Originally Posted By: L. Brown
Originally Posted By: craigd


I think the worse thing that Trump could've been saddled with was that he is a rich old white guy. It would have nothing



Craig, it seems to me that Trump is trying to turn the usual perception of "rich" on its head. Throughout the primary campaign, Trump pointed out that his opponents were taking money from PACs, "special interests", etc--while he was beholden to no one, because he was funding his own campaign. Seems to me that raises a question: Given the incredible expense involved in running for high office--president in particular--most candidates have no choice but to accept a lot of money from a lot of sources. What's the alternative? Are we left with only the very rich being able to run for president?

And of course what's happening now is that Trump is going to be accepting money from PACs and special interests. So I guess he's no longer his own man. Same criticism he leveled at his opponents.


Larry, you are correct that Trump may now be required, by the nature of his objective, to accept money rather than self fund. And that money will come, as it always does, from a combination of larger amounts from special interests who have an agenda to push who will anticipate that the size of their donations will afford them privileges and from a multitude of smaller donations from regular people who expect nothing but that Trump continue down the road he has begun.

But Trump isn't the first extremely wealthy man to run for office in the US. Or to harbour presidential ambitions. Names like Rockefeller and Kerry come to mind. To suggest that so far, because he has been mostly self funding, his success will mean only wealthy need apply is disingenuous.

The advantage of Trump's ability to self fund for some part of his campaign is that it LESSENS his dependence on the big money doners, not eliminates that dependence. It reduces their influence on him. In politics, like most of life, there are no absolutes.

I'd prefer a partially free man rather than a totally enslaved one. I'll take a wealthy Donald Trump over a Hillary Clinton, beholden to the Saudis, every single day.

Which would you choose?

The world cries out for such: he is needed & needed badly- the man who can carry a message to Garcia