Remember how in 2016 all the Alt right guys and Alex Jones conspiracy guys blew up to their highest national profile ever, and the subsequent scrutiny pretty much destroyed them? That’s what rose emoji twitter is about to go through, like a supernova
— Canadian Bread Price Fixing (@MenshevikM) February 5, 2020
This is not an attempt to draw a one-to-one rhetorical comparison, it’s just everyone was forced to care about Baked Alaska and Milo and like 50 other flunkies until we very rapidly did not
— Canadian Bread Price Fixing (@MenshevikM) February 5, 2020
TFW when you blow half your war chest to try and prove you can get non-voters to the polls but the predicted surge doesn’t hit.https://t.co/aSA0VxiNbg
— An Antic Disposition ?? (@pavanvan) February 5, 2020
… When Bernie Sanders’ campaign was preparing for a potential win in the first 2020 contest Monday, his aides and allies envisioned him giving a primetime victory speech, raising millions of dollars from small-dollar donors amid their ecstatic high, and savoring proving so many elites wrong at a party at the Holiday Inn.
Instead, Sanders and his senior aides found themselves working to reassure demoralized and shaken staffers and volunteers on Tuesday.
In a last-minute all-staff call around noon, Sanders’ campaign manager, Faiz Shakir, told aides that the Iowa Democratic Party had been incompetent and the delayed results were frustrating. But, he said, it was critical to appreciate what had just happened despite receiving the most negative news coverage of any 2020 campaign…
This was not what the Sanders campaign had expected to happen, to put it mildly. Excitement had been building among his team and its allies for days leading up to the Iowa caucuses. While campaigning throughout the state, Sanders himself appeared in a good mood, smiling and cracking more jokes than usual. He said his wife, Jane, would make a great first lady; Rep. Ilhan Omar, a top surrogate, said at events that they were going to send Sanders to the White House.
Then on Monday, hundreds of Sanders’ supporters — his Iowa precinct whips and captains; Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair Mark Pocan; members of the Sunrise Movement, a group of young climate change activists; campaign co-chair Rep. Ro Khanna — packed into a hotel next to the airport for what felt like it could be an historic night. The New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd milled around, along with reporters from around the world…
In the wee hours of the morning Tuesday, Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ senior adviser, lashed out at Iowa Democratic Party leader Troy Price in a call with the 2020 presidential campaigns, saying “the whole process has been a fraud for 100 years.” He told POLITICO that “there is no doubt” that Nevada, which had been planning until Tuesday to use the same app that failed in Iowa, should “disregard” it. On the flight to New Hampshire, Sanders said he was “disappointed” that Iowa Democrats couldn’t release timely results…
About that Holiday Inn party venue:
At a pre-caucus party, a Bernie supporter did a call and response.
“When I say ‘Fuck,’ you say ‘Warren!’”
“Fuck,” he yelled. “Warren,” the audience answered back.
He did the same for the other candidates. JFC.https://t.co/A2UcfYYPxE
— marisa kabas (@MarisaKabas) February 6, 2020
… The Sanders shindig Sunday night was conjured by the hosts of Chapo Trap House, the popular podcast of the self-proclaimed “dirtbag left” — the radicalized, often vulgar, and sometimes hilarious internet creatures all in for Bernie. The show’s hosts gathered in a tiny and graffiti-covered back room that looked like a charming imitation of a Lower East Side dive bar bathroom and discussed their candidate’s chances in the caucuses and whether one could get HBO interested in a miniseries starring Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Out on the dance floor, a massive image of Jeffrey Epstein’s bungalow on Little Saint James, otherwise known as “Pedophile Island,” was being beamed onto the walls.
Rumors about the results of the scuppered Des Moines Register poll — the hotly anticipated barometer for Democratic candidates that was shelved the day before due to data-collection hiccups were flying around the bar. The poll’s results supposedly were good for Bernie and bad for the centrists, particularly those they call Uncle Joe and “Mayo Pete.” Upon hearing the gossip, one canvasser began twerking to scattered applause.
Another hopped on stage and grabbed a microphone for a call and return with the crowd.
