The 2020 Presidential Election - Convention & General Election

[RedDenver]

1 hour ago, Danny Bateman said:

Of course there's a vocal minority convinced Biden is absolutely terrible. That's their prerogative, but it's not worth wasting time worrying about.

Ignoring/antagonizing progressive voters worked out so well for Hillary...

 

I'm hoping Biden's team is politically savvy enough to find a way to reach out, but I suspect there will be a quick pivot to the right and then pretend that progressives don't exist or aren't worth trying to appeal to. It's basically (IMO) going to come down to needing to do one of these:

• pick a strong progressive as VP (not likely)
• back Medicare for All (Biden has clearly indicated he won't be doing this)
• back strong climate change policies like Green New Deal (plausible)

There's been some rumblings that Biden may embrace climate change policies, but we'll have to see if they're for real or just green washing.

[Danny Bateman]

19 minutes ago, RedDenver said:

Ignoring/antagonizing progressive voters worked out so well for Hillary...

 

I'm hoping Biden's team is politically savvy enough to find a way to reach out, but I suspect there will be a quick pivot to the right and then pretend that progressives don't exist or aren't worth trying to appeal to. It's basically (IMO) going to come down to needing to do one of these:

• pick a strong progressive as VP (not likely)
• back Medicare for All (Biden has clearly indicated he won't be doing this)
• back strong climate change policies like Green New Deal (plausible)

There's been some rumblings that Biden may embrace climate change policies, but we'll have to see if they're for real or just green washing.

 

Climate is definitely the most likely to happen on that list. His choice of VP will be interesting and although my girlfriend wants it dearly I doubt he picks Warren.

 

Last election, somewhere in the neighborhood of 11-12% of Bernie primary voters voted for Trump. It's gonna happen again. There's always going to be a chunk of the primary loser's base that doesn't like the nominee and is determined not to vote for them. I don't see the point in trying to sway those people or convince people who've already decided Biden is awful. Wasted time better served elsewhere.

[knapplc]

26 minutes ago, Danny Bateman said:

Last election, somewhere in the neighborhood of 11-12% of Bernie primary voters voted for Trump. It's gonna happen again.

 

And that's just colossally stupid. There is nothing remotely similar between Trump's & Bernie's politics.

 

A Bernie supporter who would vote for Trump wasn't a supporter of Bernie's ideas.

[Danny Bateman]

30 minutes ago, knapplc said:

 

And that's just colossally stupid. There is nothing remotely similar between Trump's & Bernie's politics.

 

A Bernie supporter who would vote for Trump wasn't a supporter of Bernie's ideas.

Exactly.

 

Not everyone with Bernie is with Bernie because they like his ideas.

 

Some people legitimately just hate the establishment and want to take a wrecking ball to Washington. Or think he's more honest than other politicians. Or fill in whatever associated non-policy reasons.

[TGHusker]

1 hour ago, RedDenver said:

There's been some rumblings that Biden may embrace climate change policies, but we'll have to see if they're for real or just green washing.

I wonder how hand tied the next president will be after we have committed so much money to the C-19 causes? Expensive programs like climate change policies and medicare for all, infrastructure improvements, and education reforms, while worthy in their own right, may not be initiated based of budget constraints due to the current economic climate.  While it would seem that the C-19 issue alone could be an ignition switch for MFA, it also works against it because of the huge current expenditures on C-19.  The current situation begs for a national coordinated response on health care and on  emergency planning. Hopefully we will get our act together during the term of the next president.

The question remains: We've tried 'trickle down' economics in the 80s with some positive affect (tax cuts with govt spending and targeted tax increases), is this the time to do 'bubble up' economics ( I think that was San Fran Nan's term).  Spend money on the lower, middle and upper middle classes to free them to become more productive financially and giving a boast to the economy that way.  I think the $1200 per adult being sent is one way of doing so but perhaps a more institutionalize, longer lasting approach is needed. That may be in the form of comprehensive health care reform.  And perhaps some of the debt relief programs Bernie has talked about  - tuition, etc.  

I would venture to say, that if this crisis had occurred before the primaries began, Bernie may be leading in delegates and Biden may be out of the running. 

[BigRedBuster]

2 hours ago, BlitzFirst said:

Sad part is...the younger generations of 20 somethings ARE excited about Sanders.  He swept those age groups in all the primaries thus far.

Great.  But, that's obviously not enough to win the primary.  

[Landlord]

7 hours ago, funhusker said:

Reading comments here is deflating. The Dem voters seemed to screw it up again according to Huskerboard posters.

 

Most vocal people here have a disdain for Trump.  But we are also down to Biden (99% chance) and Sanders (1% if that).  And it sounds like as much as we complain about our current spot, there isn’t a consensus among The vocal that either of them would be better than Trump. This does make me nervous as a person who wants Trump our.

 

I wish a Dem would have stepped up that could crush Trump and show 30% of America that Trumpism is not welcome in our America.  But that ship has apparently sailed...

 

They'd both be much better than Trump. I'm committed to helping vote for whoever will get Trump out. However, I can't imagine a more uninspiring candidate than Biden. I'll shuffle my feet to the polls, let out a big sigh, and reluctantly check off the box then drive home in silence lol. 

