Displaying 481 To 510 Of 19,504 Comments Is Appealing To The White Working Class Identity Politics? You like to represent that you care about numbers but you always prove that to be a hollow claim. You constantly provide incorrect numbers and ignore numbers that don’t support your POV. You also don’t seem to understand how single payer works financially and your comment strangely twists the reality of Americans saving on paying premiums and deductibles with…single payer mainly helping the bosses of companies??? Really? What is true is that for small businesses that are big enough to be required to do so, removing the imposition on them to provide health care will help them prosper and add jobs or increase wages. But your best argument for opposing single payer is so we can keep hurting small businesses because they’re all mean and greedy anyway? As most others who actually study this issue know, that’s not what the main purpose of single payer is. It’s guaranteeing health insurance to everyone in America and preventing the number one cause of bankruptcies and premature deaths. Avoiding that truth pointedly and trying to minimize the amount of people still without healthcare by claiming less than 10% of Americans are uninsured and vulnerable to bankruptcy and dying prematurely is not a winning argument with any person who has a conscience. And again, despite your claims to be “a numbers guy”, you provide numbers that are false. The number of uninsured by 2018 was up to 13.7% and has been rising steadily since Trump came into office so by now it is more likely to be over 15% and heading towards 20%. Here are real numbers: https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/BsBB0MmyL1talN4rLVyhY-CByEg=/0x0:1400×806/920×0/filters:focal(0x0:1400×806):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/13708354/ssv1le24uuapzir9ocd6pq.png You can see the trend under Trump as he and Republicans have been undermining the ACA. So endangering 10% of Americans, 33 million people you refer to as “a small fraction” is acceptable to you, I assume the actual amount in 2018 of 45 million people, 13.7% of Americans, is just fine with you as well? How about 60 million people? 80 million people? I don’t expect that someone who doesn’t care about 45 million fellow citizens being at risk without healthcare, including children and babies, would have any limit to what suffering they are just fine with…as long as they have their insurance and them damn immigrants can’t get it, right? I can’t understand those who display no conscience about the suffering of others and actually try to trivialize it. Why is that something you feel motivated to do? » Posted By AdLib On July 23, 2019 @ 2:05 pm I disagree with Friedman as well. I’m a bit off of him after watching an interview with him proclaiming that he wants a tall wall at the border…with a big gate. The latter doesn’t redeem the surprisingly misguided former (most immigrants and drugs come from legal points of entry so even if he meant it figuratively, keeping illegal border crossings down does little to fix any immigration issues…since many are about sanctuary too which can’t be “walled” away). He also went on about how Trump is more likely to win because of his aggressive racism and I think that is selling the decency of most Americans far short. He condemned Progressive Dems and like most NeverTrump Repubs, claimed that Dems should only run a moderate centrist who doesn’t offer big change…other than defeating Trump. Friedman is a proponent of low expectations, he is very overrated IMO. Friedman is also more conservative than I knew he was so it’s unsurprising he opposes single payer, health care to immigrants and returning illegal border crossings to just being civil violations (as they used to be treated). He is more myopic than I thought. Providing health care to migrants is more about protecting all of us, most enlightened people see that. If a segment within society is getting sick more often and spreading communicative diseases and illnesses, what does Friedman and others who believe like him, think will happen to “citizens” who are side by side with them in society? The gardeners, housekeepers, nannies, fruit pickers, construction workers, bus boys, etc. that surround all of us daily, that stand in line with us or walk past us in the street, if that whole segment of society is neglected health-wise and sickly, how do their health epidemics not crossover into being all of ours? Single payer is operated successfully in nearly all developed nations, the argument that America is too incompetent to succeed at what every other country has is bogus, a phony talking point coming from either those who have ignorantly bought into that insurance industry propaganda or those intentionally trying to prevent all