2019-2020 US Elections Megathread I- It Begins

[Valrifell]

Who can beat him in your view? Or do think he's winning regardless of who is nominated?

Biden and possibly Warren. Trump dominates everyone else.

This take is bad and slanted.

[Northern Davincia]

Biden and possibly Warren. Trump dominates everyone else.

I think Warren is just going to spiral into hysterics, TBH. Biden legitimately stands a solid chance of beating him.

Biden is the only Democrat I'd vote for if the Libertarian candidate is awful. Warren has experience on her side, much like Clinton.

[Galloism]

I don't think so, and perhaps more relevantly, neither does Karl Rove - who engineered the victory of George W. Bush in 2000 and, somehow that we're all still wondering about, 2004.

Rove also said Obama would lose in 2012. I think they want to run against Sanders because they think he's easily beatable

Tbh, given Sanders is the only one talking policy, while the others are yelling about Trump, I think he's the only one with a real shot.

"Orange Man Bad" is not a good campaign slogan.

[Telconi]

Rove also said Obama would lose in 2012. I think they want to run against Sanders because they think he's easily beatable

Tbh, given Sanders is the only one talking policy, while the others are yelling about Trump, I think he's the only one with a real shot.

"Orange Man Bad" is not a good campaign slogan.

Question really hinges on rather ge can sell his policies to the electorate as a whole.

[Galloism]

Tbh, given Sanders is the only one talking policy, while the others are yelling about Trump, I think he's the only one with a real shot.

"Orange Man Bad" is not a good campaign slogan.

Question really hinges on rather ge can sell his policies to the electorate as a whole.

Hard to say. I'm very certain he's got a better shot than Warren, although I think Biden has the best shot of all.

[Valrifell]

Rove also said Obama would lose in 2012. I think they want to run against Sanders because they think he's easily beatable

Tbh, given Sanders is the only one talking policy, while the others are yelling about Trump, I think he's the only one with a real shot.

"Orange Man Bad" is not a good campaign slogan.

This is literally fake news, Warren is nothing but policy chops and Buttigieg doesn't really talk about anything other than morality and value of the office.

This is what I mean. Why should Dems talk about anything if people are just going to see "ORANGE MAN BAD" and only that? They lose either way with people.

[Galloism]

Tbh, given Sanders is the only one talking policy, while the others are yelling about Trump, I think he's the only one with a real shot.

"Orange Man Bad" is not a good campaign slogan.

This is literally fake news, Warren is nothing but policy chops and Buttigieg doesn't really talk about anything other than morality and value of the office.

This is what I mean. Why should Dems talk about anything if people are just going to see "ORANGE MAN BAD" and only that? They lose either way with people.

>complains while i'm literally talking about Sanders policy chops

Also, this is the first i've heard of Buttigieg. Is he a real person?

[Northern Davincia]

This is literally fake news, Warren is nothing but policy chops and Buttigieg doesn't really talk about anything other than morality and value of the office.

This is what I mean. Why should Dems talk about anything if people are just going to see "ORANGE MAN BAD" and only that? They lose either way with people.

>complains while i'm literally talking about Sanders policy chops

Also, this is the first i've heard of Buttigieg. Is he a real person?

Buttigieg is a myth, told by Democrats around campfires. It's the only way to explain his name.

[Valrifell]

This is literally fake news, Warren is nothing but policy chops and Buttigieg doesn't really talk about anything other than morality and value of the office.

This is what I mean. Why should Dems talk about anything if people are just going to see "ORANGE MAN BAD" and only that? They lose either way with people.

>complains while i'm literally talking about Sanders policy chops

Also, this is the first i've heard of Buttigieg. Is he a real person?

You're talking as though Sanders is the only one not talking about Trump and talking about policy, which is wildly inaccurate and annoyingly wrong. For another example, Booker's whole thing is criminal justice reform.

See, this is what I'm talking about. You're not one of the cool kids who keeps track of this kinda stuff, if you've not researched the candidates or kept you head close enough to the ground to hear the insurgent Buttigieg, then why are you making sweeping claims about every Democratic candidate?

[Galloism]

>complains while i'm literally talking about Sanders policy chops

Also, this is the first i've heard of Buttigieg. Is he a real person?

