Here at the old south meeting house for @ewarren big speech pic.twitter.com/5xEFMBy1vg
— Kombiz Lavasany (@kombiz) December 31, 2019
me: “what are your aspirations?”
9 year old: ??
me: “oh aspirations are something you hope for.”
9 year old: “Ms. Ayanna, I know what aspirations are. But I don’t have aspirations. I have PLANS”.
Clearly she takes after our next President @ewarren pic.twitter.com/wKe9YHn0SI
— Ayanna Pressley (@AyannaPressley) December 31, 2019
"There is the chill of fear in the air" – @ewarren speaking a truth that so many people don't want to admit. "And now it comes to us to fight. back."#Warren2020
— Emily L. Hauser ??? ???? (@emilylhauser) December 31, 2019
"In the spirit of one young woman who raised her voice from these pews more than 200 years ago, let us dream big and fight hard in 2020—and to making big, structural change come 2021. Happy New Year." – @ewarren
The crowd is on their feet #Warren2020
— Fresh Mouthed Heaux (@LeslieMac) December 31, 2019
.@ewarren “If you can imagine that something better lies on the other side of the chaos and ugliness of the last three years—then you are more than halfway there. The first step is to see it. The next step is to fight for it.” pic.twitter.com/9fsiK0ivbN
— Kristen Orthman (@KristenOrthman) December 31, 2019
It feels like what's been missing from the Democratic primary is an affirmative message to match the fear, exhaustion, disgust and dread of Trumpism that so many people feel. Warren and Booker are both trying for that in different ways — Warren with this "imagine" theme. https://t.co/TnXD5zvWwe
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) December 31, 2019
It really makes you wonder what the knock down, drag out fight to stop her has been about; to the point where a whole billionaire seems to be running just to stop her (plus an ex MA governor). Which perhaps is about the *other* part of her message… https://t.co/2OCNTFTAmN
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) December 31, 2019
It will likely not be enough for the 2020 race to be about fear. At some level it also needs to be about inspiration. Not just negative energy and "vote for X or else," but also "vote for X and Y and Z will at least be possible." That's what Barack Obama had going in 2008.
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) December 31, 2019
Because she is no longer running, unfortunately.
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) December 31, 2019
This @ewarren speech felt like a revelation and a fresh approach to the progressive cause.
With a refrain of “Imagine an America…”, it was less about the fight alone, more about visualizing life after the fight.
Candidates at all levels should watch. https://t.co/3V2AEe5GBA
— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) December 31, 2019
zhena gogolia
Thank you for the palate cleanser after the previous post.
Patricia Kayden
Sorry to go off topic but this is just heartbreaking.
senyordave
Warren is far and away my choice of who is left IMO but she screwed herself by pushing Medicare for All and giving details on a plan to get there. She would have been much better off by pushing expanded coverage under Obamacare with more subsidies, etc. People don’t want details, most of the US population can’t do a simplistic household budget, much less read through details on how to overhaul the US healthcare system.
When people say talk about policy, most people mean give it to me in one sentence.
I’d love for Warren to be the candidate, but somehow she ended up occupying the same space as Bernie in terms of the public perception. She is light years ahead of Bernie in terms of understanding the financial implications of public policy (Bernie is either a fool or a liar based on his budgets, which in the past have included absurd 4% economic growth forecasts), but she has allowed herself to be painted as a Bernie-type socialist. Maybe she can turn it around but it seems unlikely to me.
Cathie from Canada
Glad she is going positive – I hope it will be enough. I love Hillary still, but I would think Dems would now feel they got burned by nominating a woman last time, so they won’t make that mistake again, not against Trump.
My feeling is that she needs to win one of the February primaries/caucuses – Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina – to be competitive for March. With close to 30 states now decided in March, there is no time at that point to develop momentum – she needs it going in, and it won’t happen unless she can get ahead of Biden and Saunders in one of the early states.
schrodingers_cat
Has Anand Phony G opened his trap about what is happening in India?
Mike in DC
Warren would be boosted enormously by an early win. Sweeping IA and NH is her only path to securing the nomination early, and finishing outside the top 3 in either would likely be lethal to her campaign.
