2020 Democratic Candidates Tracker - Part II

Status
Not open for further replies.
theprestige said:
It's well understood that revolutionaries must turn to in-fighting and ideological purges, to consolidate power in the hands of a few, following a successful revolution.

What is less well understood is that revolutionaries must sometimes turn to in-fighting and ideological purges before the revolution, to consolidate strength in the revolutionary faction best capable of succeeding in the revolution.
Click to expand...


more importantly, what no proponent of the 2nd amendment as the means to overthrow governments seem to get it:
if you want to overthrow your government, you better have the backing of another powerful government.
 
Travis said:
How in the hell is Harris "Republican-lite?"
Click to expand...
As a state prosecutor, she was necessarily on the law and order side of things, and part of keeping her job meant pursuing criminal justice policies that some (many?) would consider quite regressive and anti-minority.

That's my understanding, anyway.
 
theprestige said:
As a state prosecutor, she was necessarily on the law and order side of things, and part of keeping her job meant pursuing criminal justice policies that some (many?) would consider quite regressive and anti-minority.

That's my understanding, anyway.
Click to expand...

Not me.

Political donors, ties to Wall Street, flip-flop on healthcare, voting for military budgets, evasive on her own busing policy.

I can't remember who it was, but some journalist noted she was much closer to Billary than Bernie, which feels about right. All of which makes her much more palatable to the Republican-lites running the Democratic machine. I bet Pelosi loves her.
 
theprestige said:
As a state prosecutor, she was necessarily on the law and order side of things, and part of keeping her job meant pursuing criminal justice policies that some (many?) would consider quite regressive and anti-minority.

That's my understanding, anyway.
Click to expand...
She's also solidly anti-universal-health-care.
 
It would have been so awesome if the DNC would allow for ranked choice voting for the nominee.
Ironically, that would almost certainly give Biden the nomination, even if he ends up being no one's first choice.
 
Delvo said:
She's also solidly anti-universal-health-care.
Click to expand...

Harris is ostensibly for Medicare for All, but I suspect only saying that because anything less would be unpalatable for the Sanders progressives. I'm not particularly comfortable with the idea that Bernie has set the standard in this new version of Medicare for All, as it's just one form of single-payer, which is one form of universal healthcare.
 
Ranked choice voting could have a big effect in the general election where all the EC votes are awarded to the first place candidate. In the Democratic primaries delegates are allocated proportionally. If a candidate drops outs the delegates that were pledged to that candidate are free to choose another candidate.

Most of the Republican primaries are winner take all. A system set up to hand the nomination to the early leader so the party can focus its attention on the general election. The assumption was that the early leader would be a mainstream candidate like Jeb Bush. In a crowded field it ended up handing the nomination to Trump.
 
Ranked choice voting would make Primaries obsolete - which is why neither Party Leadership is especially keen on them.
 
Kirsten Gillibrand submits her plan to tackle global warming. It's a big fail; no mention of nuclear power and she indulges in the fantasy of 100% renewables in 10 years:

In a decade, I’ll strive to get us to 100% clean, renewable, and zero-carbon electricity, and I’ll prioritize transforming our electric grid into a system that’s designed to better handle renewable and distributed energy.
Click to expand...
 
Tulsi is suing Google:

The Hill said:
[...] "In the hours following the 1st debate, while millions of Americans searched for info about Tulsi, Google suspended her search ad account w/o explanation," the campaign said. "It is vital to our democracy that big tech companies can’t affect the outcome of elections."

Gabbard, a long-shot candidate who regularly polls around 1 percent, has long staked out positions that put her at odds with most of the Democratic party.

The complaint also alleges that Google did not offer adequate explanations for her advertising account's suspension during the hours between June 27 and 28.

"For hours, as millions of Americans searched Google for information about Tulsi, and as Tulsi was trying, through Google, to speak to them, her Google Ads account was arbitrarily and forcibly taken offline," it reads. "Throughout this period, the Campaign worked frantically to gather more information about the suspension."

"In response, the Campaign got opacity and an inconsistent series of answers from Google," it states.

Gabbard is seeking $50 million in damages. [...]
Click to expand...


Google now blames it on an algorithm.
 
Brainster said:
Kirsten Gillibrand submits her plan to tackle global warming. It's a big fail; no mention of nuclear power and she indulges in the fantasy of 100% renewables in 10 years:
Click to expand...
Seems to be an improvement over the Green New Deal. Agree it needs nukes but doesn't otherwise strike me as a big fail. This is the kind of bold stuff we need to be doing. [correction:need to have been doing for quite some time already]
 
Travis said:
I recently waded into black twitter (that's what they call it, don't get mad at me) and discovered that there is some deep seated animosity towards Warren there over the entire ancestry thing and her having been a Republican until the mid 90's. I previously thought it might just be some lone cranks that were so agitated by this but now I'm understanding that I might have been a bit blinded by my white privilege to how minority groups were perceiving all that.
Click to expand...

Oh, No doubt there's some very strong animosity towards Warren on black Twitter. There's some real anger towards Sanders (the Bernie Stans have been dogpiling people, using barely-concealed slurs and mass reporting, since 2015) and Biden (for so, so many things) as well.

Twitter isn't real life.

Or rather, it's a highly distorted version. I doubt most black people even glanced at Warren so far, and while black Twitter can be strongly connected with native Americans (how do you think Black Lives Matter ended up raising money and protesting the Keystone pipeline?), most black women are not too concerned. And offline, Biden's still pretty popular, particularly since most people (regardless of race) aren't paying too much attention.
 
