The president wants my money...and more

As the Republican Convention gets underway, I am receiving an ever-increasing cascade of ever-more strident appeals from his campaign (so they claim) via Conservative Direct. Everyone—the president’s family members, the vice president, the campaign manager, the president himself—is practically begging me to step up to the plate and give, because the president is checking daily—even hourly—to see if my name is on the donor list. Often I have one hour to give to have my gift matched by as much as 700%. But don’t worry, another generous match will be offered before the day is over.

These emails are so strange. Perhaps one of the strangest came a day or two ago:

“We need your input.

“The corrupt Democrat Convention ended and it's only a matter of time before the Fake News comes out with a PHONY poll about where President Trump and Vice President Pence stand.

“It's no secret that their results will be pro-Biden-Harris and totally biased. We've never been able to trust what the Fake News media says, and we're not about to start now.

“In order to get the TRUTH, we just launched our Official Presidential Issue Poll - the ONLY accurate poll out there - and President Trump has requested that we personally reach out to YOU to get input on what REAL Americans are thinking.”

Yeah, right. The only reliable poll is one sent out by “Team Trump” to a Trump-approved list of his most faithful followers, and analyzed and reported to the world by that team. How dumb do they think his faithful are? (How dumb are they to keep sending these to me?)

It would all be laughable were it not so serious. Here is a guy who has so taken over one of our two major political parties that he himself will claim the best speaking slot all four nights of that party’s convention. What can you expect form the “only one who can save us?” Seems pretty clear they do not want anyone to watch except those who are already convinced. I won’t add to the convention’s ratings by watching myself. Call my mind closed…I accept the charge.

What’s more, he is using the White House and other Federal sites that represent all of us—all of “we the people”—as stages for his appearances. In his mind just as he is the Republican Party, so he also is the United States of America.

I don’t buy it, just as I don’t buy the claim that what the Democrats are offering is “socialism.” But even if that were true, I’d sure choose democratic socialism over plain old garden variety dictatorship…which is what our current president wants my financial help in securing for him. No way!