Mega-Thread: Democratic 2020 Primaries

[Elegiac]

https://www.latimes.com/business/tec...mberg-accounts

Color me shocked that Bloomberg was using paid sockpuppets to boost him on Twitter. Surely he could have afforded more than 70, what a cheapskate.

Are you saying "Boooo" or "Bl-oooom-berg?"

[Vash The Stampede]

How does trolling and attacking the culinary union help him win? There's no mention of that in the article.

Maybe the Russian Bernie Bros are vegan? How dare they?

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Are you saying "Boooo" or "Bl-oooom-berg?"

They're saying "Boo-Loomberg".

[Elegiac]

They're saying "Boo-Loomberg".

You do realise Perez and the DNC put Bloomberg on the stage was precisely so the other candidates could form the Dinozord and destroy him, yes?

[Bodakane]

When are people going to see that after what Warren did Bloomberg, she could do soooooooooooo much more against a dumber, crazier and less rich version of him in Trump?

[Elegiac]

When are people going to see that after what Warren did Bloomberg, she could do soooooooooooo much more against a dumber, crazier and less rich version of him in Trump?

Sadly, probably never.

She's a brilliant woman and honestly, this country doesn't deserve her. I would have killed to have someone like her as Prime Minister.

[Theodarzna]

When are people going to see that after what Warren did Bloomberg, she could do soooooooooooo much more against a dumber, crazier and less rich version of him in Trump?

After she flopped on Med4All, tried to accuse her longtime supposed friend of being sexist groundlessly, and declared herself "Capitalist to her bones" that and the fact that she does all this while having fought for the Reagan Revolution when Bernie was an ardent Feminist and she has the fake native America thing that will be beaten over her head. I doubt she will do all that well given that Bloomberg isn't out to humiliate Warren or even defeat her. Bloomberg is a craven little imp; but he isn't out to bludgeon Warren, his whole purpose is to prevent Sanders and get the party to a brokered convention.

Elizabeth Warren never made a single smart political move this entire campaign season, her unity message combines the worst of both centrist meaninglessness boilerplate technocratic paternalism and progressive/idpol, and she has a very unfortunate physical resemblance to Hillary Clinton on top of the DNA test humiliation she already endured and already burned her bridge with those Bernie voters.

IDK what dowry the DNC plans to give her for being a trooper whose sole purpose is to peel a few votes from Sanders more P.M.C voters; but I doubt she would be selected for the nomination.

[Elegiac]

Hey, in other news, nothing matters anymore and we're all going to hell.

Team Bloomberg: Mike loves @Subway - he could eat it for every meal. What's your order?
Fact Checker: Mike Bloomberg's FEC filings show his campaign paid $10,000+ to Air Culinaire, an in-flight catering service for private jets w/ menus featuring seared wagyu steak with foie gras and Petrossian Caviar. The filings show $0 in expenditures at Subway.
Literal Army of Bots: Maybe he uses his personal money? #bloombergforthepeople

Rather than like...spending a few hundred at Subway, he's spending tens of thousands on a propaganda campaign to trick people into thinking he eats at Subway.

Like, I'm not badly off financially and I still don't fucking understand rich people.

[PACOX]

When are people going to see that after what Warren did Bloomberg, she could do soooooooooooo much more against a dumber, crazier and less rich version of him in Trump?

Maybe, maybe not.

Difference between Bloomberg and Trump is that Trump is self aware and proven that his base does not care about his - isms. He can simply lie, deny, laugh and his base would cheer him on.

Bloomberg wants you believe either he has been taken out of context or evolved without actually apologizing. He wants to be on the right side of everyone's moral compass.

Trump doesn't give a fuck so the same shaming tactics do not work.

What the Left in America needs to realize is that some people aren't affected by you pointing out their moral deficiencies. Pointing out their absurdity won't just change their opinions.

Calling Trump a womanizing bigot will change all of zero peoples opinions about him.

Well maybe people are 4 and younger.

[Bodakane]

Maybe, maybe not.

Difference between Bloomberg and Trump is that Trump is self aware and proven that his base does not care about his - isms. He can simply lie, deny, laugh and his base would cheer him on.

