Just three days after nominating their electors, South Dakota Libertarians have landed their first big endorsement from a never-Trump Republican. Appalled by Donald Trump’s attacks on Khizr and Ghazala Khan, not to mention his failure to represent his party’s “spiritual, political, or constitutional values,” long-time Republican legislator and money man Stanford Adelstein is urging his fellow Republicans to vote for the Libertarian Presidential/VP ticket of Gary Johnson and William Weld:
The Johnson-Weld ticket will appear on the ballot in all fifty states for the Libertarian Party. In Johnson we have opportunity to vote for a leader whose values are in-step with our own. With Johnson on our ballot we can enter the voting booth with excitement to cast our vote for a president with the experience, heart, and judgement that this country needs [Stanford Adelstein, “Attacking a Patriot Mother’s Tears,” A Way to Go, 2016.08.02].
Adelstein hasn’t shied away from equating Trumpism and fascism. Now he says Trumpism is bad enough that Republicans should abandon their nominee and vote Libertarian.
Libertarians, are you ready to ride that wave? Team Hillary, are you?
Sorry Stan I just can’t do that, but I do hope that droves of Trump supporters join the Libertarian bandwagon.
People of conscience are leaving Trump in the dumpster fire of history. A former top aide to Chris Christie, announced she was voting for Hillary. How ironic that a Muslim immigrant family’s stand against Trump will mark the undoing of Trump’s campaign.
From CNN: A New York GOP congressman wrote an op-ed saying he disagrees with Clinton on many issues, but he will vote for her because Trump is unacceptable.
And the Trump kid getting on the news this morning to say that his father had apologized to the Khan family even when Trump has not apologized is one more log on the dumpster fire that is Trump’s candidacy. Can they go a day without lying or offending a new segment of voters? Today, moms with crying babies got theirs from Trump. So, he got into with the Pope, Gold Star families, and mothers with babies. Can he work in baseball and apple pie to attack next? I believe he can.
No way, Cory. A vote for Johnson is a vote for Trump. There’s no way Johnson or Stein is going to win, so don’t let anyone tell you that a vote for Johnson is not just a wasted vote. Worse than wasted, because it goes to assure a Trump win. So forget the “vote your conscience” story. It won’t help anyone’s conscience if Trump wins the popular vote because there were too many “Never Hillary” votes.
NO to Donald Trump. He is un-American in the sense of stigmatizing and compartmentalizing other American groups of people. Trump is an old white man with a history a mile long. He is a frightening man. I will support Hillary Clinton.
Stan is a bit hard to take after he gave us the biggest crook since Jesse James came to South Dakota. No wonder Rounds endorsed Trump, they are both part of the same gang.
Cory’s topic comment for this thread is not BAD news, but I can’t think of a single person who looks to Stan Adelstein for advice on anything.
That is where you are incorrect Mr. Newland, Mike Rounds looks for advise on how to kiss Netanyahoos behind all the time.
Robin, Robin, I would certainly discourage otherwise Clinton voters from voting for Johnson, because those Clinton voters would not see their policy agenda advanced better by either President Johnson or President Trump. However, I am more than happy to encourage Republicans to heed Adelstein’s advice. Adelstein can even contend, quite honestly, that conservative voters would achieve more of their goals with a President Johnson than with a President Trump.
Jerry, your point about Adelstein’s support of Rounds does complicate an independent of Adelstein’s political judgment. However, Given Adelstein’s support of Republicans like Rounds, Republicans like Rounds should take Adelstein’s Presidential recommendation seriously.
Stan has taken a much stronger condemnation of Trump’s comments about the Khan’s in suggesting they vote for Johnson.
While there have been many republicans in the past few days condemning Trump, most are still endorsing or supporting him.
If republicans are to survive this latest Trump scandal, they need to do what Senator McCain and House Speaker Ryan have done by announcing they are not endorsing or voting for Trump.
After attacking prisoners of war, virtually every racial minority in the United States and even the parents of a fallen U.S. soldier, it was perhaps just a matter of time until Trump got around to attacking a mother and her baby (as darin mentioned above). https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/is-this-the-beginning-of-the-end-for-donald-trump/2016/08/02/d9de43fc-58f3-11e6-9aee-8075993d73a2_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-e%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
hard to believe stan doesn’t have curried political favors from Hillary over the years as he commonly plays both sides with his money. but his support of rounds despite EB5 incompetence and fraud belies his real character.