“When I say ‘Fuck,’ you say ‘Biden!’”…
But, after what happened in the last primary cycle, these warriors had reason to be feeling vengeful. And though the hopeful vibes for their candidate’s chances in the caucuses were radiating around the room, they could see the establishment forces conspiring against them in real time. Even before the squelched caucus results threw this whole thing into a blender, a drumbeat of Democratic dreck had been fueling rage in the Bernieverse. First there were stories that Obama privately remarked that he would speak out against Sanders if necessary. Then came the trailer for Hulu’s new Hillary, pouring some Clinton haterade into the mix. Des Moines was buzzing that weekend over an NBC report that John Kerry was overheard at a hotel nearby saying that he would be willing to enter the race to stop “the possibility of Bernie Sanders taking down the Democratic party.” (Kerry has emphatically denied this.) On MSNBC Chris Matthews was saying on a Morning Joe panel discussion in Iowa that Sanders could win “real big” here but that “Bernie Sanders is not going to be president of the United States.”…
Words I seldom say: One hopes Chris Matthews is correct.
None of this argument made any sense.
Buttigieg is on track to win the Iowa caucus, and he did it by literally bringing over disenchanted Independents and Republicans. Look at the facts before making claims like this. https://t.co/NQqJhSfvP0
— Nick ?? (@TossupReport) February 5, 2020
bernie commendably didn't push conspiracy theories in his post caucus speech, and yet for the past 24 hours every single fuckin bernie supporter in my feed has been posting Qanon level garbage about shadow corp dot net or whatever anyways, weird how that keeps happening
— krapp's last take (@mmcgrath42) February 5, 2020
"They don't believe in winning."
Nailed it – Chapo thrives on grievance and us vs them politics. Bernie winning would hurt their business model. https://t.co/LsTWUeXEiz
— Shannon (@TheStagmania) February 5, 2020
sukabi
That Sanders team has a real winning message. ?
Jesus Christ what the FUCK is wrong with them.
206inKY
Bernie seems like the last choice of so many Democrats, especially here. But I’m worried we’re stuck a runaway train with him. I supported Klobucher, but I don’t see her lasting. Warren has bled a lot of younger lefties to Sanders, and her remaining coalition just doesn’t seem big enough. With Biden, I can’t stop thinking of Woody Harrelson’s terrifyingly perfect SNL debate last Thanksgiving.
I’m starting to think Bloomberg is our best hope of overwhelming Bernie and then Trump. I can hardly believe I’m seriously considering him, but he is more of a street fighter than I realized, buying digital ads in the neighborhood of his last mayoral opponent just to get in his head when he opened and closed the computer before bed and after waking up. That is mean like Amy K, and I like it. He is also investing massively in field staff in black communities across the rural South, not just white college towns. And holy crap, $200M is a lot of money. I’m tired of Democrats getting outgunned by the Koches, Mercers, and Adelsons of the world. Bloomberg can change that.
anarchoRex
Man, imagine how sad all the watch parties were for the candidates that didn’t win Iowa.
Damien
@sukabi: Do you wanna start a list and I’ll jump in when your fingers cramp up?
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Looks like Wilmer is gonna lose both his best state in Iowa and his neighboring state of New Hampshire to a 37 year old small town mayor.
What an embarrassment.
NotMax
They sound nice.
/faux Adam
Martin
Man, if Warren can’t stay in the game, it’s going to be President Bloomberg or President Trump. Mark my words.
BR
It’s too bad — Sanders himself is a good candidate IMHO, but he surrounds himself with questionable characters… I still favor Warren but if Sanders would clean house I’d be fine with him winning.
bjacques
In 2016-2017 I lost a good friend to right-on paranoia on Bernie’s behalf that turned into a full-on embrace of QAnon and Trump, and a few others in my Faecebook feed are headed that way. If online Bernistas are gonna do ugly I hope they do it early so the rest of us can get on with flushing the turd November 3rd.
If Rose Twitter’s self-immolation also consumes Uygher, the Justice Democrats and Chapo Trap House, it’ll be a bonus.
MisterForkbeard
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: I’m not convinced Bernie will lose NH. It would definitely be a huge blow, though.
I’d feel better about this if Buttigieg was getting any level of black support, because he’s doing very well in the first contests.
Amir Khalid
@206inKY:
You might see Michael Bloomberg as the least-bad Democratic candidate, but remember that America does not have a record of billionaire CEOs doing well as POTUS. Nothing I have seen about Bloomberg suggests he will do significantly better.
Amir Khalid
@BR:
I disagree. Very strongly.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Fox News, especially Fucker Carlson, is openly calling on republicans to vote for Wilmer in IA and NH and he still struggling to win his best states.
