Election 2020

[In the Corn]

I said "other than Biden". Trump's head-to-heads against Sanders, Warren, Harris, Buttigieg have improved materially from where they were a month or so ago. That's why I am getting more worried about the candidates whom I like the best. I'm afraid that Biden is the only Democrat who can win the states that are needed to defeat Trump.

Jessie, this is my point.

Warren and Bernie are viewed as the antithesis of Trump, and the majority of people don't want to see a 180 degree turn. They would rather see a progressive shift.

So my question to you TW, would you rather have Biden or Trump. If Biden is the best bet, I would hope you would get behind Biden, as much as you can't stand him.

[Teenwolf]

Jessie, this is my point.

Warren and Bernie are viewed as the antithesis of Trump, and the majority of people don't want to see a 180 degree turn. They would rather see a progressive shift.

So my question to you TW, would you rather have Biden or Trump. If Biden is the best bet, I would hope you would get behind Biden, as much as you can't stand him.

The only way that Biden gets the nomination is if he does so the way Clinton did. Wounded, vulnerable, and exposed. He would have no hope in hell against Trump, I don't care what polling says. It would be 1 year of Democrats smacking their foreheads at Biden's idiotic statements, and would completely deaden the excitement level of the base. I'm optimistic that Biden will make himself irrelevant pretty quickly. The ENTIRE field is going to attack him, the blood is in the water now. I give Biden less than 5% chance of winning the nomination, so I don't like the hypothetical question.

If Biden is the nominee vs. Trump, I'd have the same strategy as 2016 with Clinton. Vote Biden, then when he's in office, attack him mercilessly for his entire term.

[frae]

Kamala is on the bubble for me. I need to hear more from her to understand her position. Let me tell you, I want so badly to vote for the Democrat, but I won't vote for a complete pendulum swing that Warren and Bernie represent.

Thanks, I am looking for ways to win that aren't Biden. Harris has the chance to build a coalition in the form of Obama. She may not be my 1st pick in a bubble, but beating Trump matters most. Maybe pairing Harris with Klobuchar, Pete, or Sherrod Brown to help her in the midwest.

[Kevin Seitzer]

The Boris Johnson thing further underscores my fears. I fear that we're living in a time in history where, in majority-white nations, being racist and sexist and xenophobic is an electoral asset rather than a liability. It's infuriating.

Yes.

And it makes me think we're better off that we're becoming a minority-white nation. Not that I dislike being white or other people being white, but if this is how white people are going to run the country, maybe we're better off with kinder people in charge.

[Sour Masher]

Yes.

And it makes me think we're better off that we're becoming a minority-white nation. Not that I dislike being white or other people being white, but if this is how white people are going to run the country, maybe we're better off with kinder people in charge.

I am frustrated too, and I do think it will be good for the country as demographics shift to give a fairer voice to folks who already represent a significant portion of the population, but are under-represented.

However, of course, shifting demographics is no cure to nationalism or hatred. Everyone is capable of it. There are been pretty horrible non-white leaders who have shown that across the globe. We need to hold all of our politicians accountable. I hope we do that with the person in office right now in 2020.

[swampdragon]

... Voting 3rd party is mostly for elitists who are desperate to spend the next 4 years telling everybody how right they were

Hmmm

So you would have voted for Hillary in 2016?

[Teenwolf]

Hmmm

So you would have voted for Hillary in 2016?

Yeah, definitely. I was resigned to 4 years of pushing Hillary left, but it wasn't meant to be. She had shown some malleability with the party platform, so I believed she could still be pushed on issues. Biden is worse than Hillary, in my view, but I would theoretically vote for him too with the same concept.

[nots]

Yikes....if Matt Taibbi is this negative, it might be time to re-evaluate your strategy.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/iowa-2020-election-democrats-taibbi-858522/

[fuhrdog]

Iowa unfortunately will vote for Trump over any D. No restrictions on any guns and as tough on immigration as possible are the talking points they love. Also get rid of entitlements unless its for farmers is huge too

[revo]

Iowa unfortunately will vote for Trump over any D. No restrictions on any guns and as tough on immigration as possible are the talking points they love. Also get rid of entitlements unless its for Iowans is huge too

Fixed, lol.

[Art Vandelay]

Anybody who would vote for Trump over Bernie is a fucking idiot.