“The U.S. must continue to push back against Russian aggression, including Putin’s invasion of Eastern Ukraine and his illegal annexation of Crimea,” Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/carter-page-trump-russia_us_57a0f329e4b0693164c2fb41?section=&
another Trump guy, Global energy investor Carter Page joined Trump’s team in March. Page, “[j]ust days before Republicans adopted a new, more Russia-friendly plank into their party platform, one of Donald Trump’s top advisers visited Moscow in July to deliver speeches criticizing decades of U.S. foreign policy.”
“United States should ease economic sanctions imposed on Russia following its 2014 incursion into Ukraine and Crimea, which was condemned in an overwhelming vote in the United Nations. In exchange for sanctions relief, Page said, American companies might be invited to partner with Russian firms to exploit Russia’s oil and gas fields.”
Trump wants to expand fossil fuel policy and ignore global climate change, imo.
“After shelling, besieging and killing civilians and perpetrating war crimes on them, the Assad regime has resorted once again, and in breach of UN resolutions 2118 and 2235, to using chemical substances and toxic gasses.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/syria-toxic-gas-attack_us_57a06263e4b0e2e15eb70bd7?section=&
The Russian defense ministry said its Mi-8 military transport helicopter was shot down right after delivering humanitarian aid to Aleppo as it made its way back to Khmeimim.
Then the gas was dropped.
Russian air power began supporting Syrian President Bashar al Assad late last year, an intervention which tipped the balance of the war in Assad’s favor, eroding gains the rebels had made that year.
climate change you say?
“The world is careening towards an environment never experienced before by humans, with the temperature of the air and oceans breaking records, sea levels reaching historic highs and carbon dioxide surpassing a key milestone, a major international report has found.
These changes are being driven by a CO2 concentration that surpassed the symbolic 400 parts per million mark at the Mauna Loa research station in Hawaii last year. The Noaa report states that the global CO2 level was a touch under this, at 399.4ppm, an increase of 2.2ppm compared to 2014.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/02/environment-climate-change-records-broken-international-report
Trump’s surrogates have gone all in on deflection and attack in the Khan fiasco, suggesting that it was Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama that changed the rules of engagement in the war and probably cost Captain Khan his life.
Duh, Clinton and Obama had nothing to do with the rules of engagement in 2004 when Captain Khan was killed. This claim is from a Trump surrogate on CNN. Trump’s surrogates are supposed to be the most knowledgeable and prepared sources from the campaign and here is one forgetting when Captain Khan was killed and when Obama became president. Or did Obama go back in time in his time machine?
Trump is also saying he “doesn’t regret anything” with regard to his ill-fated Khan family remarks. You betcha! Never back down, Trumpy! You dumb bas____d!
Trump is seeing the writing on the wall though because he has suggested now that the general election is now rigged against his election, thus setting up the next counter-narrative to his impending landslide loss. No, Donald, there is no “fix”; you did that yourself with your big dumb mouth. Trump has met the enemy and it is he.
The best way to hurt Trump is to vote for Hillary. Not only will you “rob” him of a vote he’s counting but you’ll be giving a vote to the candidate he is most opposed to.
Ah, but Mark, that assumes a voter’s goal is to hurt Trump. It could be that there are Republicans of good conscience who are less interested in hurting Trump and more interested in performing their essential function, to pick a President. There may well be conservative voters who who can square a vote for a somewhat more conservative Libertarian than a continuation of relatively liberal Democratic control of the White House. I’m not going to work very hard trying to convince typical GOP voters to vote for Clinton. If we can get those otherwise reliable GOP voters to vote for someone other than Trump, I’ll consider that battle won and move on to other campaigning.
Wait, Roger: I see Trump actively undermining Ryan and McCain, but have Ryan and McCain withdrawn their endorsements of Trump?
http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/02/politics/donald-trump-paul-ryan-john-mccain-endorse-primaries/
No, I have not seen any statement by Ryan or McCain withdrawing their endorsements of Trump. They have to be ticked off that they endorsed Trump. The Ryan campaign manager said that they were not seeking Trump’s endorsement.
