern” of departures that was “eroding our confidence in the stability of the organization.”

The reason behind the mass exodus is a mystery, as none of the people jumping ship would agree to be interviewed. Perhaps they didn’t want to say anything that can be used or misused against them later. In any event, when a company suddenly starts hemorrhaging high-level people, one can only assume that damaging news will follow.

I think it’s becoming pretty clear that, while there are certainly Democrat voters (e.g., all of my high school classmates from my long-ago youth in San Francisco), the Democrat party that’s been winning elections and controlling policy for the past many years may well be an illusion. I’ve long suspected that many of the votes have more than a whiff of the graveyard about them.

And now, with the DOGE revelations about how Democrat people and organizations were using taxpayer money as their personal slush funds—and the news that many of the organizations instantly collapsed when the money flow stopped—it seems to me that the Democrat party is effectively over. It was held together by corruption and, with the corruption exposed, it’s just melting away.