Martin
@206inKY: Yeah. I mean, there’s universal agreement that there’s too much money in politics, and too much influence from the rich, but you can’t fix those things if you lose. It’s obvious that the GOP rule is victory over principle, and you gotta play the game with the rules you have.
I’d really like to see this issue raised once Bloomberg is on the debate stage – would he commit to implementing public funding of elections if he wins? That might be the only way we get there.
Martin
@Amir Khalid: I don’t either, but mostly Democrats need someone with coattails for senate races and who will sign their legislation.
phdesmond
@Amir Khalid: amir, i left a reply for you in an older thread.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Amir Khalid: The US has never had a billionaire for President. Certainly not Dump.
Citizen Alan
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
Adjusted for inflation, would FDR have been a billionaire? I don’t know; just asking.
NotMax
@Citizen Alan
Washington might have reached that adjusted level, or come very close.
hitchhiker
I’m not ashamed to say that for the first time I think I understand the appeal of the “daddy party” deal. I mean, if you told me that fucking Bloomberg is a sure bet to end this chaos, I would think hard and long about putting my tiny little chips on that square.
The USA is not going to recover easily from trump. We the people are less secure in our own country and less safe in an unstable world. I can easily see the money guys who have reluctantly promoted our idiot president abandoning him for one of their own who will be almost as accommodating, but without all the ugliness and stupidity.
What happens then? What happens when the money guys turn their backs on trump? The big money guys and the chamber of commerce types? The tech lords?
If their choice is a wobbly Biden or a Sanders or a Warren or a 37-yr old gay mayor from Indiana, or a genuine billionaire who has run NYC, do we really think they’ll hesitate?
Then it would be trump with the racists & evangelicals vs the rest of us. That simplification, dog help me, has an appeal.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Citizen Alan: Not sure of the FDR family assets.
That said, adjusted for inflation, Kennedy would have been the son of a billionaire.
hitchhiker
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
Wikipedia says that in 2016 dollars, George Washington was — until now — the wealthiest president ever, worth more than half a billion. (It gives trump credit for $3.1 billion, so maybe not that reliable.)
Kattails
I was out canvassing for Warren in one of the local small towns, late afternoon, not a lot of contacts, several still undecided(!!). I hate canvassing, am shy and knocking on doors is way out of my comfort zone. But her speech after the caucuses, highlighted by our blog overlord, kept replaying in my head: “If you think something should be done, do something.”
There are still a lot of undecideds in play here. And I think Elizabeth is playing for the long haul.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
I dont support Bloomberg.
But I see a couple of positives:
1) he is running brutal ads against Dump.
2) the corporate media loves him and they would extend him glowing treatment, unlike the other Dems who they would “Gore”.
RandomMonster
Why is a small town mayor doing well at all? Oh right, male…
Eljai
@Kattails: Thank you for canvassing! Over 40% of likely voters in New Hampshire have not made up their minds. It seemed like a lot of the press was eager to erase her campaign this week. But she outperformed the polling by over 5 percent in Iowa without blowing through the huge chunks of dough that Bernie and Buttigieg spent. And she has heavily invested in her ground game beyond Iowa. Anyway, I was also inspired to “do something” besides fretting, so I signed up to make calls this weekend.
Amir Khalid
@phdesmond:
Which thread?
cmorenc
@Martin:
If anyone claiming to be a Democrat is president-elect morning after election day in November, including Bloomberg, we should be absolutely delighted, even though we would have much preferred Warren or another of the D candidates with better progressive credentials.
Anne Laurie
@Citizen Alan: FDR wasn’t personally that wealthy, but he had generations of ‘family money’ behind him, with all that entails — the best schooling, all the right contacts, training to act like the person in charge. Same thing goes for Teddy Roosevelt, obviously. Kennedy was only second-generation money, but his old man quite literally raised his sons to be presidential material. It’s been argued, however, that what gave each of those men the edge to actually become president, instead of just training for it like a million other well-endowed white guys, was that all three suffered personal health crises which taught them how thin the line between ‘I got it all’ and ‘I can’t even survive without others’ assistance’.
Mike Bloomberg is actually the self-made man the current Squatter-in-Chief would like us to believe he is. Mike was born into a lower-middle-class family, decided early in life that he was gonna make a whole pot of money, and proceeded to arrange his actions to achieve that goal. In that sense, I have the feeling his closest modern analog might be… Herbert Hoover. Who was actually a very smart man, who did laudable work before and after his White House stint! — but the portent doesn’t seem favorable, somehow…
NotMax
@Anne Laurie
Phrasing! :)
206inKY
@Martin: Yeah, I totally agree that money in politics has been deeply corrosive. But the root of problem of Trumpism is racism. He’s a system-crashing Nazi, and we are in an all-hands-on-deck moment.
