There's nothing quite as sad as unreciprocated love. Especially when it happens on the nation's largest stage.
But that's what happened to Donald J. Trump, who, despite his professed love for Latinos, was unable to convince any of them to love him back during his four-day angry white dance party shoutfest known as the Republican National Convention.
According to a new survey by the Latino Victory Fund, in partnership with Latino Decisions and Fusion, 88% of Latino voters say they "do not love Trump." In fact, his favorability rating among Latino voters actually got worse every single day of the convention. And that's bad news for El Donaldo, considering how lousy his Latino approval rating was to begin with.
On Monday, it appeared Trump had nowhere to go but up. A paltry 17% of Latinos said they had a favorable view of Trump, and he was trailing Hillary Clinton by 55 percentage points among Latino voters, according to the Day 1 findings of the Latino Victory Project, which surveyed 300 people each day.
But those numbers would be the best Trump could muster all week.
By Friday, after a ceaseless barrage of Republican drivel capped by Trump's dark-orange dystopian rant scapegoating immigrants for crime, violence and unemployment, The Donald's favorability rating among Latinos had fallen to 13%, while Clinton's lead in the Latino voter intention spread grew to 63 points, according to the Day 4 survey results.
Had the RNC continued for another week, Trump's Latino approval rating might have been reduced to this one forlorn fellow, alone in a sea of infinite sadness. (Oye hermano, you have an extra "S" in your sign).
In any event, Trump's claim that "Hispanics love me" seems to be slightly exaggerated, unless of course he's counting these two pale-faced cowpokes among his Latino contingent.
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What is clear, is that Trump's Latino problem is more serious than ever. More than 70% of Latino voters surveyed by the Latino Victory Project this week said they were following the Republican Convention, and most didn't like what they saw.
The Latino Victory Project, which surveyed a total of 1,200 registered Latino voters during the week in an online questionnaire that claims a margin of error of +/- 5.6%, produced a bunch of worrisome findings for Trump and the Republicans.
In total, 80% of Latino voters said they have an unfavorable view of Trump. And if the elections were held today, 75% of Latinos would vote for Clinton, compared to 14% for Trump.
More than 70% of Latinos, when asked to describe Trump rallies and events in one word, checked off "scary", "hate", "violent", "angry", and "dangerous."
Latinos don't think much better of Trump the man. More than 80% of Latinos surveyed described the Republican candidate as "racist" and "foolish" "bully", who is "dangerous" and will "Make America more divided." On the other hand, 13% said they think he's "classy," so he's got that going for him.
Trump's VP pick isn't helping him win any points with Latino voters either. Putting Mike Pence on the ticket will make 84% of Latino voters surveyed "less likely to vote for Trump." Sorry, güey.
The Republican Party has a similar image problem among Latinos. Most Latinos surveyed described the party as "angry", "old", "anti-immigrant", "dangerous", and "negative." The GOP is certainly old, but not so grand.
Still, many Latinos seem to be willing to give Republicans the benefit of the doubt over Trump. The survey found that 58% think other Republicans running for office probably disagree with Trump on his border wall plans. Latinos also think Republican officials disagree with Trump on global warming.
But on Election Day, Republicans will pay the price with Latino voters for putting Trump on their ticket.
The survey found that a whopping 85% of Latinos surveyed think Trump and the Republicans have "worsened their image with Latino voters," while 75% think the Trump candidacy is downright hostile.
So that's something the GOP might want to get working on before 2020.