Americans from having not-for-profit healthcare. » Posted By AdLib On July 18, 2019 @ 12:08 pm As we’ve seen over the past few days, it is indeed Identity Politics to single out a class of white voters as more desireable than minority voters. And that, sadly, is a subtle kind of racism that is written off as “pragmatic” by many in the Dem Establishment. The reality too is that this “Repub-Lite” approach usually fails for Dems. I remember Murph mentioning that this was Claire McKaskill’s approach in her Senate race in 2018. She did not bother to build up the vote from minorities but tried instead to appeal to Trump voters instead. She lost in an election year that was a record sweep for Dems, the Trump Repubs she pandered to didn’t come out for her at all. It’s one thing for a Dem in a red district or state to run more moderate or conservative but at the same time, they should be trying to maximize turnout from those most likely to support them. We are indeed all in this together and a majority of Americans are not racists and do not support Trump. I hope the eventual Dem nominee (better not be Biden), will recognize this obvious truth and push the Dems to generate turnout and enthusiasm from Dem and indie voters who can easily hand the election to the Dem if they go out and vote. Chasing after people so unprincipled and undiscerning to have voted for Trump, is foolish and dangerous. » Posted By AdLib On July 16, 2019 @ 4:35 pm Thoughts on The Fourth Of July…from an American Transgender Woman’s Perspective Angela, when an opinion comes from ignorance and fear, trying to present it as reasoned is both impossible and makes one look just plain foolish. It is unavoidable that the bigoted display hypocrisy in trying to apply a reasoned facade to their knee jerk bigotry because the two are incompatible. That never prevents them from thinking they can pound a square peg into a round hole but repeatedly trying to do so after failing each time is reflective of enormous ignorance. » Posted By AdLib On July 12, 2019 @ 9:17 am Yes, for those who were born into a position of superiority, leveling the scales of equality feels like something is being taken away from them. They feel “victimized” by equality for all. And most of these Trump supporters are hugely ignorant to the fact that their party and the corporate interests behind it have been the actual ones taking their jobs, income, opportunities and children’s futures away from them. Even going back to the days of the last Repub president, Bush, their lives and financial stability were on the decline but those with tribal mentalities blindly allow their leaders to throw them to their own destruction as long as they’re led to believe it’s a path to harming those they see as the “other” tribe. As they say, hatred is borne of ignorance. And as Trump said, “We won with the poorly educated, I love the poorly educated!”
» Posted By AdLib On July 12, 2019 @ 9:07 am Perhaps you were created by God to be the way you are. But having seen Donald Trump, I do think God makes mistakes. » Posted By AdLib On July 11, 2019 @ 3:28 pm Isn’t it funny how Trumpers scold those who have been oppressed to “stop feeling like a victim” while they wail alongside their cult leader about “The Deep State” victimizing them, immigrants victimizing them, liberal values victimizing them, the media victimizing them, Obamacare victimizing them and on and on. They are so needy about their victim mentality, they even feel victimized by those who have actually been victimized in our society because it’s competing with the Trumpers’ need to feel like only they are the “real” victims. The difference is, most minorities never wanted to be victims in the first place while Trumpers have an emotional, self-pitying need to constantly feel like victims…because the supremacy that their previous generations enjoyed has been slipping away. » Posted By AdLib On July 11, 2019 @ 3:23 pm It’s interesting to see the lengths you went to to try and normalize your transphobia. Your absurd self-justifications for your prejudices only highlight how weak and disingenuous they are. You prove dishonesty by contradicting yourself repeatedly, in one paragraph you question what rights are denied trans people then in multiple paragraphs that follow, you justify them being denied rights. As you poorly attempt to deny Angela’s life experience, wisdom and identity, I think it would be far more appropriate for you to be introspective about identity issues. You claim to be a Christian but there is nothing in the hatefulness and bigotry evidenced in your comments that reflects Christ or Christianity. It would be delusional to claim that Jesus Christ was hateful or bigoted towards any human being. It is incompatible with following the teachings of Christ thus incompatible