Ever since Citizens United, the spigot of dark money has been drowning Democrats. We can’t compete. Sanders won’t change this since he won’t win.
Bloomberg could easily spend $5 billion on this race, totally drowning Trump and funding field organizers up and down the ballot. Why would we reject that for someone like Biden, Warren, or Pete who will need to lift mountains to catch up to Trump’s machine?
Also, the only real swing voters from 2018 are former Republicans in the suburbs, especially in the sunbelt. They are not going to reject Bloomberg over stop and frisk, and he is running second among black voters in NC right now so I don’t see a base problem. But I could easily see asshole suburbanites flipping back to Trump to protect their tax cuts from Bernie.
Kattails
@RandomMonster: Many are parsing it out too much, who they think can win. But Pete’s primary experience is of running a town smaller than Manchester NH. It’s not just about winning. It’s about how steep the learning curve is likely to be if elected.
I supported Hillary over Obama way back when. One thing I felt at the time was that black men got the franchise 50 years before women did, and that it may well play out the same way for president. And with all due respect to Obama, Pete B, whoever, they can never level this f*cking playing field the way putting a woman in office could. I don’t feel that just because Pete is gay it’s somehow “one step closer” to a woman president.
Kattails
@Eljai: Oh, great! So glad to hear that. I missed your note while typing my last bit. Yes, I think she’s being careful with her spending. For example, only handing out yard signs if they’re going on private property, because the others just get knocked down/stolen, and the things cost a lot. Anyway, I’ll be out again on Sunday.
Martin
@cmorenc: Yeah, I agree. I’m not bemoaning a president Bloomberg, merely noting that I don’t think Pete can win the nom, or beat Trump, I don’t think Amy can win the nom (though I do think she can beat Trump), I think Biden is shaky right now – I’ve not heard anyone praise his ground operation. I think Bernie can win the nom, but not beat Trump.
I really want to see Warren do well here, but the trendline isn’t great. I think she can beat Trump.
It’s interesting – for all the talk of Pete ticking up in the polls after Iowa, Bloomberg has ticked up more. Morning Consult has him up at 16% now in 3rd and ahead of Warren. State polls are showing the same. I never thought you could skip the debates and the first 4 primaries and poll that well just on a bunch of ads.
WhatsMyNym
@Martin:
I’m seeing a lot of 15 second ads for Bloomberg on YouTube. His ads are very good, and they don’t keep on showing the same ones.
ETA: I live in Washington.
NotMax
@Martin
Bloomberg will not be on the stage Feb. 7, although likely, but not yet assuredly, will appear at the rest of the February debates (on the 19th and the 25th).
Anne Laurie
@NotMax: Back to Terry Pratchett, and the ongoing jokes about dwarves & their gold…
206inKY
@Martin: I didn’t think it was possible either. I actually thought TV ads were a thing of the past. But we’ve simply never seen a political ad blitz on the scale of what Bloomberg is rolling out, both TV and digital. It’s more like something from Coca-Cola or Ford, backed with similar resources. It’s even playing on Fox. And it appears to be the tip of the iceberg of what he’s willing to spend.
Mary G
I worry that Democrats have open primaries here in CA and Republicans can change to “decline to state” a party then request a Democratic ballot and vote for Bernie.
Martin
@Mary G: Bernie has a 6 point lead in CA right now. No crossover votes needed provided things stay as they are.
cain
Hey I will support Bloomberg as be is doing what the party as whole should be doing .. brutal attack ads that apparently no one wants to do because it will make Trump supporters angry. Like they are the target swing voters.
In the end, there can be only one.
Morzer
@Martin: There’s an advantage to not being associated with the extremely boring, unappealing and unhelpful debates that the Democrats have held so far. If Bloomberg’s strategy is to let the other candidates squabble and bloody each other in the very minor league early states while he gets to sell and sell and sell himself again and again in the states that matter, well, that’s probably a smart decision.
sanjeevs
Its Corbyn all over again.
Right wing uses a social media army to ensure he gets the party leadership/nomination.
