Mega-Thread: Democratic 2020 Primaries

[Drutt]

I think people are less concerned that Bloomberg is a billionaire and more concerned with getting Trump out.

That may prove true, but the reality is that people should be concerned about both Trump AND the fact that a billionaire could just buy the presidency.

If the only qualification for winning the race becomes how much your billionaire candidate can spend on TV ads and social media adverts, the US essentially becomes a plutocracy.

[beanman12345]

That may prove true, but the reality is that people should be concerned about both Trump AND the fact that a billionaire could just buy the presidency.

If the only qualification for winning the race becomes how much your billionaire candidate can spend on TV ads and social media adverts, the US essentially becomes a plutocracy.

Eh, I don't think this is that concerning, almost every single person who became president was extremely wealthy, maybe not as wealthy as Bloomberg, but still part of the wealthy class.

[Blur4stuff]

Bloomberg having money isn't a reason I'd vote against him. His record is fairly awful and he's actually a republican anyways.

Right now he's just collected a section of voters that have been flinging themselves around to all the different not-bernie candidates. And, of course, people who are absolutely clueless about him and saw a nice ad without bothering to do even five minutes of research.

Bloomberg is a terrible candidate. Again, I know some folks want to support a conservative dem instead of Sanders. I get it. Biden was a bad choice. Bloomberg is too. Please don't cut off your nose to spite your face.

The best shot establishment dems had at getting someone who wasn't Sanders while also getting a lot of Sander's supporters to still enthusiastically participate was Warren. They blew it. It's time to tell these dems who are stuck in the 90s to take a hike. Quit letting them fuck everything up.

They fucked up 2004. They tried to fuck up 2008, but end up getting an unexpected gift anyways. They fucked up again in 2016. If there was ever a point to stop trusting them 2020 would be great.

[NineSpine]

Eh, I don't think this is that concerning, almost every single person who became president was extremely wealthy, maybe not as wealthy as Bloomberg, but still part of the wealthy class.

You don't fully appreciate the difference between a billionaire and a typical wealthy person.

[beanman12345]

Bloomberg having money isn't a reason I'd vote against him. His record is fairly awful and he's actually a republican anyways.

Right now he's just collected a section of voters that have been flinging themselves around to all the different not-bernie candidates. And, of course, people who are absolutely clueless about him and saw a nice ad without bothering to do even five minutes of research.

Bloomberg is a terrible candidate. Again, I know some folks want to support a conservative dem instead of Sanders. I get it. Biden was a bad choice. Bloomberg is too. Please don't cut off your nose to spite your face.

The best shot establishment dems had at getting someone who wasn't Sanders while also getting a lot of Sander's supporters to still enthusiastically participate was Warren. They blew it. It's time to tell these dems who are stuck in the 90s to take a hike. Quit letting them fuck everything up.

They fucked up 2004. They tried to fuck up 2008, but end up getting an unexpected gift anyways. They fucked up again in 2016. If there was ever a point to stop trusting them 2020 would be great.

Agreed. Bloomberg is probably the worst choice of the moderate lane candidates. It's one thing to have "fuck you Trump" ads and have people polled saying they like the "Fuck you Trump guy", it's an entirely different thing to have people mobilized and get off their asses to vote for "fuck you Trump guy." It might even be enough to get the majority of votes, but that's meaningless when the EC decides the election.

To win the presidency you have to inspire people to vote for you, not just against the other guy. Obama inspired people to vote for him. Clinton I'm sure inspired many people, but many of her votes, like mine, like my family members, was a vote against Trump, not really for her, which is a losing proposition. All of the other candidates would do a better job at inspiring people to vote for them, even fellow billionaire Steyer. But Bloomberg has a terrible weight of as you said, fairly awful record, holding him down, and therefore has the least likely chance of beating Trump, imo, than anyone in the current field of candidates.

My guy dropped out, so now I'm looking at Warren and Sanders, likely Sanders since Warren will also likely drop by time I vote.

[Wyrt]

Agreed. Bloomberg is probably the worst choice of the moderate lane candidates. It's one thing to have "fuck you Trump" ads and have people polled saying they like the "Fuck you Trump guy", it's an entirely different thing to have people mobilized and get off their asses to vote for "fuck you Trump guy." It might even be enough to get the majority of votes, but that's meaningless when the EC decides the election.

To win the presidency you have to inspire people to vote for you, not just against the other guy. Obama inspired people to vote for him. Clinton I'm sure inspired many people, but many of her votes, like mine, like my family members, was a vote against Trump, not really for her, which is a losing proposition. All of the other candidates would do a better job at inspiring people to vote for them, even fellow billionaire Steyer. But Bloomberg has a terrible weight of as you said, fairly awful record, holding him down, and therefore has the least likely chance of beating Trump, imo, than anyone in the current field of candidates.

