For the lawyers out there, these are speculative opinions.
Being elected repeatedly in North Dakota isn't hard.
Put an (R) after your name and keep the roads in good repair without too much other pain. It helps to have oil money because that covers a lot of terrible policies and spending.
I'm taking a guess that Doug Burgum likes the Scorpions song "Wind of Change" not because it's a great song, which it is, especially if you're a whistler like me, but because he likes to stay abreast of which way the wind has changed.
Burgum is neither Republican nor Democrat. He licks a finger and holds it up (and some of us return the one-finger salute); winds of change is literally his political identification.
Let's just take a minute for the Scorpions song though, because it's awesome, I remember when the Berlin wall came down and I walked through Checkpoint Charlie just three years later, fresh out of high school, weeping at the history while buying the T-shirt because CAPITALISM, and we GenX folks need our moment because a) what an era, and b) along with Scott Presler, Charlie Kirk, the Amish, Gen Z, and minority men, we gave you a most excellent recent election.
While you wipe your tears away, I'll bring us back to Burgum.
Sorry.
The confusing meandering you've just experienced as a reader will continue as an homage to Burgum's political career. Expect long, winding sentences that end nowhere, partnered with vast stretches of non sequiturs. As has been said, the beatings will continue until morale improves.
If you need a crystal clear explanation of the serious problems with Doug Burgum, read these two articles that lay out the details very clearly:
Please do read those articles. They will help you understand how glad I am that Burgum didn't end up as VP.
I wish he'd have been given Das Boot entirely, but he and his money must have successfully ingratiated himself into the Trump world. Like many superheroes, he has a great origin story. Unlike many superheroes, he's not a superhero.
Burgum is a friend of Bill Gates, China, and whichever way the wind blows. It's possible he likes long walks on the beach, but I don't know. The main point is that the political jet stream is his Svengali. It's difficult to determine his stance on anything, from abortion to fiscal policy, as it seems to evolve. For Burgum, natural selection is naturally selecting whatever is culturally popular in the group he needs to win to get to the next rung.
Nothing about Burgum shows a steady pattern of anything.
I know that gets the Tech Bros in an envious lather, for they hate tradition and doing things the way they've been done before, but for people voting for leaders based on trusting they'll be the person they say they are, I assure you that our lather comes from a different reason. You can't reliably know what Burgum is going to do; while he gets some things right, it matters little. He's loyal until it pays to be loyal elsewhere. He never seems more loyal to anyone or anything other than his continued progression towards being known by as many people as possible so he can leave a legacy.
Bill Clinton used to fuss about leaving a legacy. I guess you could say he did, sort of. Blue dresses were a great punchline for a while. The legacy Burgum is leaving for anyone who has paid attention to him, though, is not impressive.
Again, those two articles give a nice overview of what he's done as the governor of North Dakota.
But that's not the whole of it.
One of the most disgusting things I've seen is how he used his own money and power to create a PAC to take out actual conservative candidates in North Dakota, candidates who were MAGA, who were fiscally contrarian and responsible—kind of like DOGE is supposed to be at a federal level—to replace them with his preferred people.
North Dakotans conflicted about Burgum’s million-dollar campaign donations ahead of election
Burgum-funded PAC at play in 8 districts; lawmakers say governor's spending is unconstitutional
What did Burgum’s $1.2 million in PAC spending buy in Tuesday’s election?
North Dakota governor targets fellow Republicans to mixed results
Let's take a closer look at what King Burgum (which is a nickname he rightly earned) did.
From the Minot Daily News, November 20, 2024:
After dropping millions of dollars of dark money into the 2020 election cycle, the former software executive has reportedly donated $935,000 to the Dakota Leadership PAC in anticipation of the 2022 midterms. This secretive committee is chaired by the governor’s former policy director and 2016 campaign worker Levi Bachmeier, and operates in such a way that its activities and spending are shielded from public scrutiny. While such PACs usually are a means for out of state money to influence elections and initiated measures, it’s quite another thing for a state’s governor to be such a generous political donor, especially when his targets are his own fellow Republicans.
