Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/12/27/anti-oligarch-countermeasures.html
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Based on the 2016 and 2018 cycles, here are the candidates that could qualify: Reps Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Call it a hunch, but she won’t be one of the debaters in the 2020 Presidential nominee events. There’s a problem with her birth certificate 
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I don’t get how this will help preserve the Patriarchy.
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Finally. This should have been a no-brainer move three years ago, but I’ll take it.
Now they need to make a similar rule regarding support from Super PACs and also refuse donations from toxic industries like payday loans (sorry, Debbie!) or tobacco or (of course) the NRA.
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Moneyed interests: that’s okay; we’ll just buy some “Dean Scream” coverage of the populist winner and emplace our own Skull n Bones dude after the generated upset. It’s a tried-and-true winning strategy. 
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I’m all for anything that means Joe “I have no empathy for millennials” Biden isn’t allowed to run.
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This will backfire when their emails are hacked and it is revealed that “Mr. & Mrs. Partooken” are in reality 0.01% of General Motors’ donation.
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As with all things Trump, I wouldn’t trust that without verification by a pack of hungry forensic auditors and investigators. He didn’t run an old style “throw money at broadcast media” campaign that the rules in place are designed to track.
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Until 2016, I’d have also said not enough experience, but that went out the window.
Although at this point, we’ve trashed the rest of the Constitution, so does age really matter anymore?
It’s a good gesture, but it doesn’t mean much until we overturn Citizens United.
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Seriously though, while this can be a good thing, and I hope that it is, I still choose to remain cynical, since the structure of the DNC isn’t any different, and this is part of their efforts to do the bare minimum possible in order to not fall apart as an organization.
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Honestly, I’d rather AOC stay right where she is anyway. There’s more to government than the presidency, and we need more young, emphatically leftist voices like hers in the legislature. Like, a lot more.
Congress is disproportionately old; more than 80% of the House and almost 90% of the Senate is over the age of 50, but people over 50 make up only about a third of the total US population. If you look at congresspeople younger than 40, the stats are even worse; only 4% of the House and 0% of the Senate fit that description, despite the minimum age requirements for those positions being 25 and 30, respectively. I don’t say this to be ageist, but to emphasize the fact that younger people have essentially no generational representation in the legislative branch of our government, and there are significant differences in political belief and policy proscriptions that break along generational lines.
The presidency is also important, to be sure, but having the most progressive president in history isn’t going to amount to a hill of beans in the long term if they’re pitted against the current legislature.
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this is going to get so incredibly ugly
remember when Obama said he’d eliminate lobbyists - yup they were there the whole time and stronger than ever
get rid of:
- lobbyists
- dark money, every donation listed from every source
- superPACs
- gerrymandering (mostly a House thing but still)
they already got rid of superdelegate right? if not add that to the list
fantasy bonus:
5.get rid of electoral college, one vote one person, everyone gets to vote, no “pools” of votes
so simple and I am sure every sane person would agree, or at least a vast majority as long as it applies to everyone, yet none of these will ever happen
ps. and yes everyone loves Bernie - he needs to step aside and use his influence to strongly endorse and support someone else this time - not voting for an 80 year old white president - both Senate and House need term limits too, sick and tired of the same people being in there for 30+ years, you need fresh energy every generation
pps. hang on RBG, just hang in there, omg hang in there
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- ain’t happening. That requires a constitutional convention, and I don’t want any of the current dingleberries and state legislatures anywhere NEAR one of those.
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For the electoral college anyway, look up the interstate compact. Essentially, the states are free to implement it at any time, and the blue states mostly have already done so. It just requires a few purple/red states to sign on to make it a majority.
Nevertheless, that obviously won’t happen because it currently benefits the Republicans.
For the Senate and so on, well, good luck.
I’ll believe it when I see it.
Sanders sent out an email today where he claims corporate democrats are already running attack ads against him claiming his social bias issues - healthcare for all - will cause a Democratic defeat in 2020. Sounds to me like corporate buy-out of DNC leadership.
Right now, a group of Wall Street Democrats known as the Third Way is running ads in early primary states — Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada — calling me out by name and saying our ideas, like Medicare for all, are a path to defeat in 2020.
They not only want to discourage or defeat a Sanders candidacy, they want to make sure that the progressive agenda is not advanced by anyone. They want us to go back to their failed corporate approach which has led to a massive level of income and wealth inequality, a bloated military budget and a failure to address the crises of climate change, a broken criminal justice system and inhumane immigration policies.
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Don’t worry. The new rules will ensure that “small grassroots” donations will have to be serious amounts from recognized billionaires and lobbyists.
Huh? Conflating the abolition of the Electoral College with granting statehood to various territories would make no sense. Sure, a state compact could include US territories, but it would be entirely illegitimate.
Also, how could you leave out DC?
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Puerto Rico, Guam and other territories roll their eyes.
If there’s no Electoral College, what’s the rationale for locking them out of the presidential vote?
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Well they ARE still largely populated by brown people.
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