Last edited:
Seven 2020 Democrats join anti-corruption pledge

Seven Democratic presidential candidates will be picking up support from the group End Citizens United after pledging to support a major government ethics and campaign finance reform bill as the first legislation should they be elected. Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Michael Bennet, Kirsten Gillibrand, Beto O’Rourke, and Steve Bullock have all signed the “Reform First” pledge.

Rather than endorsing a single candidate, End Citizens United will raise money for all seven online and promote them on social media. “Committing to ‘Reform First’ shows the American people you’re serious about cleaning up corruption,” said Tiffany Muller, the president of End Citizens United. “These candidates uniquely understand that reform is the essential first step to accomplishing the progressive change that America needs.”

That is, putting clean government first timewise doesn’t mean other issues are less important. As Gillibrand said in a statement, “If we want to pass progressive legislation like Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, common-sense gun violence prevention, and comprehensive immigration reform, we have to start by breaking the chokehold corporate special interests have on Washington.”
Click to expand...
 
Tonight's debate [warning] you will need to get past the STFU yelling it opened with and the moderators are doing a poor job controlling the candidates[/warning]:

Klobuchar and Warren look the best so far. And Buttigieg looks really stong.

Sanders is still telling us the other countries do it, ergo we should be able to too. That is not going to sell as a campaign slogan.

There are a couple governors that sound like they are in the pocket of big money.
 
Last edited:
Oh gawd, now we are into, "I grew up poor". I wonder what O'Rourke is going to say.


Willianson is not as flakey as Stein. Good luck with the 'love each other' though.


Ryan is feeling left out.

Klobuchar has a friend.... sob sob sob. I know that's sarcastic but I think these personal stories are overdone.


I like Buttigieg I wonder if he can win.

Warren grew up poor yada yada. Though I come away thinking Warren can win.


Yay, it's over.
 
Last edited:
Skeptic Ginger said:
Am I the only one watching?

Sad. ;)
Click to expand...

I was off hanging out with a friend. As I'm catching up, though... first thing I'm coming across is - CNN was invoking Republican talking point after Republican talking point, interrupting candidates frequently before they could say pretty much anything of substance, working to pit them against each other...

Seriously, this is what the Republicans are holding up as the liberal, leftist, Democrat controlled media?:eye-poppi If they were pulling that crap, it may as well have been held by Fox News. ETA: Admittedly, for those of us who consider CNN to have a pro-establishment, pro-corporate agenda, this really isn't much of a surprise at all, but rather is more a continuation of the usual and just gives all the more reason to eye-roll at the librul media hater crowd.

Buttigieg apparently had a great moment with - “It is time to stop worrying about what the Republicans will say. It's true that if we embrace a far-left agenda, they're gonna say we're a bunch of crazy socialists. If we embrace a conservative agenda, you know what they're gonna do? They're gonna say we're a bunch of crazy socialists. So let's just stand up for the right policy, go out there and defend it.”

Warren remains my favorite, though, unsurprisingly. Delaney looks like he pretty much became her foil tonight, though, with moments like - “We're Democrats. We're not taking away health care from anyone. That's Republicans, and we should stop using their talking points.” and “I don't understand why someone goes to the trouble of running for president of the United States just to talk about what we really shouldn't do or can't fight for.”

Bernie also had a nice moment with his "I do know, I wrote the damn bill." when poked at on the effects of Medicare for All.
 
Last edited:
I generally liked Klobuchar about as much as Warren, but in the debate she was weak on ideas, repeating talking points.
Pete is doing well, Beto is impoved but soon history. The Ohio guy is good for Ohio, a midlle of the road guy but with ideas on auto industry. No national appeal.

Moderates fiercely tried strawman arguments, saying free healthcare will lead to free everything:
Steve Bullock immediately criticized “wish-list economics” in his first turn on a presidential debate stage, Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota pointedly declared that her proposals “are grounded in reality” and Delaney invoked Democratic failed nominees like George McGovern, Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis, warning of “bad policies like Medicare for all, free everything and impossible promises that will turn off independent voters and get Trump re-elected.”
Click to expand...
https://time.com/5639682/2020-democratic-debate-detroit/
 
Last edited:
Sounds like Hickenlooper, Delaney, Bullock, Ryan etc... were Star Trek red shirts. Useless also-rans who were blown away by Sanders and Warren. Good! Clear them out!
 
I see a lot of people here seem to want to get Trump reelected.
Just keep up this hartred of moderates and centrists. You are doing Trump a huge favor.
Amazing how ideology blinds people to reality.
 
Winners from last night:

Warren
Sanders
Buttigieg

Buttigieg's response about money in politics is the best I've heard so far.

I predict he won't be able to keep his campaign as hot as Warren and Sanders though.
 
Venom said:
Winners from last night:

Warren
Sanders
Buttigieg

Buttigieg's response about money in politics is the best I've heard so far.

I predict he won't be able to keep his campaign as hot as Warren and Sanders though.
Click to expand...

You just don't get that nominating somebody far to the left..by US standards...will hand relection to Donnie on a silver platter?
 
After a bit of consideration, it's probably worthwhile to post this link of one of the things that happened right after the debate.

Chris Matthews of MSNBC was really, really pushing to get Warren to back up a misleading Republican talking point and doing it quite rudely. And again, this is supposedly the leftist, Democrat loving MSNBC that so many on the right like to reflexively point at as if it was the Democratic equivalent of Fox News.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Back
Top Bottom