 

Bernie isn't the same. If we had a more equitable and just and sensible election process, Bernie would be the runaway nominee. It's the antiquated bloat of boomers holding him back He would've crushed Trump if he was the nominee. I'm not even convinced Biden will come close to beating him.

 

 

 

 

41 minutes ago, knapplc said:

And that's just colossally stupid. There is nothing remotely similar between Trump's & Bernie's politics.

 

They're both political outsiders taking it to the establishment. 

 

[Danny Bateman]

5 minutes ago, TGHusker said:

I wonder how hand tied the next president will be after we have committed so much money to the C-19 causes? Expensive programs like climate change policies and medicare for all, infrastructure improvements, and education reforms, while worthy in their own right, may not be initiated based of budget constraints due to the current economic climate.  While it would seem that the C-19 issue alone could be an ignition switch for MFA, it also works against it because of the huge current expenditures on C-19.  The current situation begs for a national coordinated response on health care and on  emergency planning. Hopefully we will get our act together during the term of the next president.

The question remains: We've tried 'trickle down' economics in the 80s with some positive affect (tax cuts with govt spending and targeted tax increases), is this the time to do 'bubble up' economics ( I think that was San Fran Nan's term).  Spend money on the lower, middle and upper middle classes to free them to become more productive financially and giving a boast to the economy that way.  I think the $1200 per adult being sent is one way of doing so but perhaps a more institutionalize, longer lasting approach is needed. That may be in the form of comprehensive health care reform.  And perhaps some of the debt relief programs Bernie has talked about  - tuition, etc.  

I would venture to say, that if this crisis had occurred before the primaries began, Bernie may be leading in delegates and Biden may be out of the running. 

 

The current climate definitely bolsters the case for universal healthcare but it doesn't change the fact that Bernie's roadmap for how to get to M4A sucks. He simply has no ability to accrue the votes necessary for such an unprecedented overhaul and nothing in his lengthy history suggests he could do so. At best I think he'd have to water down M4A to basically a public option which is what other Democrats are proposing anyway.

But to the bolded? Absolutely. Focusing on working people and the middle class to improve their productivity and quality of life was how FDR did things and it paid dividends for literally decades. It would do a lot of good to get back to that.

[knapplc]

3 minutes ago, Landlord said:

They're both political outsiders taking it to the establishment. 

 

Ghandi was an outsider.  Che Guevara was an outsider.  All outsiders are not analogous.

[Landlord]

2 minutes ago, knapplc said:

 

Ghandi was an outsider.  Che Guevara was an outsider.  All outsiders are not analogous.

 

 

Things don't have to be analogous to have similarities.

[teachercd]

One thing to remember is that we are not robots and we are not all programmed the same.  Just because YOU might think no one would vote for so and so...doesn't mean that they wouldn't.  

 

 

[BigRedBuster]

12 minutes ago, teachercd said:

One thing to remember is that we are not robots and we are not all programmed the same.  Just because YOU might think no one would vote for so and so...doesn't mean that they wouldn't.  

 

 

 

I would have thought the last 4 years would have proven that.

 

[teachercd]

5 minutes ago, BigRedBuster said:

 

I would have thought the last 4 years would have proven that.

 

No kidding.

 

Shoot, not to mention the lying that goes on with it...Sooooooo many people get asked who they are voting for and most people (in real life, not on a message board) are good at reading the situation and know what the other person either wants to hear OR they know what to say to avoid wasting time with a "let me change your mind" conversation.  

We do this all the time.

[RedDenver]

1 hour ago, Danny Bateman said:

 

Climate is definitely the most likely to happen on that list. His choice of VP will be interesting and although my girlfriend wants it dearly I doubt he picks Warren.

 

Last election, somewhere in the neighborhood of 11-12% of Bernie primary voters voted for Trump. It's gonna happen again. There's always going to be a chunk of the primary loser's base that doesn't like the nominee and is determined not to vote for them. I don't see the point in trying to sway those people or convince people who've already decided Biden is awful. Wasted time better served elsewhere.

But how many stayed home and didn't vote at all? You keep saying it's wasted time, but that kind of thinking/campaigning will result in even more not voting. Do you really think pivoting to the right will get more voters than appealing to Bernie's base? I'm old enough to remember Schumer literally saying this in 2016, and he was wrong. Trump won the election level of wrong.

 

And a lot of voters don't vote based on ideology, so there's something to be said just for making the effort to appeal to a group of voters.

[knapplc]

3 minutes ago, RedDenver said:

But how many stayed home and didn't vote at all? You keep saying it's wasted time, but that kind of thinking/campaigning will result in even more not voting. Do you really think pivoting to the right will get more voters than appealing to Bernie's base? I'm old enough to remember Schumer literally saying this in 2016, and he was wrong. Trump won the election level of wrong.

 

And a lot of voters don't vote based on ideology, so there's something to be said just for making the effort to appeal to a group of voters.

 

OR... and hear me out here, because this is a crazy, crazy idea...

 

Maybe Dem or Dem-leaning people who support Bernie could see that Biden is the lesser of two evils and not require convincing to vote out the worst president in the last 100 years?

 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