2020 Election Thread (formerly: 2020 Presidential Candidates Thread) (Part 1)

Honestly, none of us can predict the future, so when it comes to voting all we can really do is vote our morals and ethics, and support the candidate we think is best…

I agree, especially considering all that is aligned against us in having a free and fair election.

18 Likes

So Mike’s strategy is hoping that Joe will have a big stroke before the convention?

6 Likes

For a bit of levity, here’s The Onion on Super Tuesday predictions :smiley: :

12 Likes

Does anyone ever wonder if the generational story of baby boomers being free to make their own way is kind of cover for them being neglected by parents who were scarred from the wars and the depression?

11 Likes

I had such a similar moment! I got there, felt a sense of dread, cast my vote for Sanders, immediately felt intense self-doubt, guilt, and a sense of despair for the future I can only describe as being grateful I don’t have children.

11 Likes

If we can’t vote for who we really want in the primary, when can we ever vote for who we really want?

One of our departed mutant siblings had some things to say about this line of reasoning

10 Likes

The DNC has hundreds of members, so that’s a lot of phone calls. Unless they meant the DNC leadership, but the ones who pushed for Hilary were thrown out on their collective asses (thank goodness).

The idea that people on the left view the DNC as the big enemy here must bring constant comfort and joy Mitch McConnell and his buddies at Fox.

1 Like

TLDR:

  • We’ll all be feeling pretty foolish if we agonize about it and finally vote for Biden in the primary because he’s “electable” and then he loses the general election

  • Getting mad at general election voters because they didn’t follow our plan won’t help

7 Likes

well, not the big enemy.

but you’ve got to admit that changing the debate rules to allow bloomberg in was terrible. they did little to help the possibly viable minority candidates - but the billionaire, please sir come right in.

there’s also the number of democrat talking heads hand wringing about socialism, while the democrat party itself stands silently by. silence is it’s own action.

7 Likes

Now - go kiss Donnie.

14 Likes
11 Likes

IMG_20200303_124149 - Edited (1)
I voted this morning (Minnesota). There was hardly anyone there—three people ahead of me, no one behind me. Then again, it was mid-morning (about 10:45 am) on a weekday. And there was only one thing on the ballot. And Republicans don’t really need to vote in this primary. But then again, my area is heavily Democratic, so even without Republicans voting you’d think there would have been more voters there.

I was in and out in a couple of minutes. I filled in one little oval with the provided black pen, and fed my ballot into the slot. The electronic vote-counting machine wasn’t working for some reason (not sure if that should make me uneasy??) and I was told that they’d be counting the ballots by hand.

13 Likes

My wife and I filled out our ballots for the WA primary last week and I finally got them into a drop box yesterday. The only downside to a vote-by-mail state is they don’t give you an “I voted” sticker along with your ballot.

13 Likes

Thread:

This is not a conspiracy theory, this is propaganda 101. There may be some legitimate concerns about the process. But they’re being amplified and pushed for maximum FUD.

16 Likes

Yeah. At this point, there is no real reason to assume that DNC will somehow steal the nomination from Sanders, or Biden will pick Nikki Haley (or any other Republican) as a running mate, or – from the other side – that Bernie will go for a third-party run if he doesn’t win the nomination.

Don’t succumb to paranoia and lashing out at each other over things that haven’t happened and don’t actually look like they will ever happen, please!

4 Likes

I think I would have been a bit more colorful and inappropriate, but you can see where this is coming from.

10 Likes

If Biden gets the nomination and loses that doesn’t mean Bernie was more electable, any more than we know that he was more electable than HRC.

I’ve said this before here: people should vote in the primaries for the candidate they’re most comfortable with, and trust that the results mean that the winner is electable; voting on the basis of electability is a mug’s game. Now, if a voter sincerely feels that Bernie is not electable because he is a pugnacious socialist who will repel suburban moms, or that Joe is not electable because he’s a doddering reactionary who will turn off young people, then that voter’s sense probably reflects the voter’s core comfort with the candidate. (You’re not going to believe that Bernie’s anger will turn people off unless you yourself perceive Bernie as excessively angry.)

Hypocritical for sure. As for ‘terrible’: participation in the debates has very much hurt Bloomberg, and it isn’t clear that that was an unintended consequence of changing the rules.

5 Likes

Oh, it certainly does mean that

If and when Biden loses, the experiment has been performed

On that day his electability is known to be zero

Anybody whose electability was not tested, and remains hypothetical, is statistically higher

4 Likes

No, it could simply be that on the day of the election all his supporters were sick with a virus, or that the day before there was a damning-sounding story about the emails Hunter. Moreover, Biden (or HRC) losing doesn’t give any information about Bernie’s electability.

That’s another reason why basing a primary choice on perceived electability is stupid.

excuses don’t matter, if you’re nominated and don’t win you’re not electable by definition

2 Likes