Meg Whitman, the 2010 GOP nominee for governor of California, and another billionaire, has decided to back Hillary Clinton and contribute to the Clinton campaign mid six figures. She disagrees with Clinton on many issues, but Trump is totally unacceptable to her.
This raises a question in my mind that maybe Cory has asked. Is the GOP better or worse off if Trump got elected? Some may think four years of Clinton would be better for the GOP than 4 years of Trump.
Cory,
The McCain/Ryan reference I made about them withdrawing their endorsement of Trump was from a Yahoo News feed, I know I know, not that incredible.
As to Trump not endorsing Ryan or McCain they may just be counting that as a blessing.
If things worsen for Trump as they seem to be, down ticket republicans have a lot to lose if Trump loses to Hillary. Most republican up for re-election are probably more worried about safeguarding their own seats and the hell with Trump.
Sometimes, even republicans have clarity in their voting. http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/election/article93371577.html Wow, in Kansas of all places. It is clear that the time has come to rid our state of two of the biggest do nothings we have ever sent to Washington, tweedle dee and tweedle dumb, you pick which one is which. Thanks to Stan, we now have the one of the biggest rip off artists in the country standing firm for Trump with his endorsement. I am sure that Thune, NOem and your boy, Rounds, all want Trump to bring on back the EB5. Stan must be so proud of his little man. He is all growed up now and off to the big boy school to make even more millions shafting us.
Imagine Papa Don’s reaction when he loses – to a GIRL!!
Richard, how about Big Bully Don’s reaction when he loses to Crooked B—-.
Trump’s spokeswoman has now blamed President Obama for the death of Captain Humayun Khan. Problem with that is that when Captain Khan was killed in 2004, Bush was President and Barack Obama was a state senator in Illinois. Is there anything they won’t blame Obama for? This is getting totally ridiculous. Has been totally ridiculous. Getting more so.
Republicans supporting Trump are like the proverbial frog in a pot of boiling water. They got in when the water was cool and haven’t noticed that it’s becoming more an more uncomfortable. Those who stay in will get boiled.
I think Trump doesn’t really want to be President.
Classy Greg – very classy.
Notice how Trump trundles his staff out to apologize for things. Melania’s speechwriter apologized for borrowing passages from Michelle Obama’s speech. Trump’s spokeswoman has now apologized for blaming Illinois state senator Obama for the death of Humayun Khan in 2004.
But Trump never apologizes for anything. Harry Truman had a sign on his desk saying “The buck stops here.” In Trump’s alternate universe where he is elected president, the sign on his desk will read, “You took the buck!”
I understand a Democrat voting for Clinton. However, in South Dakota, the best way to deny Trump 3 electoral votes, is for non-Trump voters to rally behind Johnson. It’s easier to change a red state purple than to change it blue.
I’ve known Stan for a long time and he’s had significant issues with Republicans before. I recall a terribly heated battle with Ellie Schwiesow (sp) in a primary that Stan lost and then he ran as an Independent in the general and won against her. That race has pretty much defined Stan’s mixed direction away from contemporary republicanism. He’s right of course and I’ve agreed with him and supported him on a number of the issues he raises but not this time. I know several active Libertarians in SD and based on those individual’s demeanor and philosophy, I can’t and won’t support a Libertarian. One of these folks, that just got elected to Libertarian state party office is about as crass,intellectually dishonest and disconnected from reality as anyone I’ve ever met and rhetorically as bad or worse than Trump. It’s probably wrong to stereotype and allow individual behaviors and philosophies to regulate political decision making but the Libertarian arrogance isn’t completely dissimilar to Trump and Mitch McConnells Republicans and as far as I’m concerned, America doesn’t need any more of that tepid bluster.
I hear what you’re saying John W. However, I haven’t seen evidence of that crassness and arrogance in Johnson. My impression is he defeated such individuals in winning his party’s nomination.
