Current Affairs 2020 Democratic Primary

[abelard]

I mean I got the pun, I just didn’t get the relevance.

Lovett’s a bit podgy I guess.

More a state of mind, when you're a little too comfortable to be at your best

 

[BirkenheadBlue]

More a state of mind, when you're a little too comfortable to be at your best

See I just don't agree to be honest.

Think they've been a definite force for good (particularly since launching PSA). The listenership has grown and grown (last figures I saw were over 1.5m listeners per episode) and have done a lot of good work fundraising for various causes (most recently Stacey Abrams' Fair Fight organisation combatting voter suppression) and have had a hand in getting a lot of people involved in politics who wouldn't otherwise have done so.

Anything that keeps enthusiasm up is a net positive.

 

[Ruairi77]

And yet isn't interesting how they are tearing up their own debate rules in order to tip the scales for Michael Bloomberg, an Independent until more or less yesterday and a Republican until 2007, who gave the keynote address fawning over George Bush at the 2004 convention.

Curious how this doesn't seem to be an issue.

I agree, very stupid move on the part of the DNC and very unfair to the likes of Booker and Castro.
But the have changed the rules at multiple points in the cycle and have done so in previous cycles too.
I'm not saying I agree but they aren't bound to keep a consistent set of qualifications parameters.

Erm... when it comes to Hillary's record, do you think you might be hearing what you want to hear and disregarding the rest?

I'm not disregarding anything, I'm a progressive which is why I voted for Sanders in the '16 primary.
As far as Clinton goes, she was qualified for the job whether you liked her or not.

Just look at Warren, who went around telling everyone she 'had a plan' but who sank like a stone the minute it became clear that this was just a cringey campaign gimmick.

She does have plans, she's a policy wonk, take one look at her site, or the bills she's worked on, or the CFPB. If there's a criticism, it's that she's almost robotic with her plans. It's definitely not a gimmick.
She fell like a stone when she wavered on medicare for all in order to appease the moderates like Pelosi. I happen to think that completely ending the private insurance industry is not a great idea and will play right in to Trumps socialist bashing tactics for the GE.

Four years on, the Party still does not understand Sanders' appeal. They still assume his supporters are washed up hippies and idiot children, and that he's some sort of hipster social media fad, like tide pods (it is amazing - and instructive - how we still never hear in corporate media about his commanding lead among minorities, which will only strengthen now that Biden has been revealed).

They've spent the past four years pretending that the Bernie would go away if they ignored him, and as usual, they've left it until it was far too late to respond.

Yet we're supposed to trust ^these^ geniuses, who've already lost once to Donald F---ing Trump, to get it right the second time by tipping the scales for a man even less likeable than Hillary Clinton so they can run the same strategy - “For every blue-collar Democrat we lose in western Pennsylvania, we will pick up two moderate Republicans in the suburbs in Philadelphia, and you can repeat that in Ohio and Illinois and Wisconsin” - that worked wonders in 2016.

So what you're saying is it's the Democrats fault that Sanders lost to Clinton, and if he loses to pete or warren or bloomberg, it'll be the democrats fault?

If Sanders really wants to beat Trump, he should have joined the Democratic party after 2016, found common ground, kept his ideals but worked closely with the party, built coalitions, not fought against them.
He saw the power his '16 campaign had, he saw the power he had to mobilize the younger voter but he also saw the rift that was caused.
In 2020 he's decided to do it all again and not budge an inch, not change a thing.
If Trump wins again in 2020, it'll be in no small part thanks to Sanders's inability to play well with others.

 

[sdk]

I mean I got the pun, I just didn’t get the relevance.

I assume you need to share his view that youth are necessarily more politically astute than their older counterparts. Many jokes depend on everyone believing in the same variety of magical thinking.

 

[sdk]

I think Warren's backing off M4A was a matter of honesty as well as politics, seeing as how she's keen on figuring out how things like healthcare can actually be done and paid for rather than merely used as an aspirational symbol, a la the mythic role of the general strike in early anarcho-syndicalism.

 

[abelard]

I think Warren's backing off M4A was a matter of honesty as well as politics, seeing as how she's keen on figuring out how things like healthcare can actually be done and paid for rather than merely used as an aspirational symbol, a la the mythic role of the general strike in early anarcho-syndicalism.

Sure. No country has ever managed universal coverage free at the point of delivery before.

What will those silly youngsters come up with next, affordable housing?

Youth is wasted on the young. Bah, back to my poetry.

 

[abelard]

I assume you need to share his view that youth are necessarily more politically astute than their older counterparts.

Ah, that accounts for the popularity of 19 year-old firebrand Bernie Sanders, and contempt for First World War veteran Pete Buttigieg.

 

[Ruairi77]

Sure. No country has ever managed universal coverage free at the point of delivery before.

What will those silly youngsters come up with next, affordable housing?

Youth is wasted on the young. Bah, back to my poetry.

I'm doubting any country has ever managed to nationalize a private healtcare system on this scale while in the process ending an enormous private sector health insurance industry.

 

[sdk]

Sure. No country has ever managed universal coverage free at the point of delivery before.

But that's it: It has to be managed. You don't nationalize a sixth of the national economy by way of "people filling the streets demanding their healthcare." There are actual big resources and logistics involved in the process. Warren's aware of that and apparently Sanders is not.

Ah, that accounts for the popularity of 19 year-old firebrand Bernie Sanders, and contempt for First World War veteran Pete Buttigieg.

That's a non sequitur in formal terms but never mind that. You believe youth are more politically astute than older people, perhaps because they haven't been tainted by accomplishment. I can't think of any reason to assume that but again, we don't share the same magical thinking.

 

[Grinch]

Nancy didnt help anyone teetering on the border. Will just get the Republicans more motivated to go out and vote

 

[sdk]

Nancy didnt help anyone teetering on the border.

Uh oh, I hope we didn't lose both of 'em.

 

[Grinch]

Uh oh, I hope we didn't lose both of 'em.

?

 

[abelard]

That's a non sequitur in formal terms but never mind that.

Much less so that this:
"You believe youth are more politically astute than older people, perhaps because they haven't been tainted by accomplishment. I can't think of any reason to assume that but again, we don't share the same magical thinking".

You must be a hit at parties. When you wrote that you enjoyed poetry earlier, are you sure you didn't mean 'pedantry' instead? ; )

 

[sdk]

Much less so that this:
"You believe youth are more politically astute than older people, perhaps because they haven't been tainted by accomplishment. I can't think of any reason to assume that but again, we don't share the same magical thinking".

That's not a non sequitur at all; it's a response to your claim (somewhere above in the great masses of text you post) that young people are more politically astute than their elders. If you don't recall and can't keep your unsupported assertions straight, you may be asserting too many of 'em.

 

[sdk]

(And I am a hit at parties. I bring my guitar and sing folk songs about the political astuteness of the young which manifests as support for a man whose political thinking has changed not a jot in fifty years. Authenticity or Stasis: You be the judge.)