Really I think only Biden can come out of IA/NH without a win and still have a good shot.
ruemara
I wish I could feel this way about her, but I don’t. We’ll see if she can stay in the race. I don’t believe so, but we’ll see.
schrodingers_cat
@ruemara: Did you see her video saying that she is BS friend and still supports him? Why the hell is she running if she wants to play the second fiddle to the Vt Jesus.
schrodingers_cat
Anand G has covered India for the NYT and even wrote a book about it. The country has been burning for the last two weeks and not a peep out of our class warrior. Does he support a government that jails and rapes orphans who are minor because they are Muslim?
I don’t take him and his showboating seriously.
ruemara
@schrodingers_cat: Because she’s about the same but with more work ethic and actual accomplishments. She’s about what I expected Bernie to be when he put his hat in the race. This also means they discovered minorities when they decided to run for president, focus on economic issues over systemic issues and are gobsmacked that not everyone gives two farts in a handbag about bank regulations. It’s cringe. At least her online fandom isn’t completely trumpian with cringefap pictures and rewriting history to boast about her civil rights credentials over actual civil rights legends. But she’s still a no from me.
Mike in NC
I have zero confidence in either Warren or Sanders taking on Fat Bastard in 2020.
We finally got around to watching “When They See Us” — about the Central Park Five — and Trump’s preening, sneering mug from 1990 is prominently displayed. He took out an $85,000 ad to call for them to be executed because the were so obviously guilty of not being white.
Kraux Pas
I ❤ Warren
@senyordave: So Medicare for all is not my preferred healthcare proposal. But I can personally look past that. I think ger best answer on this is that she would involve all tge stakeholders and would work for the best possible outcome. This was after a debate and didn’t get publicized much and I wish she’d push this angle more.
And even if MfA is what we get, I can live with that. This despite the fact that I have an amazing union-negotiated supremely affordable employee healthcare plan.
Because I remember what it was like not to have that.
bemused
@zhena gogolia:
Amen!
schrodingers_cat
@ruemara:
Me too sister. Neither she nor Pete B has impressed me.
Anya
I really like Warren and honestly think she’s the real deal and she’s tough but I am honestly disappointed in her campaign. There are so many plans and not a single coherent message. I would loved for her to take in Trump’s Treasury department and all the malfeasance going in under our noses. She’s more knowledgeable about that stuff than anybody else and I don’t hear anything. I think she has wasted a lot of time and energy trying to out Bernie. She’s better than that.
schrodingers_cat
@Mike in NC: You and me both. M4A was a trap for D senators. Amy K seems to have avoided that. I will vote for a D in the D primary.
Baud
@Anya: This is how feel.
Anya
@Anya: ugh. Bad grammar
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
Me too. Still, broken glass and all that.
eclare
@schrodingers_cat: I am voting for whoever wins SC, which means most likely Biden. My state votes on Super Tuesday.
eclare
@Anya: I think Warren is much better suited to the Senate, and we need good senators.
Betty Cracker
Heard this was a great speech but hadn’t had a chance to catch it until now. The reviews were accurate.
schrodingers_cat
The primaries have not begun not going to throw in the towel in BS favor. I haven’t forgotten his anti-immigration votes.
tam1MI
@schrodingers_cat: Amy K was also the only female Senator to steer well clear of the Al Franken lynching. That has proven to be a very wise move.
schrodingers_cat
@tam1MI: I have grown to respect her. In her debate performances she didn’t make digs at Ds using R talking points like WonderBoy Pete has done more than once. She always takes the fight to the Rs and the Orange one in the WH instead of getting mired in the minutiae of M4A.
kindness
Elizabeth Warren is my choice. Bernie & Bidden won’t be the nominee. Now if we could only get BernieBros to vote for the actual Democrat this time.
trollhattan
Go Liz!
That is all.
Another Scott
@senyordave: Meh.
She answered the question and is no longer being hounded about it AFAICS.
FTFNYT:
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@zhena gogolia: I think I’ll make broken glass my running mate.