My guy dropped out, so now I'm looking at Warren and Sanders, likely Sanders since Warren will also likely drop by time I vote.

People don't seem to get this. You have to have something people want to vote for, not just someone they want to vote against. Running a campaign that's centered completely around beating Trump is not going to work.

At least Pete is promoting policies. I don't agree with him, but he's not running on purely beating Trump and he seems to get voters excited. Let Sanders and Buttigieg fight it out in the primary, everyone else should go away. I think having a contested convention would be one of the worst out comes for the primary.

[cubby]

People don't seem to get this. You have to have something people want to vote for, not just someone they want to vote against. Running a campaign that's centered completely around beating Trump is not going to work.

At least Pete is promoting policies. I don't agree with him, but he's not running on purely beating Trump and he seems to get voters excited. Let Sanders and Buttigieg fight it out in the primary, everyone else should go away. I think having a contested convention would be one of the worst out comes for the primary.

You also have to inspire the right people to vote for you. At the moment, the Democrats shouldn't give a rats ass about the CA or NY or WA state vote. That's in the bag - we're gaming the EC here. Where we need to win votes is in WI, MI, PA, and FL. To get those votes we need someone to inspire those people.

I agree about a contested convention.

[Blade Wolf]

People don't seem to get this. You have to have something people want to vote for, not just someone they want to vote against. Running a campaign that's centered completely around beating Trump is not going to work.

At least Pete is promoting policies. I don't agree with him, but he's not running on purely beating Trump and he seems to get voters excited. Let Sanders and Buttigieg fight it out in the primary, everyone else should go away. I think having a contested convention would be one of the worst out comes for the primary.

Pete is gonna crash since he barely has any non-white support.

[Wyrt]

Pete is gonna crash since he barely has any non-white support.

Which will just leave the moderate field completely muddled causing more of them to stay in the race and virtually guarantee a contested convention.

The progressive branch has clearly gotten behind Sanders. The moderates need to solidify behind a candidate.

[Kaleredar]

So far he's been great for the state. I think people are less concerned that Bloomberg is a billionaire and more concerned with getting Trump out.

Bloomberg doesn't seem to have the ability to excite people.

Bernie and Warren inspire more progressive voters, Biden has name recognition and white house clout.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg just sort of showed up saying he was a thing.

Again, I know some folks want to support a conservative dem instead of Sanders. I get it. Biden was a bad choice. Bloomberg is too. Please don't cut off your nose to spite your face.

"Cutting off the nose to spite the face" is allowing Trump to be president because you weren't jazzed enough about the democratic nominee. Let's be clear about that.

The best shot establishment dems had at getting someone who wasn't Sanders while also getting a lot of Sander's supporters to still enthusiastically participate was Warren. They blew it. It's time to tell these dems who are stuck in the 90s to take a hike. Quit letting them fuck everything up.

They fucked up 2004. They tried to fuck up 2008, but end up getting an unexpected gift anyways. They fucked up again in 2016. If there was ever a point to stop trusting them 2020 would be great.

Now isn't the time for cathartic soul-searching, now's the time to remove Trump from the white house.

I literally don't care who the Democratic nominee is; I'm voting for them. Every single person they've fielded has shown themselves to be a better candidate, and indeed better human being, than Trump. I just said above I'm not wowed by Bloomberg, and I'm not. But I'm more attracted to the prospect of him, or Bernie, or Warren, or Biden, or any of them, being president.

When Trump is gone, the systems he abused to do what he did are dismantled, and his goons are rotting in prison, then we can soul-search and talk about "are we progressive enough for the work-a-day 21st century?" and other such banal niceties.

[Draco-Onis]

Which will just leave the moderate field completely muddled causing more of them to stay in the race and virtually guarantee a contested convention.

The progressive branch has clearly gotten behind Sanders. The moderates need to solidify behind a candidate.

Bernie will not win a contested convention there's very little chance the super delegates will vote for him and the democratic party will not unify as a result. The moderates are not going to unite they will remain divided because they are switching horses every week and no one seem to have a baseline support like Bernie does. I think we should be prepared for the worse outcome and I see Trump re-election in the bag if the establishment screws Bernie.

[derpkitteh]

Bernie will not win a contested convention there's very little chance the super delegates will vote for him and the democratic party will not unify as a result. The moderates are not going to unite they will remain divided because they are switching horses every week and no one seem to have a baseline support like Bernie does. I think we should be prepared for the worse outcome and I see Trump re-election in the bag if the establishment screws Bernie.

the moderates will vote for the moderate candidate.

it's the sanders voters that won't vote for the moderate, in the case of a contested convention. super delegates picking sides is what pissed off bernie voters back in 2016. bernie has to 100% cleanly lose for the sanders voters to fall in line.

idk how many moderates would vote for sanders either. i'd assume there's quite a few that'd rather see a non-trump republican in office than a declared democratic socialist.