with genuinely being Christian. And since disdain of the transphobic and homophobic is a majority view in America…according to your convoluted “reasoning”, isn’t it justified for you to be disrespected and shouldn’t have to just accept that because your views are those of a minority? » Posted By AdLib On July 11, 2019 @ 3:03 pm Mr. Trump This is What the 4th is REALLY About Steppenwolf, as Kalima explained, the two of us are the owners and Admin of PlanetPOV and we have been for 10 years. PlanetPOV was founded to create a haven for free expression, for and by people who wanted to have thoughtful and sincere conversations (and disagreements) about the issues that really mattered to them…unpolluted by those who think exchanging abuse and personal attacks is somehow acceptable conversation. The good news here is, we have a zero tolerance here for trolls and personal attacks. It is part of our mission to provide an environment where people feel free to express themselves without the concern that they will be insulted and attacked for saying something, whether popular or unpopular with anyone else. We’re about substance here, real opinions on real issues and agreements or disagreements based on the issues on the table, opinions and facts. Personal attacks are not part of any reasonable discussion, they are an intentional distraction and a petty waste of everyone’s time and energy. Folks here are free to disagree whenever and wherever on the issues but choosing instead to attack someone personally is beneath the quality of the community here. Due to the personal attacks contained in some of your comments, those comments have been moderated. You can read our Terms of Use here so you can review how we require a modicum of decency at this site from all members. That means that you can’t engage in insults or personal attacks against any member and no member may engage in insults or personal attacks against you. Feel free to pursue the issue, not the person. It seems like such a simple and desirable rule that decent people could agree upon, that those who are interested in discussing issues and viewpoints with other folks out there, shouldn’t have to be subjected to abuse for openly expressing themselves. That may not be everyone’s cup of tea. We had one member who was intent on bashing trolls and resented that we didn’t allow trolls here. That’s not what we’re about, feeding into the worst instincts of people. We want to encourage the best instincts of being conscientious about what’s happening in our country and world and recognizing that we’re all in this together, we’re all legitimate human beings entitled to our own views and deserve the same respect no matter how or why we disagree (unless one’s opinion is about disrespecting or being hateful towards others). We each have to decide for ourselves what environment is most comfortable for us and best reflects who we are. PlanetPOV endeavors to offer a unique place in cyberspace where people can be passionate and opinionated while remaining decent human beings. That’s what we offer here so it’s left up to you, whether you do or don’t see that as a fit for you. » Posted By AdLib On July 6, 2019 @ 12:24 am Chat Live at PlanetPOV During Tonight’s 2nd Democratic Debate!!! 9:00pm EDT/6:00pm PDT Just to give you a little more background on Tulsi, she has the RW outlets promoting her including Drudge Report, Brietbart, Ann Coulter, Tucker Carlson’s Daily Caller and the racist/Nazi Trumpist playground of 4chan. She is the candidate RW Repubs back to sabotage the Dems. Tulsi Gabbard Is Having A MAGA Moment After Her Debate Performance Among some conservative pundits there was one clear winner of Wednesday night’s Democratic primary debate: Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, the long-shot, anti-war Hawaii member of Congress. More than any other Democratic candidate, Gabbard has developed a favorable presence in the right-wing media. She’s made appearances from time to time on Fox News shows like Tucker Carlson Tonight, and her unorthodox candidacy has attracted praise from those farther to the right as well. Gabbard has been controversial; she has apologized for holding anti-gay views in the past, including onstage during the debate, and she has been heavily criticized for meeting with the brutal Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and for questioning whether his regime carried out chemical weapons attacks. As of Thursday afternoon, Gabbard was featured on the top left of the Drudge Report, with several linked headlines like “SHOCK: GABBARD WINS FIRST DEBATE POLL. Breitbart News devoted a lot of its debate coverage to Gabbard, writing several articles about her. She’s been on Trump world’s radar for years. Former Breitbart News chair and Trump official Steve Bannon reportedly