Op-Ed: Trent Clark Should Apologize to Small Donors

A response to Trent Clark’s opinion article: “The Curse of the Small Donor”

I saw Trent Clark’s March 22nd opinion article “The Curse of the Small Donor” in the Bear Lake News-Examiner, and I feel compelled respond.

Trent’s article is about why ‘Big’ donors are better than ‘small’ donors. Trent states:

“Jonah Goldberg of the American Enterprise Institute, who spent years studying how we pay for elections, noticed that “candidates who depend on small donors tend to take more polarizing positions.”

This is easily explained. Big donors want details. You promise to reduce the deficit? How? Cut social security? Cut national defense? Raise the alternative minimum tax? To get the big bucks, a candidate must deliver a detailed and philosophically consistent message that major donors can embrace.”

The opposite is true of small donors. Small donors devote little time to analysis. Their “giving reaction” is driven by hyper-emotional messages, increasingly viewed online. The average TikTok pitch is between 21 and 34 seconds. A display ad on Facebook is successful if viewed for more than .7 seconds. And Youtube’s most effective ads last only 15-20 seconds.

So small-dollar donations are driven by short, soul-wrenching pictures and heart-pounding narratives conveyed in mere seconds. Goldberg notes that “on the right, small donations tend to flow to candidates and grifters vowing to wage war on the mythologically all-powerful establishment.”

Trent then goes on to trash Kari Lake and Donald Trump.

Trent’s comments really bothered me. I’m not going to question the results of Jonah Goldberg’s study, because the last few years have definitely shown us that the ‘experts’ are always right (lock down for only 2 weeks, wear the mask, take the shot, etc.). Especially ones paid to ‘study’ something, whether the ‘study’ is being performed to support one position or another doesn’t matter.

What bothered me was how insulting Trent was to small donors. First off, how many ‘Big’ donors, especially ‘Big Business’ donors, really care about reducing the deficit, cutting social security, cutting national defense, or raising the alternative minimum tax? It is well understood that government and Big Business work (conspire) together. The ‘Big’ generally makes money off the government and government policies. Therefore, Big Business likely cares less about many of these things as they pass the cost onto the consumer. However, Big Business does care about legislation that benefits them and their profits. Lobbying and candidate donations, which can amount to tens of thousands of dollars or more, are just part of doing business to increase profits, and these ‘expenses’ are budgeted for.

Trent states:

“Small donors devote little time to analysis. Their “giving reaction” is driven by hyper-emotional messages, increasingly viewed online. The average TikTok pitch is between 21 and 34 seconds. A display ad on Facebook is successful if viewed for more than .7 seconds. And Youtube’s most effective ads last only 15-20 seconds.

So small-dollar donations are driven by short, soul-wrenching pictures and heart-pounding narratives conveyed in mere seconds.”

I strongly disagree with Trent, and I believe his statement above is very insulting to small donors. The small donor is likely to be the everyday working-class individual that is the backbone of our country and our state. It is highly unlikely the small donor has tens of thousands of dollars at their disposal to spend on candidate donations.

The small donor truly cares about legislation that directly affects them personally, and they make a financial sacrifice in order to contribute to a cause or candidate they believe in, especially in these rough economic times. Careful thought has gone into where they are willing to send their dollars. The donation a small donor makes may mean the donor goes without eating for a day. I have found that small donors absolutely do pay attention and they are making conscious, educated decisions on where their donations go and why.

Yes, small donors may be everyday working-class people and not ‘corporate executives’, but that doesn’t mean they are stupid. In my view, Trent needs to apologize for what he said about small donors.

By Doug Toomer, Candidate for State Senate, Legislative District 35 and Founder of Stand Up for Idaho.