are you sure your membership didn't lapse at least once? i have paid for years and never had any problem getting what i wanted. sorry about your trouble. i think if it lapses, you kinda go back to the bottom. but you probably got screwed due to the secondary ticket scalper "hustle" going on behind the scenes. the band has to be complicit.
the worst is announcing a tour in pieces. finding out they aren't coming near so making arrangement to go across the frickin country only to find out the day after the credit card bill comes for the tickets, flight, rent a car, and hotel that the band is playing 5 miles from your house you just didn't know it yet.
and you re right. the political thing needs to be "rebranded" at the very least. nobody is as liberal as Bono claims to be. throwing up photos of HRC and Ellen with Rosa Parks? i apologize Rosa. that whole spiel has to be wearing thin on the other band members. it is embarrassing to me for him. last night he went on a rampage and at the end there were 50,000 Daniel Boones kinda looking at him. Quietest moment i can ever remember at a show.