brokered a meeting between Gabbard and then-president elect Donald Trump after the 2016 election, and recent leaked documents showed that the Trump transition team had vetted her for an administration position. Mike Cernovich, the “new right” social media personality, tweeted Wednesday night about the increase in Google searches for Gabbard, writing, “Tulsi Gabbard was breakthrough star of the night.” Right-wing commentator Ann Coulter, who tweeted “Go Tulsi!” after Gabbard tussled with Ryan over Afghanistan onstage during the debate, said she watched the debate with a liberal and a moderate on Wednesday and all three preferred Gabbard over the rest of the field. According to a Fox News source, Gabbard is scheduled to appear on Tucker Carlson’s show Thursday night. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosiegray/tulsi-gabbard-maga-debate Here is her own promotional video spreading the lie that Mueller exonerated Trump and urging everyone to forget about Trump’s crimes and just move on: Mueller reported Trump did not collude with Russia to influence our elections. Now we must put aside partisan interests, move forward, and work to unite our country to deal with the serious challenges we face. pic.twitter.com/xTkHkyrAxp — Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) March 28, 2019 » Posted By AdLib On June 27, 2019 @ 4:05 pm Hi nehalem, welcome to PlanetPOV! I’m not a fan of Chuck Todd, I felt his questions, including a conspiracy theory about Dems taking away everyone’s guns, were all pretty bad. I also wasn’t crazy about Guthrie’s starting the debate off by trying to goad candidates into attacking Warren. The issues at hand are far more important than trying to stoke fights over smaller differences between Dems. I do think a paring down is important and after these debates, I think some will be on their way out. I’m not a Gabbard fan myself for multiple reasons, including her affinity for Syria’s Assad, her anti-LGBTQ past and her stampede to embrace Trump once he was elected. That said, I have to admit she came off well last night though she didn’t answer the questions she was asked and instead focused on her military background in each response. My general feeling last night was that all of the candidates were sensible and legit, a far cry from the circus sideshow that was the Repub primary in 2016. Hope you can make our live chat tonight that accompanies this 2nd debate, it’s a great way to enjoy the debate. » Posted By AdLib On June 27, 2019 @ 12:26 pm Weekend Music Thread – Color Me True Hey FD! Thanks so much! You were missed! Glad you’re back!
» Posted By AdLib On June 23, 2019 @ 2:46 pm Congratulations, James! Very cool! Yes, our mistake after the 70’s was thinking that we had won progress on social issues and didn’t need to fight to keep that progress from being pulled back. There are no permanent victories when it comes to social justice and progress, every gain has to be defended as the next ones are pursued. I mean, who would’ve thought back in the 1970’s that an openly racist, Nazi supporting hate monger would be president 40 years from then? » Posted By AdLib On June 20, 2019 @ 6:12 pm James, good to see you! I agree. I think the reason White Supremacy has never been properly addressed is because it has remained a potent force in the country despite it being less openly displayed along the way. The US embedded slavery in its Constitution, the country was created affirming White Supremacy. The Civil War only diminished the strength and openness of racism for a period but didn’t eliminate any of it as Reconstruction proved and since. What Trump has made obvious is that racism remains as rampant as it always has been, he’s just lifted up the stone to reveal all the creepy crawly White Supremacists that have still been wriggling under the surface of our country. And he has clarified why White Supremacy has never and won’t be stopped for some time, they represent the core political base of one of our two political parties. The GOP has been the party of White Supremacy but now is just openly embracing it under Trump. How do you eliminate this racism when around 40% of Americans are either racist or racist-friendly? Thank goodness it’s a minority and decent people who oppose White Supremacy are in the majority but we can never let down our guard, these racists may go underground again in the future but they are not going away. They need to be aggressively confronted by whichever Dem wins the presidency in 2020. This is like the country having to live with a genetic disease, it may never be resolved, it needs constant attention and treatment to be controlled. » Posted By AdLib On June 20, 2019 @ 1:13 pm Open Letter to the New University of Colorado President It sounds like they just want to present the veneer of