Well any campaign has pressure from party leaders and donors. It’s a consequence of having mainstream support, rather than operating purely on grass roots support.
I can’t diagnose dementia, as I have not met the man and I am not a medical professional.
I am concerned that he has shown to slip off-topic frequently. And the media likes to amplify this because it gets lot of clicks. More of this behavior is the main thing most people are going to get to see during this campaign. Especially if President Trump refuses to debate Biden, and we spend the year with Biden riffing in interviews, telling stories at town halls, and fumbling through prepared speeches.
No, you need to get rid of the idiotic system of primaries altogether. That is, you need to get rid of the 2 party system. 2 party systems are bad because everything swings wildly the other way when the other party gets to rule. If you have a proportional representation system with at least 3 parties, parties always have to compromise. Yes, it makes efficient governing harder. Yes it leads to longish periods of negotiations every election cycle. Still, imo it works a lot better than the outdated system the U.S. uses.
I know there is no rule to forbid a 3d party, it’s just that the current system in the U.S. inevitably leads to 2 parties, because a 3d party having 10% of the votes is just not represented at all.
Not in the US, where the two parties are a centre to centre right wing party and a right to far right wing party. No real swing to the left is allowed (Bernie is centre left at most).
I know that Joe has said he supports a public option, but he was also on board with the neutering of the ACA and handing it over to the insurance industry. There are lots of versions of “public option”.
I disagree. Mainstream democrats are just more centered than the progressive arm. And that progressive group forgets that. They have been just left of center for awhile now. Even under Obama who was more of a neo liberal than anything (despite what his detractors labeled him as.).
If you want to thumb the scale in the other direction it is going to take political action and pressure from that end.
This is entirely possible only in the ethereal world of RT and Sputnik and Fox News.
Trump? Refuse a potential media appearance? He will want to “debate” Biden at all times, especially since Biden will be ahead of him in the polls. The only hesitation will occur when he thinks he can play “very stable genius contract negotiator” and he attempts to dictate the terms of the event in his favor (having Fox News host, allowing audience “participation”/yelling, picking the audience, etc.)
Why would Trump not want to participate? He is dying to debate Biden. He cannot wait! Trump is a known quantity to the electorate. Trump is incapable of gaffes, with his existence being one long gaffe. Biden has a lot to lose and is more than capable of a negative debate performance.
President Trump doesn’t like dealing with moderators, he doesn’t want to be told when to stop speaking. He will likely make demands on the debate venue or format that the Democratic Party won’t agree to. Thus no debate. President Trump can hold a media even for himself without sharing the spot light any time he wants to.
Only since the Overton Window has moved so far rightward.
In Europe, Sanders is considered just slightly left of center. The rest of the Democratic candidates (before they followed the script, dropped out and endorsed Joe) had positions that range from center-right to straight up conservative.
On the subject of the presumptive winner, maybe the many billionaire & corporate donors to Joe’s campaign are sending that money solely out of the goodness of their hearts, and he’ll ignore their requests and instead help the 99%.
We should completely re-organize the government. We give too much power to the President. The concept for voting for a person for office is inherently flawed because it is inherently a pig in a poke since the person often does something different once in office than the reasons you elected them.
One thing we could do is make cabinet heads into elected positions.
Those are all good points. I mean, I hope he refuses to debate, because I think Biden has a lot more to lose than he (and if he refuses, Biden will be able to rightly call him a coward at all appearances). But it’s possible that, while Trump loves him some Fox News/Der Stürmer Town Halls, he’ll nevertheless recognize the value of mainstream media debates. Plus, he’s always gotten around debate rules/decorum: interrupting (“Puppet No Puppet”), hovering, etc.
Biden has been advocating a $15/hour minimum wage since at least 2015.
Bernie is obviously to the left of Biden on issues like this, but that’s no reason to distort Biden’s positions. He’s a centrist Democrat, and the Democrats have been pro labor for quite a long time.
