Current Affairs General US politics (ie, not POTUS related)

[mezzrow]

It's an interesting question.

Most House candidates dubbed "progressive" by the media - and thus exoticised and gawked over as such by the media - did not do especially well. If we are being honest with ourselves, we should acknowledge this

(Beto - while someone which people who devour the West Wing and Pod Save America assume to be progressive simply because he is handsome, relatively young, and charismatic - is bland white stale Wonderbread in policy terms). And there is also a big difference between defeating a long-term mostly-absentee incumbent in Queens, and winning in, say, West Virginia (which until after Clinton, was one of the most Democratic states in the Union). It remains to be seen.

Americans, even Republicans, overwhelmingly support progressive policies. But what Real Americans do not often support are candidates which the media brands and packages as "progressive", especially progressive Democrats. It is akin to trying to sell Pork Rinds at Kroger, but hidden inside packaging for organic artisanal kale. Ewww.

For the most part, they (rightly) dislike the Democratic Party, almost as much as they dislike the Republican Party. Though it led people who devour the West Wing and Pod Save America to paroxysms of agony, Bernie's decades of distate if not open contempt for the Democrats was critical to establishing his credibility with swathes of Real America, as were his decades in the (literal and figurative) wilderness, spurning money and influence and corporate concessions out of honour and principle.

What Democrats should really do is a make a show of disbanding the Party altogether, and starting anew with a different name and message. If any institution in the country is crying out for a rebranding, it is the Democratic Party.

But given that this will never happen, they could do worse than to pair someone just like AOC with a grizzled Ron Swanson type - Jim Webb with brain transplant - who plausibly looks like he enjoys ride-mowing flora, automatic-weaponning fauna, satiating America's lust for spilling overseas blood, and consuming fried corn-derived merchandise, but who also promises medicare for all, unbought and unrigged elections, an end to banks and massive corporations utterly taking the piss, and the ability for anyone (because it is their right as an American!!!) who works forty hours a week to support a family without living in poverty.

Good stuff, abe. Well put.

 

[Huyton Layne]

Judge just threw a titty-fit and let everyone go free as he's been beaten by a dirty liberal so is acting like he thinks they would. What a man child.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46144557

 

[DanEFC92]

 

[DanEFC92]

 

[DanEFC92]

 

[riddick]

Uhhh...yeah, they hate the inciting tit.

Don't like how they did it honestly tho.

 

[verreauxi]

Booker is one of those rare individuals who appears to be less than the sum of his parts. Did you see his turn during the Kavanaugh hearings? It was like watching custard dry.

I saw part of it. At least for me, the speeches, guest appearances, etc., that I've seen, he's looked downright likable and smart, and importantly, electable.

 

[LinekersLegs]

 

[LinekersLegs]

I’m open to the idea that how Broward county has handled things needs to be investigated but disqualifying later counted votes from some counties just because others have finished is simply nuts.

Would also likely mean a lot of ballots from overseas military would never be counted - do Republicans really think that is a great idea?

 

[ilikecheese]

I’m open to the idea that how Broward county has handled things needs to be investigated but disqualifying later counted votes from some counties just because others have finished is simply nuts.

Would also likely mean a lot of ballots from overseas military would never be counted - do Republicans really think that is a great idea?

It's like people don't understand it takes longer to count millions of votes in high population areas vs tens of thousands of votes in less populated places.

Seeing folks on twitter outraged that AZ dems are trying to steal the election. The votes still needing to be counted are in Maricopa County (population 4.3 million) and Pima County (population 1 million). So the two most populated counties are taking the longest. In other words 5.3 million out of 7 million people live in those two counties. The other 13 counties have 1.7 million people combined.

 

[Rook]

I don't know about that but the rest is true and generally Maryland is a nice place to live. Although Baltimore is still a mess that seems unfixable. My parents don't like it cause the tax money goes to people who don't pay as much in taxes. They never have a good answer on where it should go but whatever.

The state isn't free of problems. Baltimore is a card carrying member of the I-95 drug superhighway. Baltimore also gets @#% on. People complain about it and the infrastructure in the city is lacking due to politics. And the road system/housing was specifically designed to disenfranchise blacks back in the 40s-50s and nothing has changed (kind of like Chicago only not as extreme). There is no occupation tax so suburbanites are free to chew up Baltimore's roads and use up the city's public services to travel to work go downtown and such. The big lie that people tell themselves is that money flows into Baltimore when its the exact opposite. Its also kind of rich to hear people say that because most of outlying cities are prosperous thanks to federal govt money and its proxmity to DC (5 major military bases, CDC, Naval academy, NSA, thousands upon thousands fed govt subcontracting jobs etc etc).