Then left high and dry as the army go back to working for their real master.
opiejeanne
@Anne Laurie: They tell gold they love it to get it into bed?
opiejeanne
@206inKY: Bloomberg’s ads are very good, and I’m also seeing them on YouTube.
rikyrah
rikyrah
@RandomMonster:
White and male….
Anne Laurie
@opiejeanne: There’s a joke in Men At Arms (which I’m fairly sure is reused in later books) where a new dwarf recruit is puzzled as to why the humans in the high-income neighborhood are so insistent that their pure human women need to be protected from ‘those dwarvish animals’.
His fellow recruit whispers something in his ear.
And the dwarf, still puzzled, says, “Well, yes, I myself have 63 gold dollars safely stored under my bed, but… “
JAFD
OK, to add to what I said yesterday. We have a President who is:
First, an asshole. He has stiffed businesses who worked for him, defrauded those who signed up for his ‘university’, and insults everyone who annoys him. Would you put up with him as co-worker or acquaintance ?
Second, he’s ignorant of everything from Missouri to the Middle East, doesn’t know our country’s friends from our foes, doesn’t know the world has changed since he was young and randy in the ’70’s. He’s spent his life in ‘the rich person’s bubble’.
Third, he’s arrogant. Doesn’t listen to anyone who knows more than him, won’t change his mind.
Regardless of your political and policy views, these are sufficient reasons to get out and vote for almost anyone running against Trump. IMHO, as well, his policies are doing great damage to our world, our country, and our country’s place in the world.
Now, my ‘neighborhood candidate’ has left the race. Methinks there are several people currently in the Democratic race who are above ‘replacement level’, and would be great improvements over Trump.
All we have to do is pick one, and get 270 electoral votes for her or him in November. Simple problem when you think about it, eh ?
Don Beal
Herbert Hoover was a demagogue. Good with logistics, but rivaling Coolidge for lack of empathy for the unfortunate. Teddy Roosevelt held great disdain for the unwashed masses.
Climate change is the only issue that matters today. If you cannot see that you have no moral bearings. Sanders is the only candidate whose plan is even close to sufficient. Bloomberg will not throw a wrench into the machine the drives climate change, despite his blather.
I must say, I come back to this blog just to see what is coming out of the bowels of the DLC. You are unique, and not in a good way. The petty vitriol against Sanders is not to be found among any of the “progressive” bloggers I follow, and they are many. I guess the Democratic party has got to have its “rubes for the rich” too.
Gin & Tonic, Duke of Tanqueray
6:00 am airplane flights are the work of Satan.
JAFD
If you’re interested in applying ‘new information technology’ to campaigns and elections, this thread is among the best discussions of the topic I’ve seen
https://twitter.com/rabble/status/1224820389387223041
Chyron HR
@Don Beal:
I think the most bizarre aspect of Sandersism is when his worshipers insist that he must automatically be at the forefront of every progressive issue, even ones like climate change or LGBT rights that he palpably DOES NOT CARE ABOUT OR ADDRESS IN ANY WAY, EVER.
satby
@Chyron HR: Right? His acolytes constantly impute qualities he doesn’t have and things he didn’t really accomplish to him. And then are angry when we refer to them as a cult. But he’s lost voters since 2016, isn’t bringing in new ones, and where people are meh about candidates other than their personal favorites, lots of people really dislike Bernie (tbh, I hate the guy). It’s Trumpism of the left.
J R in WV
@Don Beal: If you seriously think that Sanders is capable of accomplishing anything against Global Climate Change superior to the other candidates who can plan and organize, when Sanders can’t manage a state victory party, well — you go be you, then.
Sanders is a demagogue with no accomplishments in any career ever. Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren, Mike Bloomberg, even Pete Buttigieg would be a superior leader of the effort to fix the global problem! But you do what you want…
Hildebrand
@Don Beal: I’m so glad you decided to descend from your perch of superiority to check in us hoi polloi. We have this wretched desire to actually get shit done and not just posture shoutingly. So, of course, you find us to be the unsavory , unwashed detritus of society, utterly unlike you and your glorious leader. Well, good sir, please report back to your fellow true believers that there are degenerates out there who believe governing is actually important. I know! How gauche!
