Video-Illustration: Sam Island

Just as my kid is nodding off for the night, it arrives: a ding. It’s Nancy Pelosi, texting to tell me that if I don’t donate $5 immediately, American democracy will basically collapse. A few minutes later, it’s Cory Booker, with an urgent request. Don’t even get me started on James Talarico.

Sometimes I’m driving, or making dinner, or trying to focus on my work, and another three messages arrive. Barack Obama NEEDS me. There’s a critical deadline approaching. A generous donor has offered an 800 percent match. Everything is at stake.

As I was writing that last paragraph, I got a message from Angus, a cat belonging to Sam Forstag, a Democratic congressional candidate in Montana. Angus needed me to know that Sam was out there working to flip Montana’s First Congressional District, taking on his Republican opponent and the wealthy special interests backing him.

I’m not sure what Angus expected me to do about it.

Political fundraising texts are a fact of American life.…