Bloomberg wants you believe either he has been taken out of context or evolved without actually apologizing. He wants to be on the right side of everyone's moral compass.

Trump doesn't give a fuck so the same shaming tactics do not work.

What the Left in America needs to realize is that some people aren't affected by you pointing out their moral deficiencies. Pointing out their absurdity won't just change their opinions.

Calling Trump a womanizing bigot will change all of zero peoples opinions about him.

Well maybe people are 4 and younger.

WADR, if you think this coming election is about Trump's base and what they will believe......well.......

[Sunseeker]

WADR, if you think this coming election is about Trump's base and what they will believe......well.......

A lot of Democrats still do. And the fact that DNC continues to lean right is proof of this. Their wealthy-leaning tendancies aside, many of them truly believe the only way to beat Trump is with the support of Republicans. Be it with "facts" or a right-leaning DINO, they've got this idea in their heads that they can somehow sway people who have willingly chosen to support a racist, lying, corrupt, sexist, foul-mouthed, a-hole.

I practically get into fights with my parents over this, because they're white upper-middle-class Democrats who bring this up every single time.
"We can show them the error of their ways with facts and being good people!"
"We have to get Republican voters or we're going to lose!"
"What about the people in the middle!??"

I mean look at Trump, FUCKING LOOK AT HIM! People who support this guy know what they're doing, and they've decided winning is more important than facts, feelings, morals, the law, good governance, rationality or anything else. What on earth could you possibly do to appeal to them? And more importantly, why the fuck would you want to?

/endrant

[Grapemask]

Sadly, probably never.

She's a brilliant woman and honestly, this country doesn't deserve her. I would have killed to have someone like her as Prime Minister.

It's unfortunate that she got sandwiched between two extremes. If she was the leftmost candidate in the race, she would be a great progressive candidate when the democrat base is clearly trying to push off of its right wing establishment roots. But next to Bernie Sanders, I think a lot of voters have decided that they're going to go full throttle if they get on the progressive train at all.

[eschatological]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...a77_story.html

So I hate to bring it up, but it is Primary news.

WaPo broke a story today that Bernie was briefed on Russia interfering on his behalf, a month ago. When asked why he didn't mention it a month ago, “Because I go to many intelligence briefings which I don’t reveal to the public.” So now there's a hashtag trending #BernieKnew suggesting Bernie was trying to hide that Russian bot accounts were boosting him, and Bernie responded by claiming it was a media conspiracy to time the piece right before the Nevada caucus, even though the media only found out about it this week.

I'm personally of the assumption that the briefing was classified, and Bernie was just keeping classified information classified......but that fact hasn't really been clarified one way or the other. If it is classified, I have absolutely no problem with the backlash. The backlash does seem to be premature, and before the full facts.

[PACOX]

WADR, if you think this coming election is about Trump's base and what they will believe......well.......

I don't care about his base. I'm saying shaming Trump is pointless then explained why...

If candidates are trying to shift his base they are playing themselves.

Warren has shown that she can roast someone on stage. Anyone can roast Trump on a stage. How much does that matter?

[Bodakane]

I don't care about his base. I'm saying shaming Trump is pointless then explained why...

If candidates are trying to shift his base they are playing themselves.

Warren has shown that she can roast someone on stage. Anyone can roast Trump on a stage. How much does that matter?

I guess I don't understand. All elections for POTUS come down to the independents. If you don't think a thorough ass kicking on the debate stage doesn't change independent minds then I guess you believe all POTUS debates are pointless?

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A decent amount of Veterans actually, but please continue.

veterans can be horny boomers.....

[Sunseeker]

I guess I don't understand. All elections for POTUS come down to the independents. If you don't think a thorough ass kicking on the debate stage doesn't change independent minds then I guess you believe all POTUS debates are pointless?

I'd agree if this was an election between say, Biden(D) and Bloomberg(R), or Jeb Bush and Hillary.