HeartlandLiberal
If the Democrats nominate Bernie Sanders, prepare yourself for four more years of Trump, because the GOP have their opo research books ready, and will run against socialism, communism, and use every scare tactic and disinformation in their playbook, and the Sheeple of America will gobble it up and reelect Trump. Just sayin. 74 years of experience with this stuff makes me say this. Lately I have begun to fear I have lived this long only to see the collapse of the Republic. Seriously, how can the GOP and the American Sheeple continue to support Trump when he is tweeting ‘President for Life’ messages? What have we devolved into?
Ken
Trump has demonstrated you don’t have to know anything and don’t have to learn anything to be President. Admittedly he’s also demonstrated how disastrous that is.
Starfish
If this becomes a Mike Bloomberg fan site, I am going to be pissed.
Citizen_X
All hail the inevitable victory against the organization that croaked in 2011!
Just One More Canuck
@Citizen_X:
Yeah, that’s what they’d like you to believe.
chopper
@Martin:
i don’t like at all the idea of bloomberg, who was a republican up until like yesterday, buying his way in to the dem nomination. but if he spends crazy money on house and senate races and gets us a blue senate, it could work out better than having someone else in the WH getting pantsed by mcconnell every single day.
one of my big worries with an outsider type like him or bernie is they’ll have no mojo with capitol hill. but if bloomberg hands out enough campaign cash and they’ll all owe him one.
chopper
@Don Beal:
sanders’ plan for climate change, like his plans for everything, are a page long and are written by the underpants gnomes.
it’s all handwaving and ‘then a miracle happens!’.
likewise, bernie has zero chance of getting us a blue senate, so even his generic plan-to-have-a-plan wouldn’t get past the shredder mcconnell’s gonna have bolted to his desk.
Jinchi
I mostly agree and I assume this is a hit at Bernie, but Bloomberg has been a Democrat for all of about 3 minutes. He was working to elect Republicans as recently as 2 years ago and it’s pretty obvious where he thinks wealth should fit in an assessment of a person’s worth.
Sanders has been caucusing with Democrats for 30 years now, but I doubt you’d give him a pass if he suddenly reregistered as a Democrat, tomorrow
Jinchi
Is there any evidence Bloomberg has been spending crazy money to get us House and Senate seats? And are you concerned at all that if he did, he would have bought himself both the presidency and Congress?
My concern with all the billionaire candidates is that they are clearly working towards a system where power is purchased, not earned, and voters are secondary. It won’t matter if the first is a benevolent dictator, democracy will be pretty much dead.
Dupe1970
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: I await for the inevitable scream of “rigged” and calls for closed primaries. Despite the fact the Wilmer and his cronies fought hard to maintain caucuses and open primaries. They have already memory holed what happened during the Unity Reform Commission and what Bernie pushed for.
chopper
@Jinchi:
i’d be super concerned. of course i’m super concerned with trump in the WH and the grim reaper still in charge of the senate.
everybody is so laser focused on the WH that they forget that nobody’s getting shit passed with mcconnell still around.
Miss Bianca
@anarchoRex: IKR?
laura
Berners have been blowing up my phone with texts every day asking if I’ll vote for him in the primary or precinct walk or forward their message to all my contacts. I politely decline and some move on while others push back with the hard sell. I tell them I plan to support a Democrat.
Chris Johnson
@Starfish:
I think it’s trolling. I’ve been saying for years we get our own special blend of trolling, being one of the predictable factions. Things are weird at the moment, but the trolling tries to adapt.
Literally the only possible Dem that I would not vote for in the general election is Bloomberg. If he got the nomination, it would mean the Chapos were right, and they speak for Moscow, not us. Literally anybody else would be okay. God help me, I think Biden is now my third choice: it’s like Warren, Klobuchar, Biden, Buttigieg, Bernie. That’s because I don’t trust the last two an inch, but they’d still get my vote in a general election.
I have no idea how Klobuchar got that high up. Dark times. I guess I see her as a sort of Dem Gordon Ramsey, and I think Washington richly deserves an ass-kicking so she’s risen in my estimation though I know little about her platform outside of Baseline Dem.
I’d vote GABBARD over Bloomberg.
Elizabelle
@laura: Do throw in the “leap year Democrat” description. Some of the volunteers might need to understand that issue.
Miss Bianca
@Martin: That depresses the *fuck* out of me. I thought CA had more sense.
Bill Arnold
@Don Beal:
This is true. (You have no clue how strongly I feel about it.)
You need to do some serious pruning of your ideology; it is degrading your thinking on the matter.
