Much
has been made in recent weeks about the fact that the presidential campaign apparatus
of Donald Trump is miniscule.
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| TRUMP: Wealthy man buying White House on the cheap? |
Not
quite $1.3 million – which would be extravagant if he were seeking a state
Legislature post or low-budget if he were running for Congress.
BUT
CONSIDERING THE absurd costs of presidential campaigns these days that have to
get voters to turn out all across the United States? It’s pitiful, particularly
when one considers that likely opponent Hillary Clinton has reported to the Federal
Elections Commission that she had nearly $42.5 million available to her
campaign back on May 31.
By
comparison, Trump is a campaign pauper, even though in terms of personal wealth
Trump makes Hillary look like the peasant he probably thinks of her as being.
The
fact is that because the Republican establishment is ashamed of the fact that
their party members actually picked a rube like Trump to have a presidential nomination,
they’re not going to do much of anything to help him.
The
usual big-money people who kick in the millions that usually make Republican
candidates better funded than Democrats aren’t doing so this time.
ALL
OF THAT $1.3 million for Trump likely is his own money. It’s likely that his
entire presidential campaign is going to put a dent in his personal wealth.
Which when you consider how he has flaunted it throughout the years, it’s no
wonder that no one feels a need to give Trump a dime towards his presidential
fantasies.
Trump
himself is trying to turn this into an asset – claiming he’s not leeching off
anyone else to pay for his presidential campaign. He thinks we ought to regard
it as a plus that he’s incapable of raising any kind of political funds –
largely because his personal behavior is so gauche that it turns off
respectable people everywhere.
There
also are those who argue that the Trump persona is different from the
traditional political candidate to the point where the usual rules don’t apply.
There
are going to be people who will pay attention to anything the rube has to say
to the point where he doesn’t need to indulge in all the paid media buys that
many candidates resort to in order to get their message out.
WHICH
STRIKES ME as being pathetic – the rich guy can get attention just by flaunting
his absurd persona. Are we, the people, really that lame and desperate for our
political entertainment?
It
would be quite a statement about our electorate if a candidate who can run so
cheap because when he does open his mouth he spews nonsense that some voters find
amusing can actually gain enough voter support to run a credible campaign.
Let
alone actually win!
That
is, unless the money is merely evidence of how Hillary Clinton will be capable
of standing up to any of the nonsense talk that Trump will resort to during the
coming months of the general election cycle.
IT
ACTUALLY REMINDS me of a conversation I once heard between a broadcaster and a
political operative back in the days when I worked at the Statehouse in
Springfield.
One
of them actually liked the idea of a candidate who could supposedly say or do
whatever he wanted because he didn’t have campaign donors to answer to. While
the other asked the question that still pops into my mind from time to time:
“Do
you really want the rich to be the only ones who can run for office?”
Particularly
if it’s someone whose wealth has clearly gone to his head to the point that I’d
fear he’d try to put his name on the executive mansion (“The Trump House?”)
just like he has all those garish hotels and office buildings he has erected
around the world.
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