Trump doesn't work like that. Trump's followers don't work like that. Trump's cult aren't "independents" and they're not going to be swayed. People who are seriously on the fence between Trump and almost anyone else need to take a real good look at themselves. Because a "good debate performance" isn't going to make up for the fact that they're considering sacrificing their soul.

[eschatological]

IDK, do you remember Red Sweater Guy from 2016 who claimed he was genuinely independent between Hillary and Trump, asked them a question, Hillary killed the debate, and he ended up voting for Trump?

There are independents who claim to be undecided every year. How genuine they actually are, who knows.

[PACOX]

I guess I don't understand. All elections for POTUS come down to the independents. If you don't think a thorough ass kicking on the debate stage doesn't change independent minds then I guess you believe all POTUS debates are pointless?

Presidential debates are more than just roasting the other candidate. If someone needed to wait 4 years and a Presidential debate to decide whether or not Trump is is sexists I'd bet that person doesn't even make to the ballots because they are fucking clueless.

Again, maybe she can body Trump on a debate stage, maybe she can't. Being able to knock Bloomberg doesn't prove or disprove anything. Even Biden could do it and I think Biden would be terrible against Trump.

Debates are impactful but overvalued anyway. Clinton walked all over Trump. The GOP candidates walked all over Trump. Trump was trash except for clippable soundbites meant to make him look like a clown. The fool still won.

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IDK, do you remember Red Sweater Guy from 2016 who claimed he was genuinely independent between Hillary and Trump, asked them a question, Hillary killed the debate, and he ended up voting for Trump?

There are independents who claim to be undecided every year. How genuine they actually are, who knows.

I mean I'm an 'Independent'. I'm also left AF. People toss that word around as if they are actually in the middle with no ideology. Most of those people are just self righteous and want candidates to force feed instead of educating themselves. Cousins of contrarians. The kind of who would acquit someone because the 'prosecutors were charismatic' but the evidence was still there.

[Endus]

I mean I'm an 'Independent'. I'm also left AF. People toss that word around as if they are actually in the middle with no ideology. Most of those people are just self righteous and want candidates to force feed instead of educating themselves. Cousins of contrarians. The kind of who would acquit someone because the 'prosecutors were charismatic' but the evidence was still there.

I've tried to make that case, myself. I haven't voted for the same party in a national election more than twice in a row. I've voted for 4 different parties in that time. I'm not even American, so I have literally no partisan relationship with either party in the American election. I'm Independent AF, by any measure. And fairly firmly left-wing.

It isn't a label that means you're centrist. The problem comes about when people say they're Independent, with the intent of implying that they're centrist, and could vote for either party in the USA. And that, more often than not, turns out to be bullshit. An "independent" who's hard right but isn't a member of the RNC is technically correct, but won't ever vote for a Democrat and asking them to is a waste of everyone's time and effort.

And frankly, if we're looking at 2020, I could see you saying you're "undecided" when it comes to which Democrat to vote for. If you make that claim about voting for the Democratic candidate (whoever it may be), or Donald fucking Trump? You're not "undecided" at all. You're a Trump voter and don't want to admit it. I don't believe for a hot second that there's any significant population out there who kinda believe Trump is halfway lying about stuff, maybe. You either think he's a lying sack of narcissistic fuckery, or you think he's a great President. There's no real room in between those two positions, since once you tip that first domino on Trump's malfeasance, the rest of them fall right after.

[Flarelaine]

So you admit you have no clue how the voting method in the US works.

With a 2 candidate election, you would have a point, there would be no poached votes. But we don't have that.

We have 5+ candidates, poached votes are a thing.

I really do not appreciate the term "poaching" when it comes to votes. Poaching, originally, is a criminal activity; using the word for votes strongly implies those votes already rightfully belong to someone.

[Inuyaki]

My only concern in all those graphs and data you show is that it's a scale from 'more liberal to more conservative'. Of course neo-liberals would appoint 'liberal' judges... but we want progressive and social-democrat judges, not (neo-)liberal ones.

Liberal nowadays just means: more focus on freedoms which benefit the top 1% while life continues to degrade for everyone else.

That just isn't good enough.

Also Overton window...

Kavanaugh so close to the middle can't be... from a normal person's perspective...