Burgum’s massive infusion into the 2020 primaries was primarily directed at unseating antagonistic legislators and other assorted gadflies, who found themselves the targets of expensive negative advertising they couldn’t hope to contend with. Between the incessant mailings and omnipresent multimedia packages, several high-profile incumbents like House Appropriations Chairman Rep. Jeff Delzer were unseated by Burgum’s endorsed candidates. Naturally this direct foray into legislative races drove a wedge between the governor and the Legislature, but the real concern is the chilling effect it caused in the Capitol.
[...]
Last year, Rep. Jeff Magrum of Hazelton sponsored a bill that would have blocked the governor from endorsing or making political donations to legislative candidates. Magrum was the only Republican to survive the PAC’s 2020 onslaught, with the dollar amount spent in support of his Burgum-endorsed challenger hidden from public view. Magrum later withdrew the proposal, deferring to concerns from his fellow legislators that they might face retribution for supporting it.
“He’s got them all scared. So out of respect for my colleagues I pulled it. At this point I regret doing that.” Magrum told me in a phone call on Friday, May 20.
By all accounts, Magrum is correct, as his fellow lawmakers cower and fumble for excuses as the modern power elite of North Dakota exerts its influence over the state house unchecked and unabated. A second bill that would have made entities like Dakota Leadership PAC disclose which campaigns they supported or opposed with donations, was scuttled for dubious reasons related to the extra paperwork it would create.
If you didn't tow King Burgum's line, he would take you out. Cordially, with piles of money billowing around like D.B. Cooper with a bad parachute. At least Tanya Harding did it with the lead pipe right to the knee so you knew.
Burgum's targeting of Jeff Delzer, an actual conservative candidate, seemed like a real coup. Delzer, a monkey who wouldn't dance to Burgum's music, had to go. And it looked like King Burgum had succeeded, ousting Delzer with his preferred guy in the primary. That is, until the guy Burgum put his money on suddenly (and sadly) died and Delzer ended up keeping his seat. That had to sting a bit.
"We the people of North Dakota see your sneaky behavior, Burgum, and raise you an act of God. And also, we call."
From KX News, June 16, 2022:
Burgum’s biggest win — and probably the costliest campaign — came with the defeat of state Rep. Jeff Delzer, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee who has clashed with the governor of policy and spending priorities.
From KX News, December 3, 2020:
For Burgum, Delzer’s return essentially negates millions of dollars and political capital spent by the governor in 2020 trying to better orient support for his legislative agenda.
Having never been rich and not even close enough to smell it (though I confess I own a towel from the Intercontinental Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico and I'll say no more), I don't know how rich people think. I don't hate them. I just don't understand what it's like to not worry about whether getting a $4 Caribou Coffee dark hot chocolate will fit in this week's budget or not, or crossing your fingers that your 26-year-old vehicle will get you to your sister's and back again without dying.
One of the reasons Trump is fascinating is that he's rich but also does bizarre things such as eat McDonalds food and not shy away from touching, hugging, and caring about the icky hoi polloi. He not only would let them eat cake, but make sure they had a Big Mac and could pay their mortgage, and let them take a selfie with him. The stories about his quiet generosity towards regular people are legendary and sometimes take your breath away.
Burgum does not function this way.
North Dakota is a small state. We can only laugh at Wyoming, population-wise. Well, there are other reasons we can laugh at Wyoming but the Grand Tetons eventually shut us up. The point is, it's not like there are millions of constituents to deal with. It's not as if Burgum had to agonize over the complexities of millions and millions of people and massive cities.
I've said a lot of things about Gov/Sen John Hoeven, calling him vanilla being about the nicest, but I do remember meeting him several times when he was the governor so at least he wasn't overtly afraid of Average Joe cooties or whatever else it is.
Burgum is not like that.
Burgum has surrounded himself with an entourage and changed the nature of the State Capitol.
Well, the NoDapl pipeline protests helped some, too.
