She was my top pick. I wonder how things would have played out if she had gotten the progressive wing to coalesce around her instead of Burnie? I felt she had a better shot at winning over the other wings of democratic voters.
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There are only two things that have a chance of keeping things (from getting) worse when the R’s take over - the first is tapping into the populism and defusing the powder keg. The other is a revamp of the systems that failed to keep Trump ink (in) check.
Unwillingness to do either (what Biden has stated he stands for) will give us worse the next time ‘people’ vote for the R’s and give them all 3 branches of the government. You can think Tump is the biggest evil here - he’s not - he’s just the result of ‘moderate centrist politics designed to not rock the boat’.
Obama did give us the R takeover - his inability to leverage his network to help midterm dems isn’t even debatable.
edit - minor correction to make sure intent was clear
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I’m appreciating Papasan right now!
Though I’ll appreciate him more when Whiskey Wednesday rolls around in a few hours…
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FTFY. Democrats win every presidential race with more than 58% voter turnout.
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Some dates for your calendar
November 3, 2020 - Vote for Biden no matter what
November 4, 2020 - Start building guillotines, no matter who won
Don’t get Stockholm syndrome just because Biden is the lesser of two evils. A vote for survival is not the same as unconditional support.
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I’d love to! But I’m not a US citizen. I cannot vote, I cannot decide a thing, but if Biden decides to send drones to my country, I won’t be able to do anything about it.
The US wields such an immense, undeserved power, that whatever happens will resonate in the whole world.
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Whiskey Wednesday? I’m all in, day drinking is now a sport.
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Obama used significant political capital to push through the ACA against unified republican opposition because he believed it was worth the costs. He pressured right-leaning Democratic House members to vote for it even though he and they both knew it could mean them losing their districts. The ACA may not be perfect and has much room for improvement or eventual replacement with M4A but it was a big improvement over what things were before, and was worth the cost.
Remember, many house members at the time were newly elected to purple or reddish districts as blowback against W’s response to Katrina and a degrading situation in Iraq. Many of those districts were always unlikely to stay blue for long, and in many cases Obama campaigning in them could hurt as much as help with the local constituents.
Based on how much arm twisting and horse trading it took among fellow Democrats to just barely get the ACA passed I’m convinced that there was no chance that Obama could have passed M4A in 2009, and anyone who says otherwise just wasn’t paying attention.
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In a way, this is the real objective of the Sanders campaign all along. To build a movement that will try to get progressive candidates elected, but who will also constantly push for change and hold people’s feet to the fire to make them follow through on their promises, and drag the whole overton window back in a sane direction.
Not me, us.
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I am not arguing this - nor have I ever argued this to my knowledge. I wish the bill might have had a public option but I don’t have any delusions it would have survived the process of becoming law.
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It’s also a timely reminder to say “Fuck Joe Lieberman.”
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Is it the top of the hour already?
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It makes you indifferent to the people who are suffering under Trump and will suffer further if he gets four more years.
I do not ask you to support Biden after your vote is made, but please don’t let Trump destroy more lives. As I said above:
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In the case of SC, “they” means the African-American Democratic leadership, which across the US has increasingly become what “Democratic establishment” means. As Michael Harriott wrote recently:
That’s why, when Sen. Bernie Sanders, his surrogates and assorted pundits say the “Democratic establishment” has banded together to stop him from winning the party’s presidential nomination and united around former vice president Joe Biden, I wonder: Which Democratic establishment? For black Americans, particularly Southerners, it is not the Democratic National Committee, or the corporate donor base, or even, as the political strategist Mark McKinnon defined it during the anti-establishment presidential race of 2016: “The measles. A disease. A political disease.” The Democratic establishment is, quite simply, their community. Those who vilify it are, by proxy, impugning the people who voice their concerns and protect their families.
Why would Warren have endorsed the guy who forced her out of the race by calling her a liar, and whose supporters attacked her relentlessly when she was out in front? Part of what she was about was offering a change from exactly this kind of behavior.
Bernie’s proposal would have allowed that too:
The VP has as much power as the President gives to her (and will have muc more should Biden have health problems). Obama gave Biden quite a bit of authority for issues on the ground, which I assume is why his response to the current crisis sounds like it has some actual experience behind it. Warren and Harris already have independent administrative experience, Abrams less so but she is smart and could learn in office. I hope whoever he picks will be as smart as these three, and that he treats them with the same respect Obama gave him.
This this this. I miss Dean.
If you don’t vote for Biden, Biden will be fine after the election even if he loses. You know who won’t be fine? Most of the rest of us.
I ‘liked’ this, but we have friends who died in Jonestown (including children of the guy who married my wife and me), and honestly the expression is still a little painful.
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That wasn’t your point with regards to Obama. You said he gave us the flip, which is a regular occurrence in national politics.
And not all populism is good. Much of the populism that trump tapped into was of the racist, narrow and bigoted variety.
This goes further back to Nixon and the southern strategy, that was used to pull the GOP to the far right. The GOP made choices, too, and has effectively worked to disenfranchise minority voters on top of that.
He was not the singular person responsible for decades of political changes. Things just aren’t that simple. And many of the populist who rebelled against him and voter R were the voters who chose racism and misogyny.
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Yes, and I know the Rs’ m.o. is to drive down turnout in general (for example, yesterday in WI). That said, I’m skeptical any Biden ad – or any Democrat’s ad – caused, or would cause, any otherwise-Republican voter to exclaim “Well, I’m convinced! That tears it! I’m voting for the Democrat.”
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That comment had nothing to do with Obama - it had to do with what needs to happen now before a flip happens again (which it will - that’s inevitable).
Nope - but there is a chance to embrace the parts that are not and defuse it - ignoring it and trying to avoid the anger/frustration that is driving it won’t help do anything but allow it to go from a smoulder to a fire.
We disagree - this is the result of 20 years of neoliberal policy that promoted globalism - I don’t even think that much of that was bad - making lives better for other countries is great - the problem was the speed at which this happened and the lack of interest in propping up the people hurt by the policies - that’s the ‘ember’ of the anger we see now that has been allowed to burn.
Going back to ‘how it was’ won’t help any of that. Obama had his moment - any - any - choice would have been better than Biden in this race - I feel like people voted for the Biden they saw in the memes after Trump took office - that guy never existed outside of a fairy tale.
He was a shit choice for VP back in the day - he’s the worst choice for pick now - and nothing you say is going to make that fact change. He’s also (in my opinion) the most likely to be beat by Trump for all the same reasons Hillary was.
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I’ll say this again: The DNC has to work to earn my vote. Biden being Not-Trump doesn’t automatically get him my vote. Sorry I have principles.
If Biden wins on November 3rd, the centrists, (neo)liberals, and mainstream media are going to declare Mission Accomplished and try to push the narrative that since Biden won, the majority of the progressive platforms that Bernie and AOC and Warren have championed just aren’t what the country wants right now and that we all need to shut the fuck up and fall in line. There will be no guillotine-building; there will just be nonstop bootlicking.
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ahem
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