Another Scott
@ruemara:
The stars would have to align for her to win, IMHO, but she’s my favorite at this point. She understands the good that government can do for real people, and she understands that the only thing stopping us from getting the government we want is finding a way to pull together.
E.g. Today:
This could be a huge, huge deal for tens of millions of people. And if it includes people who need to retire early because of on-the-job injuries, then it could have even more of a positive impact.
Will that message get through? Who knows…
Cheers,
Scott.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@senyordave: pretty much how I feel– she had a lot of obstacles to overcome– misogyny, the cultural resentments toward a Harvard perfesser, etc– and she needed to to run a near perfect campaign. She had a great message, I think, about reining in corporations, the wealth tax (popular if impractical) and then she blundered on the most important non-trump issue, and I don’t know if she can come back from that.
Lymie
I hear a lot of unrecognized misogyny in the criticism of Warren, things that other candidates get a pass on. We need to move forward and transform our society, going backwards to pre-Trump standards will be our doom. Warren has thought long and deeply about solutions, this is a good thing. Biden is garbled, Sanders has good thoughts but would have no idea how to get them done, Klobuchar is too incremental and lacks vision. And Buttigieg is a privileged, arrogant, unaware dink.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
Sounds good.
surfk9
What happens when no one gets to 50% and we have a brokered convention. Can you imagine the charges of CORRUPT BARGAIN from the Bernie bots if he doesn’t get the nod.
the Conster
Liz tying herself to Russian asset Sanders was poor judgment, and her NA appropriation is something I refuse to just dismiss. She kept up the lie even when she knew better, for years.
I think she has terrible political instincts. If she can’t or won’t take down Sanders, who is an untrustworthy back stabbing snake, she’ll NEVER take down Trump. She walks into every trap set for her, including the ones she sets for herself cough***wine cave*cough***, and let’s the old fraud’s surrogates go after her while she stands there and can’t even articulate why she’s a better candidate than he is? WTAF.
randy khan
@tam1MI:
It may have been politically wise (although she really had no choice), because people like you keep calling it a lynching. It was not, in fact, anything like that.
People seem to forget, conveniently, that more and more women kept showing up with stories about Franken’s behavior. There were two new ones the day before he resigned. There was no indication it was going to stop.
Whether it was fair or not, at that point he was toast. It shouldn’t have taken all but one of the women in the Senate to point that out.
Kent
@schrodingers_cat:
Shit happens really fast after Iowa. If Klobochar beats expectations in Iowa and Biden does poorly she could really start consolidating the mainstream “anyone but Trump” crowd and snowball some momentum. My understanding is that she has a top organization in Iowa and they know what they are doing.
trollhattan
@Lymie:
I’d say unacknowledged as opposed to unrecognized. As a dude American I’ve been seeing and hearing the same kind of attacks as wielded against Hillary Clinton. Sometimes they’re eerily coordinated, such as, “She still hasn’t explained why she was a registered Republican up until ####.”
Chief Oshkosh
@tam1MI: I didn’t know Warren weighed in on it. Did she?
Betty Cracker
@the Conster: I’m not going to address the usual anti-Warren crackpottery shards you sprinkle in the comments because been there, done that, don’t care to repeat the experience. But I think you’re wrong about the wine cave thing. The 10-second pundit reaction was “ooo, Buttigieg sure put that hectoring schoolmarm in her place.” But the message that sunk in beyond the immediate post-debate analysis was an image of fat cats feting a candidate in a bejeweled wine cave, and that is not a message that hurts Warren.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@trollhattan: the one that baffles me is when people call her angry– she always strikes me as the cheerfully dorky happy warrior
ruemara
@trollhattan: That bothers me. It’s not misogyny. How am I supposed to trust someone who sat out the AIDS crisis? How should I trust someone who can register as a republican and side step their racism, homophobia & misogyny? But, folks like her losing their houses got her to switch? Good for her that eventually something broke the camel’s back, but I can’t elevate her to leadership when that’s what it took.