You're talking as though Sanders is the only one not talking about Trump and talking about policy, which is wildly inaccurate and annoyingly wrong. For another example, Booker's whole thing is criminal justice reform.

See, this is what I'm talking about. You're not one of the cool kids who keeps track of this kinda stuff, if you've not researched the candidates or kept you head close enough to the ground to hear the insurgent Buttigieg, then why are you making sweeping claims about every Democratic candidate?

I read the news every day. Looks like Buttigieg must not be getting much press (which may be indicative of a problem with the press, incidentally - maybe they just like to focus on the "orange man bad" stories).

EDIT: And for the record, I've been working 100+ fucking hours a week every week and haven't had a day off since January 1st. I didn't hear about Buttigieg because he didn't slide across my news feed. Fuck this ivory tower "you haven't spent 40 hours a week researching politics so you're an idiot and can't talk about politics" fucking bullshit. Try being middle class sometime. Try it. If you want your pet candidates to be paid attention to, get it where the average working stiff can see it, and stop cluttering it all up with bullshit so they can't see what you're talking about without engaging a 100 hour research project.

[San Lumen]

You're talking as though Sanders is the only one not talking about Trump and talking about policy, which is wildly inaccurate and annoyingly wrong. For another example, Booker's whole thing is criminal justice reform.

See, this is what I'm talking about. You're not one of the cool kids who keeps track of this kinda stuff, if you've not researched the candidates or kept you head close enough to the ground to hear the insurgent Buttigieg, then why are you making sweeping claims about every Democratic candidate?

I read the news every day. Looks like Buttigieg must not be getting much press (which may be indicative of a problem with the press, incidentally - maybe they just like to focus on the "orange man bad" stories).

Hes gotten plenty of press. Its quite arrogant to say only Biden or Sanders could beat Trump. If Democrats would just get off their butts and stop expecting purity or falling in love instead of getting in line unlike Republicans they would win far more elections and state governments

[Soldati Senza Confini]

>complains while i'm literally talking about Sanders policy chops

Also, this is the first i've heard of Buttigieg. Is he a real person?

You're talking as though Sanders is the only one not talking about Trump and talking about policy, which is wildly inaccurate and annoyingly wrong. For another example, Booker's whole thing is criminal justice reform.

See, this is what I'm talking about. You're not one of the cool kids who keeps track of this kinda stuff, if you've not researched the candidates or kept you head close enough to the ground to hear the insurgent Buttigieg, then why are you making sweeping claims about every Democratic candidate?

This is rich, considering this is a national election, not an election where only the cool kids can participate.

[San Lumen]

My money (but not my preference) is with Sanders to take the nomination, based on the strength of his existing organization, his ability to raise vast amounts of money through his online network, and the depth of his support. So the "Socialist" argument is likely to be valid.

That said, Trump is an authoritarian wannabe, and now that he's dodged a bullet on Mueller, he'll be more emboldened to break the law and grab all the power he can get.

So even if Republicans scream "SOCIALISM!", the real choice is between an America that looks like Sweden (Sanders' wet dream) and one that looks like Russia (Trump's wet dream). Given that choice, you'd have to be a total douche to want to vote for Russia.

Quite possibly. Sadly, though, if that happens, another four years on the kind of corruption and dissolution of our longstanding norms (what I call the "Erdoganization" of America) will lead the way to the death of our Republic as Trump declares himself "President for Life" and then promulgates an edict passing the government along to his sons when he dies, as just another property in his business empire.

God help us all.

We're already in a Constitutional crisis.

The crisis is simply this: We have a Party (the Republicans) who are so slavishly devoted and/or scared to death of Trump's hard-core base that there is literally nothing he could do that would impel them to remove him from office for misbehavior. Up until now, we've been saved by the sheer shock that Trump's commandments evoke in his flabbergasted staff. He tells them to do things that violate the law, they say "Yes, Boss" and proceed to ignore him, after which he eventually fires them in search of more compliant minions.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Sooner or later, though, Trump will find sufficiently evil people to actually begin making progress towards his goal of becoming an older and stupider version of Kim Jong Un. When that happens, Congress will find itself unable to act, Trump will just ignore the Courts, and the military will just keep on mumbling "Civilian control" under their breaths as they wring their hands in despair. If he ends up getting tossed in 2020, we can probably recover (although we'll likely have to run him out of office by force when he overturns the election and declares himself the winner; persnoally, come that day, I'd recommend just cutting off the power, water, and food supply to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, setting up the new President across the street at Blair House, and then just ignoring His Obesity until such a time as he finally gives up office for want of insufficent golf).