That being said Govt does work here. I live in what in what's probably the top 2-3% most prosperous county in the nation. Its also quite liberal and diverse about 20-25% black, and 15% asian they are represented well in the county govt. There are affordable apartments (comparatively to the other NE cities), section 8 apts built adjecent to $1M homes (number of for sale signs on said homes: 0) and very little crime. Plus hundreds of miles of public land in the form of walking trails which are very well maintained. And you get this for a meager 2.3% local income tax.

 

[ilikecheese]

The state isn't free of problems. Baltimore is a card carrying member of the I-95 drug superhighway. Baltimore also gets @#% on. People complain about it and the infrastructure in the city is lacking due to politics. And the road system/housing was specifically designed to disenfranchise blacks back in the 40s-50s and nothing has changed (kind of like Chicago only not as extreme). There is no occupation tax so suburbanites are free to chew up Baltimore's roads and use up the city's public services to travel to work go downtown and such. The big lie that people tell themselves is that money flows into Baltimore when its the exact opposite. Its also kind of rich to hear people say that because most of outlying cities are prosperous thanks to federal govt money and its proxmity to DC (5 major military bases, CDC, Naval academy, NSA, thousands upon thousands fed govt subcontracting jobs etc etc).

That being said Govt does work here. I live in what in what's probably the top 2-3% most prosperous county in the nation. Its also quite liberal and diverse about 20-25% black, and 15% asian they are represented well in the county govt. There are affordable apartments (comparatively to the other NE cities), section 8 apts built adjecent to $1M homes (number of for sale signs on said homes: 0) and very little crime. Plus hundreds of miles of public land in the form of walking trails which are very well maintained. And you get this for a meager 2.3% local income tax.

I will go to my grave opposing gerrymandering. Maryland is just as bad as NC. NC has 13 house seats and the three voting democrat were landslides. The other 10 other produced 1 competitive race.

My last, and only Rebulican vote was for The Terminator's second term. He promised (and delivered) on fixings gerrymandering.

Ain't gonna lie he was like low calorie beer at that point. He moved his positions miles left of his initial campaign. No way he got that second term otherwise.

 

[TheBigIguana]

The state isn't free of problems. Baltimore is a card carrying member of the I-95 drug superhighway. Baltimore also gets @#% on. People complain about it and the infrastructure in the city is lacking due to politics. And the road system/housing was specifically designed to disenfranchise blacks back in the 40s-50s and nothing has changed (kind of like Chicago only not as extreme). There is no occupation tax so suburbanites are free to chew up Baltimore's roads and use up the city's public services to travel to work go downtown and such. The big lie that people tell themselves is that money flows into Baltimore when its the exact opposite. Its also kind of rich to hear people say that because most of outlying cities are prosperous thanks to federal govt money and its proxmity to DC (5 major military bases, CDC, Naval academy, NSA, thousands upon thousands fed govt subcontracting jobs etc etc).

That being said Govt does work here. I live in what in what's probably the top 2-3% most prosperous county in the nation. Its also quite liberal and diverse about 20-25% black, and 15% asian they are represented well in the county govt. There are affordable apartments (comparatively to the other NE cities), section 8 apts built adjecent to $1M homes (number of for sale signs on said homes: 0) and very little crime. Plus hundreds of miles of public land in the form of walking trails which are very well maintained. And you get this for a meager 2.3% local income tax.

Maryland away from Baltimore is generally a fantastic place to live but a lot of that is made possible by the neglect of the City. You've hit on a lot of the problems but I'll add that the uselessness of public transport is a serious burden on people who can't afford cars keeping their job. I don't mind the governor and as Cheese said in his post the need to fix gerrymandering is important and why I voted for him. But his refusal to do anything substantial in a City in his state where so many problems exist is disappointing. The state has so many positives and just this giant problem that everyone seems content to just avoid all the time because generally they can get away with it.

 

[TheBigIguana]

I will go to my grave opposing gerrymandering. Maryland is just as bad as NC. NC has 13 house seats and the three voting democrat were landslides. The other 10 other produced 1 competitive race.

My last, and only Rebulican vote was for The Terminator's second term. He promised (and delivered) on fixings gerrymandering.

Ain't gonna lie he was like low calorie beer at that point. He moved his positions miles left of his initial campaign. No way he got that second term otherwise.

I voted for Hogan mostly because he will fix the districts in Maryland after the census. And although I don't know much about Arnold's policy, Hogan is similar in being moderate to rope in some Dems. Doesn't like Trump either. All good signs.

 

[Khalekan]

I really enjoyed the interview Nancy Pelosi gave to Chris Cuomo last night.