How do you explain presidential campaigns costing billions of dollars[0] in the first place? (And that's just one slice of the pie, when we take into account no

How do you explain presidential campaigns costing billions of dollars[0] in the first place? (And that's just one slice of the pie, when we take into account not only all the other election campaigns, but other sources of propaganda, lobbying, and so on.) If that's what it costs to buy 'a platform to try and change someone's mind', then almost nobody can afford to to so without big money backing. As for the donors' motivations, maybe you'll argue that they are merely supporting the candidates with favourable policies, rather than buying influence with them. But even if that were true, the donations would still be a means of converting $ into desired political outcomes. [0]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaign_finance_in_the_United_States#Campaign_finance_numbers https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaign_finance_in_the_Unit...