[PACOX]

Bloomberg having money isn't a reason I'd vote against him. His record is fairly awful and he's actually a republican anyways.

Right now he's just collected a section of voters that have been flinging themselves around to all the different not-bernie candidates. And, of course, people who are absolutely clueless about him and saw a nice ad without bothering to do even five minutes of research.

Bloomberg is a terrible candidate. Again, I know some folks want to support a conservative dem instead of Sanders. I get it. Biden was a bad choice. Bloomberg is too. Please don't cut off your nose to spite your face.

The best shot establishment dems had at getting someone who wasn't Sanders while also getting a lot of Sander's supporters to still enthusiastically participate was Warren. They blew it. It's time to tell these dems who are stuck in the 90s to take a hike. Quit letting them fuck everything up.

They fucked up 2004. They tried to fuck up 2008, but end up getting an unexpected gift anyways. They fucked up again in 2016. If there was ever a point to stop trusting them 2020 would be great.

Bloomberg is literally the Democratic attempt at a blue Trump. Its sad. Also as a target of 'stop and frisk', that's a hard pill to swallow. If you tell me choices are Trump and less version of him I'm not going to have nice words for you telling me I should just accept the plate of bullshit your hand me.

[Wyrt]

Bernie will not win a contested convention there's very little chance the super delegates will vote for him and the democratic party will not unify as a result. The moderates are not going to unite they will remain divided because they are switching horses every week and no one seem to have a baseline support like Bernie does. I think we should be prepared for the worse outcome and I see Trump re-election in the bag if the establishment screws Bernie.

Yeah, this is why it's important for there not to be a contested convention. If Sanders has the plurality of the votes because he's the only progressive left at that point, but the moderates are split between 3-4 people it will be a very bad look for the DNC to pick one of the moderates.

[PACOX]

Bloomberg doesn't seem to have the ability to excite people.

Bernie and Warren inspire more progressive voters, Biden has name recognition and white house clout.

Biden is a complete bust at this point. You're not going to win over any red voters after the impeachment trial. He isn't a popular candidate among those whose pay attention to politics throughout the year and his name advantage faulters ever day as the other candidates get more press.

I don't know who the moderate candidate of the primary should be but its not Biden.

[Telogrus]

Well, that's just embarrassing. I think most of us have come to expect that sort of ignorance coming from Trump, but if you're running for President you should probably learn the leaders name of America's largest trade partners.

https://twitter.com/i/events/1228449458733469696

If this was Bernie, Cult-MSM would be calling him a retard and demanding that he drop out in disgrace

[Draco-Onis]

the moderates will vote for the moderate candidate.

it's the sanders voters that won't vote for the moderate, in the case of a contested convention. super delegates picking sides is what pissed off bernie voters back in 2016. bernie has to 100% cleanly lose for the sanders voters to fall in line.

idk how many moderates would vote for sanders either. i'd assume there's quite a few that'd rather see a non-trump republican in office than a declared democratic socialist.

I don't think it's as simple as that the swing state that matters Bernie is competitive takeaway all the bad stuff in 2016 Trump basically ran a Bernie lite campaign. As for a moderate candidate that is the problem there are too many and the moderate side is very divided.

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Yeah, this is why it's important for there not to be a contested convention. If Sanders has the plurality of the votes because he's the only progressive left at that point, but the moderates are split between 3-4 people it will be a very bad look for the DNC to pick one of the moderates.

I think it comes down to Mayor Pete the media and the DNC are in love with him, Bloomberg is the second possible choice but both of them are problematic on their own. In my opinion mayor Pete has no chance of winning against Trump minorities hate him.

- - - Updated - - -

Biden is a complete bust at this point. You're not going to win over any red voters after the impeachment trial. He isn't a popular candidate among those whose pay attention to politics throughout the year and his name advantage faulters ever day as the other candidates get more press.

I don't know who the moderate candidate of the primary should be but its not Biden.

Biden's candidacy was doomed to fail from the start he has never been able to run a successful presidential campaign, there were red lights months ago when he was running out of money. He doesn't seem to get the temperature of the moment people want a fighter Biden is a huger of people like Lindsey Graham, the guy killed his own campaign.

[PACOX]

If the choice is between Pete and Bloomberg, yall might just have to call me a piece of shit for not bothering to vote.

[Fugus]

If the choice is between Pete and Bloomberg, yall might just have to call me a piece of shit for not bothering to vote.

If the choice really falls like that, I really need to decide whether I want to get a passport and move when the VA is done fighting me and their own doctors.

But again, I am not sure if that even matters with the ground work they have already put into flat stealing the election so far.

[Wyrt]

If the choice is between Pete and Bloomberg, yall might just have to call me a piece of shit for not bothering to vote.

I could probably hold my nose long enough to vote for Pete. Bloomberg I couldn't, but that's not a big deal since California will be blue by a massive margin regardless of my vote.