During the 2016-2017 Dakota Access Pipeline protest (fondly known worldwide as NoDAPL and spawning a sudden everyday use of the Lakota words Mni Wiconi and Wasicu), when the world was calling North Dakotans and their law enforcement Nazis and racists, the now-common adjectives to use with friends and family online and over the holiday table because of how they voted, Burgum popped in about halfway through. He built a useful state website to put out accurate information on the protest, shed some tears, and now we have metal detectors at the Capitol. The rest of that term and the next, he sent half the state workers to work at home (I love calling some department at the state and hearing a kid screaming in the background as the person tries to provide the necessary taxpayer-funded services), sold the furniture, and still our property taxes increased. It's just not as North Dakota as it used to be.
[Side note: I'll point out that RFK, Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard made an appearance during that protest, in support of the protesters. RFK was there to protest fossil fuel pipelines, and Gabbard was there as an intermediary when a bunch of veterans showed up to have it out with Morton County Sheriff's Department and the NDNG because they believed this was Wounded Knee, Mortal Combat, Star Wars, or the Avengers, which is understandable due to all of the Avengers actors showing their support, particularly that turd Mark Ruffalo, successfully ending my interest in Marvel movies to this day. I find it more than a little humorous that those two are now aligned with a movement that is called Nazis and racists.]
But back to Burgum's entourage, of which many state workers have told me hilariously awful stories while forbidding me to share them.
I, like anyone who has tried to express their wishes to the governor, have built an impressive collection of email form responses from Burgum's office/entourage/protective circle/keep those bastards away from me. Literally, they are ALL the same. Is it a person? Is it AI? I don't know. At least when the interns from other high offices return my reply, they actually reference what I contacted them about and throw in a typo or two so I know it's human.
How does that jive with Trump's very different approach to the American people? Burgum can't be bothered with less than 800,000 people in his home state, and he's going to now run our National Parks?
To be fair, our National Parks are rarely filled with Americans, but mostly tourists from China. And Burgum likes China! As long as they put corn-milling plants in sugar beet and canola country next to Air Force bases!
Burgum's flip-flopping has confused even his friends, some of whom seem to be non-Trump supporters, hoping Burgum will "rub off" on Trump as some kind of "centric" schmoozer. This should tell you a lot, especially since the chameleon aspect of Burgum is part of their concern when looking at his life. One of Burgum's lifetime friends, John Hanson, from Logging Camp Ranch—a location referred to as Burgum's Rosebud (which should make you concerned if you've seen Citizen Kane)—is a bit confused at Burgum's sudden adoption of MAGA.
"Everyone asks: ‘How can Doug work with Trump?’” he said. “It’s a good question, but how about this? Don’t we want someone like Doug Burgum in the room if Trump goes off the rails and starts doing weird things?"
Is Burgum going to pull a Gen. Milley? Because we had so much luck with Trump's first presidency with a cabinet that quietly worked against him and couched it in this kind of nonsense. Burgum had better remember that this election was a solid MANDATE and people want him to do what he said he was going to do.
So maybe ignore Rosebud.
I imagine that his longtime friends aren't the only ones confused. Imagine the city of Fargo.
His first run for governor of North Dakota arrived with the city and people of Fargo plastered with signs of support for an alleged Republican candidate. I was there weeks before the primary election and every downtown shop had a Burgum sign in the window, right next to the rainbows and whatever other activist flag they could cram on the glass. Obviously, something was off. Fargo is North Dakota's Minneapolis. Check any election maps and find the blue counties.
I literally wouldn't vote for Burgum the first time because of the Fargo experience.
I had hopes about Burgum.
But all his tricky activities with his PAC and redesigning the state logo by giving the project to someone in Minnesota who had worked with him in business without bidding it out, leaving us with the bland logo/font you see everywhere, didn't really inspire confidence. It wasn't a replacement of the old guard in ideology, it was just a new old guard.
I mean, the logo. You guys.
Granted, the horrible redo did make it easy for me to ape the state's "brand" when I presented charts at the city meeting about why we shouldn't have a mask mandate, but that's not a great selling point, easy forgery.
We went from "North Dakota: Legendary," a declarative statement of how amazing the people of the state are, appropriately mixed with a kick-ass custom font befitting the Roughrider State and Teddy Roosevelt, to "North Dakota: Be Legendary," a whiny, 'you can do it' rah rah cheer with basically Myriad Pro font and a real-life example of designers in North Dakota experiencing the Papyrus effect.