Trump supporters may be the first to vote for a president that is behind bars, legally that is. Here is how we are making America Great Again http://usuncut.com/politics/donald-trump-university-trial/ by throwing this turd in the hoosegow on RICO charges. Damn man, ya gotta admit, this is funny stuff. Meanwhile, Thune, NOem and the little man keep their endorsements of their head crook and lying liar of a billionaire and soon to be a little on the poor side.
In support of his candidacy this year Gary “Jaguar” Johnson did a great interview with Samantha Bee:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdkznU2IvfU
And as a follow up Samantha Bee covered the libertarian convention that nominated the Jaguar:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Psp0A-zJgU
One of Drumpf’s kids said Drumpf apologized to the Khan family by saying something nice about their deceased son. That is not an apology.
You can watch Johnson and Weld on CNN tonight for their 2nd townhall appearance with Anderson Cooper. 7pm MT/ 8 C.
http://juanitajean.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/MakeMeGreatAgain.png
Trump is the GOP party’s worst nightmare. The local GOP press release blog ignores him because the lemons aren’t even good enough to make lemonade out of. Morale in the Trump campaign is at a “suicidal” level. Trump is in a hole and won’t quit digging. His polls are tanking. Donors are not just jumping ship; they’re switching sides. GOP party elected officials are doing contortions trying to distance themselves from Trump’s ill-conceived remarks without throwing Trump under the bus – even as he throws them under the bus. National party leaders are planning an intervention they know has little chance of success. Trump, sensing defeat, is already claiming the election is rigged if he loses because there’s no way he could lose without fraud of some sort.
Anybody hanging onto Trump while he’s circling the drain is going down with him.
Ben: “I understand a Democrat voting for Clinton. However, in South Dakota, the best way to deny Trump 3 electoral votes, is for non-Trump voters to rally behind Johnson. It’s easier to change a red state purple than to change it blue.”
The math doesn’t really check out on that one Ben. Democrats are more likely to support Clinton, meaning Johnson wouldn’t get a very big piece of that pie. Republicans generally vote straight party lines in this state (evidenced by the fact they often vote for those who call themselves Republicans even though they don’t seem to share policy positions with Republicans). So let’s assume you can convince some of those Republicans who dislike Trump to support Johnson – you still split the GOP vote while the Democrats still support Clinton.
So let’s run some numbers!
Per the SOS, there are 244,754 registered Republicans, 168,625 registered Democrats, and 110,876 independents in SD. To keep things simple, we will ignore the others as they are such a small number. Also, to keep things simple, we will assume every registered voter opts to cast a ballot even though we know many will stay home.
If Trump manages to upset 30% of all registered Republicans who decide to vote for Johnson instead, Trump would still manage to retain 171328 votes. That means that even if every single registered Democrat opted to support Clinton, Trump would still win SD.
Now let’s also assume that the Indys split their vote. Maybe the stars align and Johnson manages to pick up 50% of the Indy vote while Clinton and Trump each get 25%. This leaves the end result like this:
Trump: 171328 Republicans + 27719 Independents = 199047
Clinton: 168625 Democrats + 27719 Independents = 196344
Johnson: 73426 Republicans + 55438 Independents = 128864
Now it probably isn’t realistic that Johnson manages to take 30% of the Republican vote nor is it realistic to believe Clinton will earn 100% of the Democrat vote. However even under these extreme conditions Trump still wins.
The one and only hope South Dakota has to send our whopping three electoral votes to someone other than Trump is if enough Republicans and enough Independents bite the bullet and vote for Clinton. If there are enough people who make this move, then Clinton could squeeze out a victory and deny Trump the satisfaction of winning South Dakota.
Is that realistic? Perhaps not – but many people are going to have to weigh their distrust and fear of a Trump administration against their inherent dislike of a Clinton administration.
Darin, interesting question. I’d say Republicans would be no worse off with Clinton as President than they are with Obama as President. Obama held Congress for two years, and then Republicans enjoyed public backlash that increased GOP seats in Congress. Would Clinton have the same effect, giving Republicans the chance to continue their role as the vocal opposition? Or would the electorate tire of GOP obstructionism?
Ror’s point about DWC’s silence underscores why Trump is worse for the GOP than Clinton. Trump hasn’t said one thing since convention that the GOP spinsters can pick up and run with. He hasn’t issued any great rallying cry.