I have no idea why I’m supposed to feel so warm & fuzzy to former republicans & independents who spend a lot of their time trashing dems. If that’s your jam, all yours. But the question will be asked because it says things about what she values.
schrodingers_cat
@ruemara: She is good with economic policy but that’s how she sees the world. I like her as my senator and she would make a good Treasury secretary but her vision is not broad enough to become the President. She is BS with policy plans as opposed to empty blather.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Betty Cracker: I generally like Warren, but I thought the “wine cave” attack was bad news. It’s a hypocritical argument for a politician who has done the same thing (and will have to do it again!) to make.
I like Warren personally, and I like her message. I’ve got a Warren bumper sticker on my car, alongside my Kamala sticker. I’ll probably vote for her in the (late) Oregon primary.
But I have big concerns about her and her campaigns political instincts, and a number of choices they have made. And I’m not seeing significant improvement in that regard…
Kent
@ruemara: Honestly, if shit people said and did three decades ago actually mattered to the voting public then neither Bush nor Trump would ever have gotten elected. I sat out the AIDs crisis too. I wasn’t a politician and I was doing other things. And neither was Warren at the time.
the Conster
@Betty Cracker:
When did this place become the Warren equivalent of a Berniebro place? Good god, she’s plummeting in the polls, and it’s because she’s a weak candidate getting tripped up by her own missteps. Her wine cave comment naturally led to the information of her own Senate fundraising events held by billionaires making her look like a complete hypocrite and one of them was hosted by highly problematic Linda Fairstein which she had to apologize for. Why would she bring this up, knowing she was just as guilty? Billionaires can only donate the same amount as you or I, so why point fingers? It’s an unforced error. Why the hell can’t she take on Bernie Sanders and let the world know about his sketchy fundraising? She’d do us all a huge favor, but instead she’s all “I’m with Bernie”.
Chief Oshkosh
Warren has a record of accomplishments. Bernie doesn’t. Nor does Pete. Warren has aspirations AND plans. Having a record of accomplishments and a vision for the future with practical plans to achieve that vision is what I want in a presidential candidate.
Biden has some accomplishments, but given his tenure in the Senate, arguably he should have many more. Plus, he has no vision – what does he stand for? What is his vision and how will he get us there? He’s selling normalcy, but as some BJ FPers point out here , there is no going back.
I would like to know more about Klobuchar. So far she strikes me as being similar to Biden in that I don’t understand what her vision is, much less plans for achieving it. I have friends who support her a lot, but they can’t tell me anything more than 1) she’s a woman (duh) and 2) she is more conservative than Warren and therefore more electable. Well, maybe. I guess I need to get off my slack ass and visit her website.
Bobby Thomson
The other day my friend’s six-year-old was saying to me, “Why do politicians always put polemic statements into the mouths of their young children? Don’t they realize it’s less credible than Tom Friedman’s cabbies?”
Chief Oshkosh
@the Conster: Meh. You’re not helping your argument. So, please keep it up – you may end up being Liz’s secret weapon.
Kent
@Bobby Thomson: I see what you did there!
Bobby Thomson
@the Conster: wine caves fund down ticket races. Not all candidates want a strong Democratic Party. Such as those who hoarded their Senate war chests.
Betty Cracker
@the Conster:
Huh? People shit on Warren at this blog all the fucking time.
Kraux Pas
Billionaires can only donate (checks balances) $12.45? Good to know.
tam1MI
@Chief Oshkosh: Both Harris and Warren joined in the calls for Franken to resign. Klobuchar smartly kept quiet.
the Conster
@Chief Oshkosh:
She’s not helping herself. Her polling decline isn’t because of me.
the Conster
@Kraux Pas:
I donate $50 at a time, but if I could donate the max I would.
Kent
@Chief Oshkosh: Realistically if a Dem wins in 2020 we will be looking at three major tasks for the next president.
Honestly #2 and #3 are going to be 95% of the job of the next President. Pelosi and the next Dem majority leader of the Senate are going to be primarily in charge of #1.
Of the current crop of candidates, I think Klobochar, Warren, and Biden are best positioned and suited for #2 and #3. Sanders would be the worst and Buttigieg would be in over his head with zero experience in DC.
Kay
I’m just all in on the corruption message, although I am enough of a realist to admit it’s not a mainstream position. Yet! I think that to myself – “Yet!”
