Among the victims was a 63-year-old dying of cancer and living on less than $1,000 a month. But the direct-mail wizards raised money by introducing to politics the kind of high-pressure sales tactics normally reserved for the sales of penny stocks or timeshares. These fights began to creep into Congress as well, Edwards wrote, the usual partisan squabbles over tax policy, defense spending, foreign policy, assistance programs, and budget levels joined by bitter and continuous partisan fights over social issues: abortion, gay rights, womens empowerment, etc.Fast-forward to today. Most of the money raised went into more fundraising  including generous payments to Vigueries own companies. The direct-mail pioneer Richard A. Viguerie had started an organization called the United Seniors Association that bombarded retirees with letters warning that All the Social Security Trust Fund Money Is Gone! and demanding $5 membership dues to protect their benefits.
This was written in the first decade of the current century.
( z0 write :ARG1 ( z1 this ) :time ( z2 decade :ord ( z3 ordinal-entity :value 1 ) :part-of ( z4 century :mod ( z5 current ) ) ) )
(z0 / write-01
    :ARG1 (z1 / this)
    :time (z2 / decade
              :ord (z3 / ordinal-entity
                       :value 1)
              :part-of (z4 / century
                           :mod (z5 / current))))
This was written in the first decade of the current century .
z0 :ARG1 z1
z3 :value 0
z2 :ord z3
z0 :time z2
z4 :mod z5
z2 :part-of z4