If you know enough of how the world works to be a conservative, you have likely learned three things:
- People will make markets in almost anything if they can.
- Laws and rules will create some bizarre incentives for markets.
- It’s impossible to keep money out of politics.
Consider Doug Burgum. The North Dakota governor and Republican presidential candidate has a lot of money, which he intends to spend running for president. He has thus far outspent every Republican in the race, including Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis. But Doug Burgum has a problem: To get on the Republican debate stage on August 23, party rules require him to have 40,000 individual donors. Now, you or I might assume that donors to your campaign are the one thing you can’t buy. But that’s why you and I are not Doug Burgum. Burgum started by giving away full-size American flags to donors, and he has escalated to his current scheme: giving away $20 gift cards to anyone who donates to his campaign. If you do the math, that means you can donate $1 and get $20 back. Burgum admits what he’s doing: “Yes, 50,000 people will actually get a Visa or Mastercard gift card to their mailing address.”
In short, RNC rules have created a market for $1 donors to Doug Burgum, for which the deep-pocketed Burgum is willing to pay $20 apiece. I’m surprised that Mike Bloomberg didn’t think of this first, while Vivek Ramaswamy is creating a multilevel marketing operation to get donors financially invested in recruiting new donors.
You can’t stop markets. But you also shouldn’t confuse them for actual demand for the candidate.