It genuinely worries me. I don’t think it’s consistent with a real market economy or a democracy to have the kind of capture and malfeasance we’re seeing and, like Warren, I prefer a market economy.
Stuff like the Panama Papers scares the hell out of me. They are pulling billions out of public works and services. They are setting up their own special economic system. It just isn’t sustainable.
the Conster
@Bobby Thomson:
This is what I’m talking about. Harris donated her Senate funds to downticket races.
tam1MI
I like Warren also, but to me she walked straight into an ambush on the “wine cave” thing. Buttigieg knew that attack was coming and was lying in wait, prepared.
Kraux Pas
@the Conster: Uggh, I hate when a joke falls flat.
The thing is, though, it’s more than individual donations. Bundling and unlimited donations to PACs are hugely problematic.
Miss Bianca
@Another Scott: My God, is it really only five weeks now till the IA caucus?
It’s been coming for so long that it no longer seemed imminent.
Bobby Thomson
@trollhattan: Clinton assisted with the legal team to impeach Nixon and did public interest work straight out of law school.
janesays
@Mike in DC: The only way Biden can survive losses in Iowa and New Hampshire is if he has a very strong showing in Nevada (either win it or come in a close second) and a blowout win in South Carolina. His odds of having a blowout win in SC look good now, but if he loses the first two contests, it’s probably going to bring his numbers down in SC, because voters there will get nervous about his ability to close the deal.
Bobby Thomson
@tam1MI: not a lynching, eight different accusers, he made his choice and could have ridden it out like Menendez, she was the only Senator from the same state — intelligence had little to do with it.
the Conster
@Kraux Pas:
Until Citizens United is no longer the law of the land, why shouldn’t the Dem take advantage of money? Trump will have a billion dollars to dump on the nominee, so, “let’s all bring sporks to a gunfight” isn’t the message I want to hear our candidate say. Money is corrupting, IF YOU LET IT BE. I’ve always believed in the old Jesse Unruh homily, if you can’t take their money, drink their booze, screw their women then vote against them, you don’t belong in politics.
KSinMA
OMG, she is so right that there is a “chill of fear in the air”–listen to all the obsessing (not from all of us personally, mind you) about how this or that Dem can’t beat Trump. We HAVE to beat him. And it’s gonna have to be us … Whoever the eventual nominee is, he or she won’t win unless all of us get behind him or her and push.
End of rant, and I’m not saying anything you all don’t already know. Bless you for being the activists you are!
janesays
@the Conster: Billionaires can only directly contribute to a candidate the same amount as the plebes, but there are ways around that. Joint Fundraising Committees are often created, which are ostensibly for the purpose of electing multiple candidates to various offices, and they can ask for hundreds of thousands of dollars from individual donors. And they’re entirely legal. There are also SuperPACS, where people can pretty much spend unlimited amounts of money to help their preferred candidates.
Kraux Pas
@the Conster: Yet two of the top candidates seem to be managing just fine on not prioritizing large donors.
janesays
@ruemara:
When exactly has Warren done this (trashed Dems)?
Bobby Thomson
@Kraux Pas: the same two who also don’t really care about down ticket races.
trollhattan
@ruemara:
I guess my jam is my jam. If she’s an unapologetic Manchurian Candidate with a chameleon-like ability to change policy and party at the drop of a hat is your jam, then so be it.
I just know we need to ship Trump off to some melting iceberg come November.
the Conster
@janesays:
Instead of accusing Pete for his wine cave event which was for individual donors, she should have turned to Sanders and demanded he disclose the donors of Our Revolution, which is a 501(c)(4) and is acting basically as his SuperPAC with no transparency and staffed by all Sanders insiders. I don’t understand her strategy, at all.
Kraux Pas
@Bobby Thomson: You say they don’t care about downticket races but is that true? Show me.
Jinchi
I understand where you’re coming from, but if the Dem take from 2016 is “a woman lost this election, so we must never nominate a woman again” then they should really have to explain why they nominated a man after Al Gore lost in 2000.
the Conster
@janesays:
Seriously? She and her BFF Bernie criticized the Obamas for making money from a speech after 8 scandal free years, then when they turned around and donated 5 times that amount to Chicago summer youth programs, neither she nor Bernie had anything to say. She catapulted the whole *it was rigged* active measures narrative for her BFF Bernie against Hillary. She – former Republican – told Biden he belonged in the Republican primary for defending Obamacare.