But if he gets to stay in office until 2024, he'll likely get far enugh in his project of making America "great again" (read "authoritarian") to be able to remain in power after 2024 and then pass the office on to his kids, and 230 years of history (as well as a million lives lost in defense of our freedom) will all end up getting flushed down the toilet for the sake of gratifying a corrupt and evil man-child's wounded ego.

Not that this was unpredictable, or even unintended: I suspect most Trump supporters knew that the man was a snake when they first voted him into office, and that they did it just to troll the rest of us. As Marx said, "History repeats itself, first as tragedy and then as farce."

I agree with you on all that except possibly Sanders wholeheartedly.

I don't know though, my economic policies are even more progressive than Sanders and seem to have solid appeal.



Speaking of, I'm going to make Free Wifi a priority in my platform. It came to my attention that my family's provider dropped the unlimited data plan, and I feel this will disproportionately hurt the poor, since I am poor, this is an excellent issue that I can say affects me personally-because it does.

I also will reestablish Obama Era Net Neutrality laws, or if already established, strengthen them further.

Net neutrality is state issue i think. I would strongly suggest you keep your city council campaign focused on local issue. Dont bring in national ones.

[San Lumen]

Net neutrality is state issue i think. I would strongly suggest you keep your city council campaign focused on local issue. Dont bring in national ones.

Portland is a charter city. Thus I have more that I could do than most cities. Regardless, I shall still advocate it, as it is hurting the population of my city.

fair enough. You know more about your city than I do.

[Soldati Senza Confini]

This is rich, considering this is a national election, not an election where only the cool kids can participate.

To be fair, America political education on candidates and policy has grown a lot worse over several decades. I won't blame either side or say either side is inherently less educated, but I do feel we lack political education in general and pick worse candidates and don't understand foreign policy and history and academia enough.

We should definitely tackle it, and I know I will.

The problem is this: it's usually the case most people only know of the big names.

Buttigieg is not someone many people have heard of, let alone have researched. I didn't even know of the dude until this week. To be fair, the other issue plaguing the Democratic party is just the sheer number of candidates they have running in the primaries already. Buttigieg is being overshadowed, even if he was smart, by bigger, more prominent names with better chances in popularity on the ticket.

So most of the votes are already going to go to these popular candidates, while Buttigieg will remain behind. It's not a lack of education, it's merely how the general public works.

[San Lumen]

To be fair, America political education on candidates and policy has grown a lot worse over several decades. I won't blame either side or say either side is inherently less educated, but I do feel we lack political education in general and pick worse candidates and don't understand foreign policy and history and academia enough.

We should definitely tackle it, and I know I will.

The problem is this: it's usually the case most people only know of the big names.

Buttigieg is not someone many people have heard of, let alone have researched. I didn't even know of the dude until this week. To be fair, the other issue plaguing the Democratic party is just the sheer number of candidates they have running in the primaries already. Buttigieg is being overshadowed, even if he was smart, by bigger, more prominent names with better chances in popularity on the ticket.

So most of the votes are already going to go to these popular candidates, while Buttigieg will remain behind. It's not a lack of education, it's merely how the general public works.

he would be a great vp candidate

[Soldati Senza Confini]

The problem is this: it's usually the case most people only know of the big names.

Buttigieg is not someone many people have heard of, let alone have researched. I didn't even know of the dude until this week. To be fair, the other issue plaguing the Democratic party is just the *sheer number of candidates* they have running in the primaries already. Buttigieg is being overshadowed, even if he was smart, bigger, more prominent names with better chances in popularity are already in the ticket.

So most of the votes are already going to go to these popular candidates, while Buttigieg will remain behind. It's not a lack of education, it's merely how the general public works.

