Politics: 2020 Dem POTUS candidate catch all discussion thread

chanson78 said:

I was at lunch today and overheard some people talking about the democratic nominees. It essentially came down to Biden is flailing, Sanders and Warren are amazing if only America would listen not to mention that the game is even more rigged against them than it was against Bernie in 2016, and Pete is effectively everything wrong with the democratic policy because he is running as "the gay one." The end of the discussion was effectively, "I am worried Pete will surge like Obama did, and I don't think I will be able to vote for Pete if he is the nominee."

Bernie bros are still in effect.

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This is the ONE reason I give Trump a chance.
He should already be toast.

But he has the good fortune of being up against the party that has taken ideological purity far beyond "hold mah beer."

This exact same thing happened in 2004. Bush HAD to go...he HAD to go, he was evil personified.

Kerry wins the nomination (a responsible choice).

The Howard Dean contingent goes off a cliff, Kerry proceeds to show he literally has ZERO core other than getting elected (almost) any way possible, and the Democrats lose a race they could have won if the "I won't vote for" folks would have said:

a) Kerry is with me 70% of the time
b) Bush is with me 5% of the time at most
....


I'll vote for Kerry.

I've been impressed with Pete, and the one thing I think would be almost hilarious is if this country had a gay President before it had a female President (particularly while "The Entitled One" is still alive to see it). He has to a large degree managed to address that tense issue of religion vs sexual orientation quite well (he admits to liking Chick-fil-A but not their politics - perfect!).

I may still vote third party here in CA because it won't matter one bit, but if I lived in a state that was close I would hold my nose and vote for the Dem to get Trump out of office.

NationalTitles17 said:

I may still vote third party here in CA because it won't matter one bit, but if I lived in a state that was close I would hold my nose and vote for the Dem to get Trump out of office.

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And I will say that this is probably the one time in my lifetime where it was that important to get a single person out of office.

TIDE-HSV said:

From what I understand, wait until "Anonymous" book comes out. It's worse than anyone even suspects...

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I suspect he is an absolute nutjob. Not sure if I can be surprised anymore.

How much can we trust a book by "Anonymous" though? Sure does seem like just more nightmare fuel for Q-Anon types who believe The Deep State is going to prevent MAGA mindset.

rgw said:

How much can we trust a book by "Anonymous" though? Sure does seem like just more nightmare fuel for Q-Anon types who believe The Deep State is going to prevent MAGA mindset.

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It's certainly not going to change the minds of those who have supported him to this point. Maybe enough of those on the fence will move away from him. I don't have a clue what to think right now about his chances for re-election. It all depends on independents in key states up for grabs. If they can't see the danger to the republic now I don't know that they ever will.

Every vote in the meaningful swing states count so I'm just eying the potential tinfoil hat crank that heretofore did not go to the ballot box.


I tend to think the best way to pick up vote is with agenda/policy that inspires people but I guess we've gotta pin our hopes to picking off the near mythical swing voter.

rgw said:

I tend to think the best way to pick up vote is with agenda/policy that inspires people but I guess we've gotta pin our hopes to picking off the near mythical swing voter.

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This is contradicted by almost every single winning campaign in my lifetime. THIS is what separates pragmatists from purists.


That whole "needs to lay out a progressive agenda" is a myth that should have died after Dukakis tried it. And in all honesty, no NOMINEE for the Democrats has done this. They ought to be able to say, "Well, there really IS a dime's worth of difference in President Trump and President Whoever."

Warren's health care proposal is a millstone that even an inept buffoon like Trump can hang around her neck and win the damn thing.
It was the stupidest thing in the contest so far.

And I'm not surprised anymore. I always wait to see what insanely dumb things candidates from Massachusetts do - because it's as predictable as fans blaming the refs for every Alabama victory.

TIDE-HSV said:

Hardly "mythical," after they voted for Obama and then turned around and voted for Trump...

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Earle - they can't bring themselves to admit that because that overturns their entire excuse of, "We only lost because the other side is racist."

(In this case, it was a combination of that and the lower turnout from non-whites not being as excited about HRC as they were about Obama).

I do think trends are showing that the democratic base is going more left - and there has been some posts on here demonstrating that with qualitative analysis of the party platform from each convention - but I'll concede I can't really prove with data that it is going fast enough to change the prevailing strategy.

I have a hunch that the inflection point is coming sooner than one might think but that may or may not be 2020. The window of what is acceptable discourse in the mainstream left has changed quite a bit in the last decade and especially post-2016.

My concern is that the younger voters in the party see the president as an idealistic purity test. When the candidate/nominee doesn’t pass said socialist purity test (green new deal, free college, or single payer health care) they bemoan the fact that the democrats didn’t put up a “real” candidate and if only the DNC would see the light, everyone in America would get behind <insert far left candidate here>.

Say what you want about Republicans. They are pragmatic. A poop sandwich shows up promising to stack the courts and keep out the browns, and they have fallen in line. Not because they particularly enjoy the flavor, but their ideology sees socialism and free stuff for the poor as soo much more detrimental to their ideal America.

Pragmatism may come with age, or it may be that the left tends to run a little more emotional which inclines them to be more idealistic. Odds are it’s a little mixture of both.

Fundamentally I’m starting to believe that there are many on the left who enjoy being miserable. The number of people who are catching a case of the eeyore’s makes me think that like 2016 many would prefer an excuse to complain about how evil republicans are over actually compromising and voting the dotard out of office.

I think you give conservatives too much credit. Most of them are quite happy with the attack on the democratic process, court stuffing maneuvers, and keeping out the browns but also don't want the socialism because they fear it is an attack on their small holdings.

Just when you thought the bus was full, Deval Patrick jumps aboard.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/deval-patrick-jumps-into-democratic-presidential-nomination-race

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from warren's campaign website

Whoever Warren appointed to be her "Minister of Shade" is on pointe.

chanson78 said:

My concern is that the younger voters in the party see the president as an idealistic purity test. When the candidate/nominee doesn’t pass said socialist purity test (green new deal, free college, or single payer health care) they bemoan the fact that the democrats didn’t put up a “real” candidate and if only the DNC would see the light, everyone in America would get behind <insert far left candidate here>.

Say what you want about Republicans. They are pragmatic. A poop sandwich shows up promising to stack the courts and keep out the browns, and they have fallen in line. Not because they particularly enjoy the flavor, but their ideology sees socialism and free stuff for the poor as soo much more detrimental to their ideal America.

Pragmatism may come with age, or it may be that the left tends to run a little more emotional which inclines them to be more idealistic. Odds are it’s a little mixture of both.

Fundamentally I’m starting to believe that there are many on the left who enjoy being miserable. The number of people who are catching a case of the eeyore’s makes me think that like 2016 many would prefer an excuse to complain about how evil republicans are over actually compromising and voting the dotard out of office.

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I particularly agree with the bolded parts of your comments. Formerly living in the leftist bastion of the DC metro area, the scores of left leaning people I associated with fit your description. It would be one thing if this whiny tendency came out only during election season. But, having lived in the area for over 20 years, the need to blame and demonize to the exclusion of getting their own act together is just SOP. Never understood the need to be miserable.

I wish Warren and the others understood economics and markets just a little bit.

https://reason.com/podcast/democrats-cant-quit-fantasizing-about-what-theyd-do-to-billionaires/

But, I guess they don't have to when class jealousy plays so well to their base.