No wonder we have to be told to be legendary; with Myriad Pro as our marching orders we're going to have to carry the load.
Burgum came into office saying he was going to blast out the old guard and reform things in a good way by being accountable. He was a fan of good governance and was going to use his business smarts to help the state. Yet we ended up with less transparency, less accessibility, and an apparent use of power and money to move people around like chess pieces. He's the state's CEO (as he has called himself) treating the citizens who elected him to serve them as mere customers and a market.
I bet you hope this blog post is over soon. But just like Burgum's terms as governor, it drags on. There's the pandemic.
During the pandemic, Burgum was awful. Not as bad as other places, sure, but he did just enough to appease both sides (or so he thought). It was especially noticeable being next to South Dakota where Gov. Kristi Noem became the only governor in the nation to put no state restrictions on her people (yes, even Ron DeSantis didn't get it right initially).
In my pandemic book, Burgum's antics feature heavily.
Burgum wanted every North Dakotan to use a tracking app. He promised no state mask mandates, but almost immediately after he was re-elected, he put them in.
In an email with the subject line "Dumbass Governor Burgum" sent on November 13, 2020 to an out-of-state friend, I lost my cool. "Our idiot dictator just signed a mask mandate. Said he wouldn't all year but a week after the election, that nutless wonder did it. I'm not going to comply. He can suck it."
(Sorry, mom.)
But no, I did not comply.
He scolded people who didn't want to wear masks for being cruel to mask wearers, even breaking out into tears (yes, Burgum likes to cry and it's fine if a man cries now and then, mostly in private around the people who love him, but for crying out loud, nut up if you're gonna lead). He shut down or restricted access to businesses and was part of some kind of bizarre drama with the state health department regarding a revolving door of leadership.
I know the incoming administration is getting stocked with Tech Bros and that's fine for what it is. To trim down bloat, you need the lean approach. I hope someone has the wisdom to turn them off when they start eating their own hands.
I worked in a startup and I know that DEI and Meritocracy are simply over-corrections of each other. DEI insists on equal outcomes, and meritocracy becomes a meat grinder where what cannot be measured cannot be considered. One focuses on inclusivity based on surface qualities, the other on exclusivity based on data, both missing the point. I may not be as excited as the social media autists who think of life as data points instead of as human. I'm an art major; excuse me for believing STEM isn't the end-all purpose of humanity.
Burgum's Tech Bro mentality has been at work.
Only the arrogance of a Tech Bro thinks you can promote fossil fuel energy and Net Zero. It's an impossible equation, but Tech Bros eat impossible for lunch, meaning that their bathrooms are filled with worthless apps, wasted venture capital, and the genius idea that we should pump oil out of the ground while also filling it up with carbon and call that numeric and geological witchery "net zero." Even better, throw some theoretical exponentials in the equation by touting freedom and economic growth while working deals to use eminent domain and pressure to get landowners to comply and make it all seem profitable by the use of government subsidies. Tell me, what happens when government subsidies conflict with RFK Jr's MAHA and DOGE's goal of trimming waste?
My only hope is that environmentalists are concerned about him, and it's an article in The Guardian, so there's that.
Burgum has no business being in the Trump Administration.
He likes to spend taxpayer money, he didn't support Trump when the chips were down, and he can't be relied upon to do hard things when he's against the wind. Trump values loyalty; I cannot believe he fell for Burgum.
Burgum is not MAGA. If anything, he's Make Me Great Again, determined to get in the history books for something, anything. He seems to have a drive to be important, to be relevant. It's not enough to have made piles of money. A North Dakota millionaire/billionaire is nothing in the scheme of history, right?
He's a man with a huge bank account desperately trying to ignore God's admonition that he is a fool who tries to gain the whole world but loses his soul.
As a friend and I discussed, if all you believe in is humanism and this current life, that is all that drives you. There is no eternity, no greater meaning outside of self. The irony is that for all the wealth and power and achievement, my mom, in her quiet life, will have more eternal rewards because she loved and cared about people more than herself.
I have never once voted for Doug Burgum and I stand by that record today.
We need servant leaders who care about people, not their legacy. Perhaps he'll prove me wrong, and I sincerely hope so.
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