Betty Cracker
@Bobby Thomson: I don’t know about Sanders, but Warren has outperformed rivals on fundraising for down-ticket races. I can’t find recent figures on it in the 2 minutes I have to comment on this thread, but in 2018, only Bloomberg had raised/contributed more money to down-ticket Dems, according to a WaPo article on the midterms.
James E Powell
We always have the two questions: Who will be the best at the job? and Who is most likely to win?
What’s holding Warren back is the second question. Democratic voters may take decades to recover from 2016. It may be similar to the way the disaster of 1972 was still in Democratic voters’ heads – and the press/media’s analysis – in 2004. And I know there are big differences and every election is its own moment. I’m just talking about how long the impact will endure.
johnnybuck
It seems to be an odd, punishable thing for a candidate running for President to present actual plans, or solutions. Warren is the only candidate to offer anything close to detailed policy positions still in the race. We clamor for specifics until we get them.
I am not supporter of Warren but I certainly admire the fact that she tells you what she wants to do, and how she plans to do it. I think its a flawed strategy unless you have the political chops and charisma to beat back the criticism such detail inevitably brings.
It sure seems like a restoration rather than a revolution is the order of the day.
Kay
@Kraux Pas:
That’s the thing. They’re raising a shit load of money. And they’re not spending 4 hours a day courting rich people to do it. You probably know this but Warren’s argument is broader than money. What she says is they are buying special access, which is true, obviously. We don’t get wine cave meetings.
Kay
@Kraux Pas:
They hate it too, the candidates. They hate calling donors. Sherrod Brown has to be “locked” into a room to do it. They hate the system.
I just can’t accept that it sucks, everyone hates it, but we MUST DO IT, forever.
joel hanes
@the Conster:
Billionaires can only donate the same amount as you or I
Oh my sweet summer child.
Kraux Pas
Makes me question whether this is the best metric to judge a candidate by.
Kraux Pas
@Kay: Of course. If you don’t raise hundreds of millions from billionaires, you won’t get elected so you can’t change the system.
If you do, you will either lack the credibility to change it or…favors will be called in.
Kay
@James E Powell:
The Biden supporters here really do think they’re going back too, which I’m fine with- it’s what they believe. IMO that’s the split in the D Party- those who think Trump was a one-off, and those who don’t. I don’t. I no longer believe “we’re better than that”. It seems to me we are what we appear to be.
the Conster
@joel hanes:
OFFS, it’s true, INDIVIDUALLY.
Kay
@Kraux Pas:
I think Mayor Pete showed almost immediately that he thinks it’s a valid issue, because his team immediately worked to lower his average donation. I’m fine with him making the argument on the merits but crying “hypocrisy”, to me, means he accepts her premise. That there is something wrong with this. He isn’t defending the practice, he’s saying “you do it too”. That’s not a defense on the merits.
Jinchi
I really don’t believe the evidence supports that conclusion
Kay
I’d like to see the candidates go even further. Look at how they spend the money. They’ve been moving in the direction of small donors since the internet- started with Kerry, supercharged with Obama and then Bernie but they all spend it exactly the same way. Reexamine the whole thing. We have all these mavericky candidates. Now would be a time to experiment a little.
This could be a nightmare but what if they went wholly transparent and reported to small donors on how they spent it? Like you have to do with a nonprofit. “I took your 3 dollars and spent it HERE, on THIS” – exaggerating obviously, but bring them in.
We could complain if they spend it on dumb things, just like big donors do. Or I imagine they do.
Kay
It might be fun for people. “Help fund this campaign office in Oshkosh” – make it very local.
“we need one more voter protection person in Milwaukee- can you help?” Send that just to Wisconsin zip codes. I’m an asshole so I’d pit one state against another. “California! Not pulling your WEIGHT” :)
Kraux Pas
@the Conster: Yes, the law allows billionaires to donate the same amount to whatever entity as anyone else.