Miss Bianca
@laura: I sent something back in response to one of those texts to the effect of, “the alte kocher needs to go the fuck back to his dacha on Lake Champlain and leave the Presidential race to someone who can actually win the general election”. Strangely, after a chirpy “thanks for your feedback!” response, I haven’t heard from them again.
Bill Arnold
@Miss Bianca:
I wonder if it’s the semi-open primary (article about Republicans but mentions Democrats):
Are you an independent voter? You can’t vote in the California GOP primary (John Myers, Jan. 24, 2020)
sherparick
@sukabi: They are just as high on rage and resentment as the MAGA hatters (and as predominately male as well – on behalf of myself, my brothers, my late Dad, who taught me about the ideals of being a gentleman and what true male nobility means, and all my like minded male friends, I sincerely apologize that 70% men in America and England are now smucks!). I really feel sorry for Ilhan and the rest for getting taken in by this as these assholes do not give damn what 4 more years of Republican misrule will mean if you are not an affluent urban male.
Shannon @TheStagmania
“They don’t believe in winning.”
Nailed it – Chapo thrives on grievance and us vs them politics. Bernie winning would hurt their business model. https://twitter.com/surlybassey/status/1225096211314675713 …
Kaitlyn Greenidge @surlybassey
These are the same white boys who 15 yrs ago were proudly telling us they wouldn’t vote at all. They’ve always been this way. They’ve never organized for anything. They don’t believe in winning–politics is a subset of hipster tastemaking for them.
Ignore, organize, move on https://twitter.com/willmenaker/status/1224915385193058304 …
sherparick
@Chris Johnson: I am sorry, but if Bloomberg is the nominee, I will vote for him as I would like to preserve our Republic as Trump is pretty close to making it a a monarchy (and I mean that quite literally). Because I am sure he will run his Don Jr. for President in 2024, Eric in 2032 and Baron ind 2040 (hopefully Trump will be dead and buried at that point). When Trump says stuff about being President for life, you need to believe him. This may be the last semi-free election we may have if Trump wins and Republicans retake Congress. They are going to make sure they can never have a chance of losing again.
tam1MI
Trump had no ground game to speak of, he made it to the White House on the strength of free media and a bunch of ads.
sherparick
@HeartlandLiberal: Democrats thought Trump would be the easiest Republican to beat in 2016 and look at how that worked out. I don’t think all the Cold War politics bit has a lot of bite anymore. Sanders could be a strong candidate if he could get his and his campaigns festering rage and resentment out of their own way and stop believing in imaginary unicorns and begin reaching out to entire Democratic Party and middling (mostly women) independents. (Bernie and his campaign’s theory of non-voters is BS to anyone who as actually gone around canvassing actual voters (and non-voters). Non-voters are low information, not engaged in politics, and pretty much concentrating on working 2 to 3 part time jobs at minimum wage. They have a hard time finding the time to vote even if they want to. That is why you need groups in progressive churches, unions, and what groups like ACORN tried to do (and why Right Wing Republicans used their toad James O’Keefe to ratfuck that organization into oblivion.) None of this hard, grassroot organizing and solidarity work is done by Bernie and his campaign. The Berniacs believe they are a mass movement, but only in their dreams.
Chris Johnson
@sherparick: Oh, I’m not angry with you, but I’m speaking for myself. If Bloomberg is the Dem nominee, it’s over. I’m out. I’m not going to vote for Trump, but… remember what people kept saying about, at least Trump is an incompetent bozo who ruins everything he touches, which is a limiting factor?
I’m not voting for Bloomberg under any circumstances, ever, period. He’s less of a Democrat than Bernie Sanders is. How do you know he isn’t just the planned successor to Trump, to cement the gains Trump made in reducing America to a puppet state monarchy serving the needs of oligarchs?
Money has no country.
Beware of this narrative that Bloomberg would be great because he’s way more competent than Trump. Firstly, rocks are more competent than Trump, and secondly, the whole thing stinks of enemy action to me.
206inKY
@Chris Johnson: How on earth is it trolling to mull over Bloomberg? I will vote for anybody, including Bernie, to beat Trump. But when Bloomberg is running $200-$300M on scathing ads against Trump, and building a massive army of paid field organizers for Democrats up and down the ballot, it seems worth taking seriously. I was originally Beto, then Warren for a bit, then Amy K, and now leaning Bloomberg, but my basic priority is to simply best Trump. What exactly are you worried that Bloomberg will do? How could it possibly be better to have Trump in charge?