Craig, you’re right, your numbers are an extreme scenario. Let me temper it:
Trump keeps 70% of the GOP with nose-holding party loyalty (and that number might be high). Remainder splits down the middle: 15% bring themselves to accept Clinton as a sensible, practical, experienced choice, while the other 15% risk the third-party vote.
Clinton holds 90% of Dems. Remainder split down the middle: 5% Trump, 5% Johnson.
Indies split evenly: 33% Trump, 33% Clinton, 34% Johnson.
Totals in that scenario:
Trump: 216,348
Clinton: 225,065
Johnson: 82,842
Put me in the Team Hillary office, show me any evidence suggesting those splits could happen, and I pour 50-state-strategy money into South Dakota to Goldwater Trump’s sorry hide and to synergize with Hawks and Williams to boost my Congressional take.
Republican leadership under Governor Daugaard, Senator’s Thune and Rounds along with their little sidekick, NOem have been figuring ways in which to please their new billionaire leader, Trump. As it turns out, the Interstate 90, that runs through the state of South Dakota, is called the Purple Heart Highway since around 2002. The republican legislature, under republican leadership, renamed the highway and it seems only fitting that they change the name to Trump’s Purple Heart Highway to grant his desire for a Purple Heart. With all endorsements still in play for full support, how else do they show the love for their beloved new asshat. All of the Medicaid Expansion deniers approve of this, so it will be done.
Craig and Cory, hold on to those numbers and see how they stack up after the general election, should be interesting.
I know it’s unlikely that Democrats vote for Johnson en masse. However, if they did just that Trump would lose SD. True, if non-Trump voters rallied behind Clinton then the result would be the same. But right wing voters would already be making a huge compromise on Johnson’s social policies. SD hasn’t voted Democratic since 1964. You have a better chance of breaking the Republican cycle here by compromising on Johnson.
Craig and Cory: Thanks for taking the time to crunch those numbers though. Roger’s right. It’ll be interesting to see how they compare to the final results.
Roger, I’ll keep those numbers in mind; I suspect Team Clinton will keep them even more in mind. (Team Trump is too disarrayed and consumer with damage control to do any serious math.)
Ben, I’ll wildly guess the lower bound for Trump’s GOP take in South Dakota at 50%. At least half of registered Republicans in our state will mark R for Prez no matter what. That’s 122K votes as a base.
Clinton’s lower bound in her party is 70%, based on a combination of party loyalty and sanity. That’s 118K base votes.
Remarkably, this Libertarian prof thinks Johnson could take more from Clinton than from Trump:
http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/03/opinions/libertarians-opinion-zwolinski/
I think the professor is flat wrong. Whatever the polls say now, as this race wears on, Trump will give more Republicans reason to defect, while more Dems will come to their senses (i.e., get over Sanders and the primary and woulda-coulda-shouldas) and realize Clinton can do the job. More people will be looking for an alternative to Trump than will be looking for an alternative to Clinton.
You are correct, Cory, that Johnson will take more from Trump than Clinton. 91% of former Bernie backers are now voting for Clinton. They were the people most likely to defect and even they are joining team Clinton. And they are not going to defect to a more conservative candidate like Johnson. Some part of the remaining 9% of former Bernie backers may vote for Stein in states where they can.
In my opinion, Libertarians are closer to Republicans than they are to Democrats. Also, Democrats are not as embarrassed by their nominee as the Republicans are. Clearly, more Republicans will defect to Johnson than the number of Democrats that would vote for Johnson.
Someone ought to come up with a song called the Trump Dump and have some dance moves to go with it. That song and dance could be the big hit of the summer. “Do the trump dump.” That’s a start, but it’s all I’ve got.
Ror, I did my part with the suggestion of a parody song of Lump by the Presidents of the United States of America:
He’s Trump. He’s Trump. He’s Trump
he’s in my head
he’s Trump, he’s Trump, he’s Trump
he might be dead
Trump lingered last in line for brains
And the one he got was sorta rotten and insane
Rotten things he said so sad
Is he a black soul or just kinda bad?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sj_U6vObUA