Today's Word: Trumpanzee

"Nope, not even for $5 million, Gramps"

PPP released new national polling tonight that shows Clinton beating Trump by bigger margins after the two parties' conventions. The polling shows her "with a much more positive image than she had a month ago. Donald Trump meanwhile is just as unpopular as he was before the conventions. Clinton's net favorability improved by 9 points over the last month. She's still not popular, with a -6 net favorability at 45/51, but it's a good deal better than the -15 spread she had at 39/54 a month ago. The gains are particularly attributable to Democrats increasing in their enthusiasm for her, going from giving her a 76/15 rating to an 83/12 one. Trump, on the other hand, is at a -22 net favorability with 36% of voters seeing him favorably to 58% with a negative one. That's barely changed at all from the 35/58 standing we found for him in late June."

Not that it's likely to make any difference, but the Houston Chronicle, which pretty consistently backs Republicans in presidential races, didn't wait long after the end of the Philly convention to endorse Hillary over Trump, calling the race "the starkest political choice in living memory. They will choose between one candidate with vast experience and a lifelong dedication to public service and another totally lacking in qualifications to be president. They will decide whether they prefer someone deeply familiar with the issues that are important to this nation or a person whose paper-thin, bumper-sticker proposals would be dangerous to the nation and the world if somehow they were enacted... Any one of Trump's less-than-sterling qualities-- his erratic temperament, his dodgy business practices, his racism, his Putin-like strongman inclinations and faux-populist demagoguery, his contempt for the rule of law, his ignorance-- is enough to be disqualifying. His convention-speech comment, 'I alone can fix it,' should make every American shudder. He is, we believe, a danger to the Republic." But it wasn't the paper's editors who dubbed the dishonest bully "Trumpanzee." I believe it was Red State's Susan Wright who first applied it to him, or, more precisely, to the way he speaks, in a post explaining that he's wrong if he thinks Republicans have no choice but to vote for him. Much more so than Hillary, Trump has fully embraced the "lesser-of-two" evils thesis of American presidential politics. He tells hard core Republicans who he is well aware are revolted by him that she's much worse than he is. Wright rebutted the argument:

While he is correct in his assessment of the situation with the Supreme Court, and it remains vitally important that no liberal be allowed to stuff the court with their activist judges, several concerns face the voters.

To begin, we can’t say who a President Trump would choose, and how it would be any different than having any other liberal pick the judges. The convention for the new Trumplican party was chock full of liberal speakers, liberal ideology, and a total abandonment of any conservative principles.

Melania Trump

Other than those dancing in the aisles, as Trump and the RNC allowed the co-founder of PayPal to rail against traditional values, or his daughter to push a debunked narrative of gender pay disparity, there was no joy or hope involved with that convention. Only the dark vision of a nation that needed an authoritarian “strong man” to fix what was wrong.

Trump’s own speech, where he proclaimed, “Only I…” should have frozen all the revelers in their tracks. Every person who voted for Trump in the primaries, every politician who endorsed the man should have found themselves in a moment of horrified clarity, saying to themselves, “What have I done?”

Next, we should consider Trump’s “best brain” and who is acting as that brain. Right now, it is Paul Manafort, a shadowy Svengali, with questionable ties to some dangerous people. How much influence would Manafort and those foreign ties have over Trump’s decisions, once in office?

Then there is the simple matter of “have to.”

No, Mr. Trump. No one is under any threat or compulsion to vote for someone who violates their conscience or their principles.

So far, we still have that liberty.

We also have Gary Johnson, Darrell Castle, or Jill Stein to vote for.

I couldn’t ever see myself voting for a Jill Stein, as she would likely kill business in this nation for ages to come with overregulation through environmental policies.

Third parties are an option, however, and one that has long been decried as the “spoiler” option, blocking one of the big two parties from drawing enough votes. Ross Perot was the last third party candidate to really make an impact.

Can a third party win this year?

Anything is possible, long shot as it may be. That being said, it’s not about their chance of winning so much as it’s about the idea that we are locked into the two party system and are being told we must choose one of two evils.

When one who seeks to lead says you have no choice, you should always question why, then explore your options.

Even Justin Bieber chose correctly-- and Trumpanzee waved $5 million dollars under his nose. Although Trump is trying to blame the failed Cleveland convention on Reince Priebus and Paul Ryan, he was clearly in charge. And although all he could come up with was a washed-up old underwear model and Chachi, he tried luring every big star in America to perform at his event. He must have read somewhere in Twitter thay Justin Bieber is popular with all the kids... so he offered him $5 million to sing 45 minutes worth of songs near the Quicken Arena and that he didn't have to endorse Trump (although he couldn't say anything disparaging up Trump, nor could he display any Black Lives Matter banners. Trumpanzee's handlers lied to Bieber and told him LeBron James would also be doing an event from Trump but it turned out to be just a typical Trumpian lie and when Bieber's people called LeBron people the basketball icon told them he wasn't doing anything for Trump and that neither should Bieber. Bieber's manager said he'd quit if Bieber did the show and his band told him they didn't want to do it no matter how much Trump was offering. So, in the end, Bieber said no to the $5 million and there taint of a Trump association.

And the Koch brothers proved to be as brave and stalwart as the Beeb. According to Kenneth Vogel, writing for a DC gossip rag, Top Trumpanzee donors-- presumably the ridiculous father-and-son team of Darwin and Doug Deason-- "tried to set up a meeting between the GOP presidential nominee and Charles Koch in Colorado Springs on Friday, but Koch aides rejected the entreaties, according to two Republicans with knowledge of the outreach."

Trumpanzee is desperate to get his tiny little hands on their money now but has previously "blasted the Kochs and other major conservative donors as puppeteers to whom his GOP primary rivals were beholden, while he touted the independence from Big Money."

The Koch brothers and Trump are in town for separate events-- Trump for a fundraiser, and the Kochs for the kickoff of the annual summer summit of their donor network at a tony resort in Colorado Springs.

But the Republicans familiar with the push said top Koch aides rejected the idea of a meeting.

“It is not going to happen,” said one of the Republicans, adding that the Kochs appear unlikely to back away from their repeated declarations that they don’t plan to spend any money in the presidential race, and will instead refocus their spending down ballot.

...The Minnesota media billionaire [Stanley] Hubbard, a longtime member of the Koch donor network, initially opposed Trump, but has come around, and said he’ll urge the Kochs to do the same when he sees them this weekend in Colorado Springs.

“Neither one of them [Clinton or Trump] are my cup of tea, but sometimes you bite your tongue and you choose the best of two bad choices,” said Hubbard, who has donated $100,000 to a pro-Trump super PAC. “I think it is time that we get behind Trump because of all the important things such as Supreme Court appointments, which are crucial,” he said, adding that he was aware of the efforts to get the Kochs to meet with Trump.

The network aims to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in the run-up to Election Day, and it would be a significant boost if it decided to support Trump, who is being substantially outspent by Clinton and her allies.

But Davis earlier this month reiterated the network’s intent to sit out the race, even after Trump tapped as his vice presidential running mate Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, a favorite of the Kochs and their donor network.

Pence has appeared at several Koch summits over the years. And, prior to joining Trump’s ticket, he had been scheduled to make an appearance in Colorado Springs this weekend. But he backed out of the appearance, citing campaign responsibilities.

That prompted head scratching in GOP finance circles, since Pence’s deep ties to the Kochs and other major conservative benefactors were considered among his strengths as a vice presidential candidate.