I disagree. I never liked Status Quo, except for Pictures of Matchstick Men. They’re too dad rock for my tastes.
Seriously though, going back to the status quo is not enough, unless watching the world burn is what you want.
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Are you suggesting that Biden would fare better if the majority of voters who supported Hillary in 2016’s general election did not vote for him?
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I’m suggesting we all have another drink, it’s going to be a long year.
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Fortunately, all the candidates have signed onto the Green New Deal. Now, all we need is for one of them to win, and also to win the Senate and the House.
(The GND will probably also not be enough.)
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As I said in another thread, that’s not true. It’s more “I’m going to signal my virtue by paying lip service to Sanders, and then use ‘not electable’ to blame my neighbors for my prejudices.”
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I was being snarky, but I’ll attempt a sincere response:
I agree with you --in theory. However, in practice, I think “we” as a nation have become far too polarized. There’s a lack of trust in our neighbors, a lack of trust in our institutions, and a general sense of unease. Purposefully taking some time to reset some or all of these feels like a very reasonable thing to do. I may be projecting; perhaps it’s literally only me. But as a long-time, non-party-affiliated, independent voter, I will be waaay more willing to start considering further-left progressive agendas if I can just have a bit of time to see that our union isn’t going to just collapse. Going out of our way at this point in time to try to swing wildly in the opposite direction to who we have in power seems like a great way to widen the current gulf to the point of irreparability.
TL;DR: As they say in sports: its a “rebuilding year” (er, four years).
There won’t be much of a union to keep organized, if the planet is on fire…
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Only one side has become polarised. Bernie Sanders is a left wing social democrat, a centrist in the global sense. The left goes far further than him. If we had a group of Stalinists or Maoists who were dominant in a Democratic election you might have a point, but we don’t.
Bad news. Climate change won’t give you any more time. The Green New Deal is the very least we need to be doing and we have democrats trying to water it down. The Homeopathic Climate New Deal won’t save anything except billionaires bank accounts and the union will collapse anyway. Congratulations. Give yourself a pat on the back for not alienating Republicans as the oceans rise.
I am not going to sugar coat this. Biden, Sanders or Warren need to do a lot more about climate change while we still have a chance of managing it, or we are all fucked.
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I think you are right about Congress and generally but I don’t think even the same amount of people voting for Hillary suddenly voting for Biden is going to fix things.
We need an overwhelming wave that I don’t see coming as I see the youth vote not increasing anywhere near what I thought it should have.
I expected people to show up in wheelbarrows and wheelchairs to vote here- and im not seeing those numbers. I think liberal people are numb, and not getting off the damn couch because theyre sick of engaging in this country.
I hope to the gods im wrong
I fear this might come off as slightly more combative than I intend it to, but here goes…
Even presuming that the next four years is the only window we have in that regard, one of the few “positive” things the Trump presidency has shown us is that mostly the checks and balances of the other branches work, and the executive can’t just do everything by fiat.
Given that, I suspect that someone like Bernie is going to be a lot less likely to build consensus with folks across the aisle in the legislative to get things done. He is (as of the present) a seemingly purposefully polarizing figure.
I’d pay him to fuck off but that’s me
I have no interest, vested or otherwise, in not alienating anyone.
Not to put too fine a point on it, my sole consideration in 2020 is getting Trump out of office. That’s it. Period. And I think a hopefully brief return to the “status quo” is the shortest path to that.
Humanity is doomed, isn’t it. We can’t do what we need to do to save ourselves.
It’s been a nice 350,000 years, but it’s time to move on. Maybe the Earth can save itself without us.
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This very well may be true. (I won’t claim to follow international politics very closely.)
But by current US standards, he’s about as far left as you can get and still manage to run on a major party ticket. I think its a bit disingenuous to appeal to the theoretical extreme; I was speaking specifically about the here-and-now in the United States.
Yup. I’m reasonably certain the Earth will do just fine sans humanity --likely better than fine.
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I can share that sentiment now that Bloomberg’s out. Bloomberg v Trump would lead me to seriously consider a write in vote for Yang or Gabbard.
How is life on Earth 2, by the way?
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It’s not just about what the President does about it, it’s also about having an administration that is at least open to the idea of letting the legislature do something about it.
In that sense even a noncommittal status-quo centrist would be a vast improvement over a President who actively fights any effort to save the planet.
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I hope you don’t think I’m ignorant on how government works, because I promise, I’m aware…
Who said they should? The executive can show LEADERSHIP on such issues, such as opting back into the Paris agreement, or by signing executive orders on issues related to climate change, or discussing the matter with governors and mayors and getting them to make changes on the local and state level.
Plus, I suspect if Bernie got into office, there would be a progressive, or at least blue wave in congress too.
As for consensus building - some things aren’t about consensus, such as climate change. The science is in, and it’s clear action must be taken or things are going to get worse. It’s already pretty bad and at least part of the migration crisis comes from conflicts over climate change.
And GOP is the party that is utterly resistant to consensus building with anyone with a D next to their name. They are the party of obstruction, white supremacy, misogyny, homo and transphobia, Islamophobia, etc, etc. We’re likely going to have to get this done without their help or support, and with them kicking and screaming as we push to get things enacted that will literally save their children’s and grandchildren’s lives in the future.
It’s looking increasingly likely yes. It’s not the right wing that will kill us, either, it’s the centrists who believe we need compromise with the right wing…
It’s depressing.
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Meanwhile, on Terra Prime, the checks are in the mail and the balances are in dire need of recalibration.
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