I am curious, do you plan on voting liberal in October?

[Teenwolf]

I am curious, do you plan on voting liberal in October?

Canadian voting triangulation is brutal. I voted NDP last time with no regrets, it clearly would have been better than Trudeau. But the new NDP and Green leaderships are both fucking up lately. Probably voting Green in an effort to push electoral reform. Trudeau's abandonment of electoral reform really pissed me off. But I also see climate change as my #1 issue, so it's a clusterfuck of bad options as far as I can see. Given Trudeau's lack of action on climate change, he's a non-starter for me. His support from Indigenous voters has cratered, looking like a minority Conservative government for the next term.

To sum it all up, I think that "strategic voting" is a poor solution to a broken electoral system, and its relinquishing your voice willfully, which is, in my opinion, fucking stupid. I come to this conclusion having considered myself to be in the strategic voter camp in the past, but I had an epiphany. I want ranked choice, and I want proportional representation.

[Teenwolf]

Some happenings not mentioned.

Kamala Harris is having a bad week. Her announcement for student debt repayment was hugely panned. "Yesterday I announced that, as president, I’ll establish a student loan debt forgiveness program for Pell Grant recipients who start a business that operates for three years in disadvantaged communities". Yeah, I'm sure the dozen people who qualify are thrilled. She also announced her healthcare proposal, to a lot of raised eyebrows. The details are all watered down supports for Medicare Advantage, but the really truly unbelievably stupid part is that she wants to implement her healthcare plan over 10 years! 2 1/2 Presidential terms! Yeah, that sounds really smart, really good chance to not turn into a full-on clusterfuck.

Biden announced his healthcare proposal with a commercial that looks so cheap, and with such a dumb message. It's quite pathetic, and the biggest piece of garbage from the ad is the line "my husband and I worked for 30 years, we earned our coverage"... so its setting up the idea that not everybody will have coverage, but it's okay because they didn't earn it.

Bernie was on Pod Save America and made a great point about early polling I loved. Will find it. He also took a caravan up to Windsor, Ontario to buy cheap prescription drugs. His campaign manager, Faiz Shakir has also been killing it , saying that the debates are staged for media drama and not issues, among other badass comments he's made. Oh, and his interns got raised to $42K with increased benefits for a 6 day work week, for anybody who might have eaten up that load of bullshit.

[revo]

"I do know it, I wrote the damn bill!" - Bernie Sanders. Best line of the night.

[Teenwolf]

Bernie 1st, Warren 2nd, Marianne Williamson in a battle of love with Pete Buttigieg for 3rd. Beto was less terrible. I thought his appeal to be someone's VP was quite transparent when he said that Texas has 38 electoral votes and he could help to swing Texas to Democrats.

Damn, Delaney got pummeled. Actually, you could count 5 that should be cut for the 3rd debate (Hickenlooper, Delaney, Bullock, Ryan are definitely toast, also Klobuchar IMO, as I don't think her 1.7% polling will go up, but maybe if Biden's support evaporates, I dunno.) All of those losers were enjoyable punching bags for Bernie and Warren. If we could see 1 debate with 10 next time, watching Biden and Kamala representing the more centrist candidates in the debate promises to be interesting.

Other highlights: Tapper asks Sanders, paraphrased "Donald Trump ran on an anti-interventionist agenda in 2016, as you're doing now. Why should we believe you when Trump didn't follow through with de-escalation?" Sanders answers simply "Because Donald Trump is a pathological liar and I am not."

Also loved Warren saying "I find it amazing that people go to the trouble of running for President to tell us about all of the progress that we cannot achieve and things we cannot do for Americans", I can't find the quote but it was a good generic centrist smackdown.

I also loved Bernie shouting at Delaney, when Delaney was saying "Listen, health care is a complicated business, and I've been involved..." and Bernie shouts "it's not a business!" to huge applause.

Overall, I was very happy with Sanders and Warren. I'm sure they'll be overshadowed by night 2 drama. Gabbard and Gillibrand will be teaming up to take down Harris. Gabbard has said she's unfit to serve, and she's the only woman of colour (immune from attacks that her Harris critiques are sexist or racist). Gillibrand has been prepping a Harris attack, according to media. Biden will surely do more self-inflicted damage, as he always does. Should be fun!