Now how does the de jure, de facto distinction work again?
the Conster
@Kraux Pas:
Instead of playing your little games with you, I’m going to say one more time – the wine cave event that Warren criticized, and was soon outed as being guilty of herself – WAS FOR INDIVIDUAL DONORS.
Raven Onthill
Public and press: we want plans! We want to know how you will pay for it!
Candidate: provides plans and funding proposals.
Public and press: oooh, you’re wonky, and besides some rich white people might actually have to pay for this. We’re scared.
Boize moi!
Kraux Pas
@the Conster: “That was then this is now” is also a novel by S.E. Hinton.
Raven Onthill
Public and press: We’d really rather you were some bullying white guy. We understand those lots better.
Raven Onthill
(deleted out of concern for not making the problems worse)
Kay
Denali
I know picking a candidate is personal, but I wish we could get behind candidates who can win the general election(all important) and candidates who will do the best job(as has been stated). It is easy to get lost in the day-to-day flubs that every candidate is inevitably going to make. I am not sure why the idea of Medicare for all is such an unattainable goal. It certainly could be broken into steps of lowering the age eligibility gradually, and it is easy achieves a basic level of care for everyone. Of course, people are nervous that due to misogyny a woman candidate won’t win, but perhaps they are not taking into account the anger of so many women that the election was stolen from Hillary in 2016.
Kay
Trump milks the Trumpsters like cows, too. He had this gross grifter booth at the county fair where he was selling them low quality Trump shit. I have never seen that before in my LIFE, from any candidate.
They’re disgusting people, the Trump hires. Crooks at every level.
senyordave
@Kraux Pas: Some version of MfA will happen at some point, and I would hope that every Democratic candidate sees that as a long term goal. My problem is that Warren went all in and stated it publicly with details. I think that was a major mistake. I don’t think she has the best of political instincts
Betty Cracker
@Kay: It’s unprecedented and disconcerting, the way that gross sack of lard has insinuated himself into every aspect of civic life in red areas. There was a Trump float in my tiny little town’s Christmas parade! My sister lives in a Tampa suburb, and her town parade also had a Trump float, though it was less well received! Who the fuck does that? I don’t remember any Obama floats, do you?
Ruckus
@senyordave:
She is who and what BS wants to be but has not one clue how to get there. Plus she is a positive, not a negative like BS. No one will like everything about her but will really like what her basic desires are.
James E Powell
@Kay:
I agree. Completely. The 40-45% that form Trump’s support have been there my whole life. And my political life is 90% talking to white people at their front door or at local community events like block parties, “home days,” and the like.
Among those who are not engaged in politics to a great degree, there are several core beliefs that have not changed since I was a volunteer for Carter in the Cleveland suburbs in 1980:
First, they see America in racial terms to a far greater degree than anyone will acknowledge. Because I am a generic suburban white male, they will say things in front of me that they will not say to others or to pollsters. Race and “them” usually enters the conversation by the third or fourth sentence.
Second, they have a powerful nostalgic longing for the Imagined Era of American Greatness of 1945-1965 and this is oddly very strong among those who are too young to have experienced it other than as children.
Third, they believe that this Imagined Era of American Greatness was brought to an end by – in varying orders of importance – African Americans, women, and Muslims who have our oil. Only a few of them believe that history can be rolled back, but all of them share a rage at these three groups and that rage is central to their political decision-making.
Fourth, they believe that Democrats, by “taking the side” of African Americans, women, and to a lesser extent LGBTQ, have betrayed them. The number of times that word is used is startling.
These ideas form the core of the Republican brand but are also shared by Democrats. For example, every Democratic candidate who uses the phrase “hard-working families” knows that this is code for white people.
We cannot eradicate these ideas from our political culture. We have to work extra hard and extra smart to defeat them every election. Whenever we let down our guard and fail to enthusiastically support the Democratic candidate – no matter who it is or what her position is on some issue that we think is important – those ideas win.
James E Powell
@Jinchi:
President. Commander in Chief. Leader of the Free World.
It’s different than any other political office.