Yes, so we need to encourage further study of candidates and politics, and more lifelong involvement, which will encourage studying lesser known candidates, mitigating the issue.

Hardly.

Lifelong involvement presumes you have enough hours in the day to study politics in that much depth. Most people do not have that luxury.

[Northern Davincia]

Yes, so we need to encourage further study of candidates and politics, and more lifelong involvement, which will encourage studying lesser known candidates, mitigating the issue.

Hardly.

Lifelong involvement presumes you have enough hours in the day to study politics in that much depth. Most people do not have that luxury.

True, but civic knowledge among Americans today is abysmal.

[Soldati Senza Confini]

The problem is this: it's usually the case most people only know of the big names.

Buttigieg is not someone many people have heard of, let alone have researched. I didn't even know of the dude until this week. To be fair, the other issue plaguing the Democratic party is just the sheer number of candidates they have running in the primaries already. Buttigieg is being overshadowed, even if he was smart, by bigger, more prominent names with better chances in popularity on the ticket.

So most of the votes are already going to go to these popular candidates, while Buttigieg will remain behind. It's not a lack of education, it's merely how the general public works.

he would be a great vp candidate

He could be VP. But I dunno, I'd hope he wins, but I am not holding my breath. Whatever he has behind him in terms of accolades, the name just doesn't help him, and the fact he's merely a major and the equivalent of a no-name in the contest at this point.

Things can change, but again, I am not holding my breath.

[San Lumen]

he would be a great vp candidate

He could be VP. But I dunno, I'd hope he wins, but I am not holding my breath. Whatever he has behind him in terms of accolades, the name just doesn't help him, and the fact he's merely a major and the equivalent of a no-name in the contest at this point.

Things can change, but again, I am not holding my breath.

I think he'd a be a great VP pick. I dont think his name matters.

[Soldati Senza Confini]

Hardly.

Lifelong involvement presumes you have enough hours in the day to study politics in that much depth. Most people do not have that luxury.

True, but civic knowledge among Americans today is abysmal.

I do blame state curricula in social studies, unironically.

But even if they did know, people just don't have that much time to devote to politics. You have a job to do, things to do in your spare time that consume your time and, luckily, you have at best one hour or so to do research of politics within a week if you're not someone working in an office job.

Office jobs get more time, and they get to actually be more educated, but it's not like office jobs are a dime a dozen either. Someone has to repair the sprinklers and the toilets of the civilized world, too.

[Galloism]

So, based on the suggestion in this thread, I googled Buttigieg.

This was the first result to come up:

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news ... trump-fans

"I think the sense of anger and disaffection that comes from seeing that the numbers are fine, like unemployment's low, like all that, like you said GDP is growing and yet a lot of neighborhoods and families are living like this recovery never even happened. They're stuck," Buttigieg told high school Democrats in Nashua, N.H., on Friday. "It just kind of turns you against the system in general and then you're more likely to want to vote to blow up the system, which could lead you to somebody like Bernie and it could lead you to somebody like Trump. That's how we got where we are."

I mean, maybe I'm biased, but I'm already not a fan.

[San Lumen]

So, based on the suggestion in this thread, I googled Buttigieg.

This was the first result to come up:

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news ... trump-fans

"I think the sense of anger and disaffection that comes from seeing that the numbers are fine, like unemployment's low, like all that, like you said GDP is growing and yet a lot of neighborhoods and families are living like this recovery never even happened. They're stuck," Buttigieg told high school Democrats in Nashua, N.H., on Friday. "It just kind of turns you against the system in general and then you're more likely to want to vote to blow up the system, which could lead you to somebody like Bernie and it could lead you to somebody like Trump. That's how we got where we are."

I mean, maybe I'm biased, but I'm already not a fan.

why because he says the truth?

[Galloism]

So, based on the suggestion in this thread, I googled Buttigieg.

This was the first result to come up:

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news ... trump-fans



I mean, maybe I'm biased, but I'm already not a fan.

why because he says the truth?

We don't need more neoliberals. Especially more neoliberals who insult the voters.

[San Lumen]

why because he says the truth?

We don't need more neoliberals. Especially more neoliberals who insult the voters.

what is a neoliberal and how is what he said insulting?