The codes are all different and they are all Type A male codes.
the Conster
@James E Powell:
I completely agree with this assessment. I’m tired of the trope that these people are really voting against their best interests. It excuses their overt and covert bigotry against the changing demographic of the country, and to my dismay Democrats have failed to advance candidates that represent the changing demo. It looks like Biden is solidifying his hold on that demo, mostly because of Obama’s shine which he wants to claim some legacy for, so whatever. What I don’t want to hear is populism, and that offering a restructured economy to these poor suffering white folks is what they want. They don’t, unless it comes with white supremacy.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
We didn’t have a float but I was waiting for my son to go by with the HS band and the man in front of me made some kind of pro-Trump grunt when the fire engines went by and the woman next to him said “eeww!” in this wholly gut way that made me laugh. I love spontaneous revulsion. It’s always women.
The merch is gross. I’d LOVE to see the books. Imagine how many people are getting a cut of that. Milk the suckers until they’re bone dry.
Baud
@James E Powell:
Not startling because it’s kind of true. The history of the Democratic party is white populism until, in a blink of a historical eye, we became the party of civil rights.
Whenever someone accuses Dems of betrayal on any issue, I know this is the betrayal they are invoking.
Kay
@James E Powell:
One of the things I like about my father (there aren’t that many things) is his contrariness on The Greatest Generation. He was appalled at how poor the other draftees were and he was just ordinary working class. Horrified by his whole army experience. Couldn’t wait to get away from his fellow Americans. He starts these rants with “don’t tell ME about these people! I was there!”
He’s a giant pain the ass as a voter. Liked Harris and may pout and not vote, to punish you people.
the Conster
@Kay:
My father was a lifelong Democrat, but it wasn’t until I was putting together his 90th birthday slideshow going through his Army pictures that he admitted his experience with his Army fellows was pretty awful. He said they kept wondering why they were supposed to care about what was happening to the Jews. So, yeah. They were the lumpenproletariat more than the Greatest Generation in his experience.
Ruckus
Something I don’t really think I’ve seen much and that is a discussion about whoever and trump. Obviously no matter what else, we have to beat him and massively in 11 months. We will never get the hardcore republicans, or the 10% of the people who show up for him, unpaid.
I’m not sure that Warren is that person, even though many will vote for any democratic over the turd squatting in the WH.
So my point is that we very much need to consider we won’t get what/who we desire/deserve but we will get rid of the worst humanoid to ever disgrace the office/country/citizens.
Suzanne
@James E Powell:
Is it strange? I think many people look back to their childhoods with affection. MAGA is essentially nostalgia for OKBoomers (note that OKBoomers are #notallboomers), not much more.
Raven Onthill
@Ruckus: if women will turn out for her… but I am not sure that women will.
Truth of the matter is we don’t know who can win.
jk
I’m all in for Elizabeth Warren. In every respect, she’s head and shoulders above Biden or Sanders. If it weren’t for sexism, she’d be polling significantly better than these two dopes.
J R in WV
@the Conster:
But see, now, you’re lying about Sen. Warren’s biological history, because the DNA test showed that she did indeed have Native American ancestors in her family.
She is NOT a member of any recognized Native American tribe, and DNA tests won’t help her achieve that, but that isn’t the point and your lies about her genetic background don’t help at all. So quit lying about Senator Warren’s ancestry!
joel hanes
@the Conster:
you’re under the illusion that Sheldon Adelson or Charles Koch will only contribute a couple thousand dollars to getting Trump or McConnell re-elected
J R in WV
@the Conster:
So, were these individual donors giving $50 each, per month, or the $2,850 (or whatever) legal limit for donations? I’m betting more like the legal limit, as opposed to $50/month.
Lymie
Bloomberg could do the most good by buying Fox News.
Kattails
@James E Powell: Dead thread, and I get the point you’re making. But just to note that a 78 year old grandmother stood up in front of a room full of all those type A men, pointed at their chief, and gave him a verbal spanking while making half the room look as downcast as little boys in a sandbox; all in front of cameras that immortalized the whole thing. I would infinitely prefer that those codes were in the hands of that grandmother right this minute.