being diverse without actually having to be diverse. It’s just a scheme to try and take the argument away from those who recognize their prejudice while protecting themselves to remain prejudiced. That’s the whole concept of the “token”, like when Trump was at that rally and pointed out “my African American”. They want to use minorities as props to be an argument against the very bigotry they know they carry. It’s a con, for Trump, for colleges, for whoever is prejudiced in their heart but wants to shield themselves from very deserved criticism and having to abandon their bigoted ways. » Posted By AdLib On June 21, 2019 @ 9:47 am I have to say, I don’t have a lot of experience in the area but it is hard to believe that any high school would aggressively reach out to a college to insist that they not recruit their students. What would be the logic? Yes, the issue of tuition could be a big hill to climb especially for students in poor areas but there are a variety of grants, loans and tuition adjustments by colleges that can all make the situation work…if they want it to. Of course, the admin at a university would be happiest having affluent (white) students whose parents could more easily pay full tuition but the best colleges out there are actively working to have a student body that is diverse because they’ve recognized that’s the environment that provides for a better education and leads to greater success for their students in the real world. » Posted By AdLib On June 20, 2019 @ 6:39 pm The Greatest Of Don’s Cons Could Be the Most Deadly To The US And The Wider World. Kevin, a very inspired article and a concern that was on my mind, that Trump would see war with Iran as both a “macho” proving ground to rally his cult members and a way to distract and deter voters from all the reasons to oppose him in 2020. Not that it would work, not that it wouldn’t make voters even more driven to get him out of office as opposed to rallying behind him but after seeing his indecision and fear, beginning then halting this “counter” attack on Iran at the last minute, he accomplished just the opposite (or perhaps Putin’s reported call to him hours earlier accomplished its stated goal of preventing Trump from attacking). Trump looks even weaker and more feckless now, confused and scared. That doesn’t mean that he won’t still attack Iran to try and dispel the image he’s cemented of himself but it won’t erase his initial screw up. I read in one article that Trump has told an aide that war with Iran would destroy his re-election chances. So as of today, the only thing apparently standing between Trump stampeding us into war with Iran is his primal self-serving urges. But if Bolton or Pompeo or Fox News can convince him he’s wrong and war with Iran would be his golden ticket to re-election, he’ll do it. I’ve been a strong proponent for impeaching Trump. Mueller has provided more than enough evidence to provide for a conviction on multiple counts of obstruction of justice and Trump’s recent acts in gagging Hope Hicks and all the witnesses The House has tried to interview is obstruction in plain sight. Those aligned with Pelosi who are most worried about an impeachment being politically unwise for Democrats in 2020, they keep saying that it is not needed to impeach Trump, he can just be voted out in 2020. What this latest incident with Iran illustrates is that by not putting impeachment on the table and at least making an attempt to remove this wholly mentally unfit nutjob, at least starting down a path with an impeachmentinquiry that would allow for a majority of Americans to come aboard as legal discovery and Trump’s dangerous actions make impeachment more necessary in the minds of most Americans, Democrats are being co-dependent in every atrocity Trump commits between now and 2020 including starting a war in Iran that could devastate the world long before the election in 2020 (if it isn’t postponed by Trump due to war or other Trump-caused disasters) . By this point, who expects the Dems to be strong enough to stand up to prevent Trump from pushing the nation into a horrible and devastating war? All I see is whining about Trump not letting them use their powers, crying “Foul!”, threatening to “get tough” and meanwhile doing nothing as Rome burns. I’m angrier at Dems because I expect more from them than clutching their pearls and getting “the vapors” when Trump breaks one law after another and tears up the Constitution. All they do is wag their finger and say, “Yeah, but we’ll beat you in 2020! You only have a year and a half left to destroy this country and the world! Good luck!” Trump is a lunatic, I expect him to act like one so while I despise him, it is Dems that are the most frustrating and disappointing. » Posted By AdLib On June 21, 2019 @ 9:37 am That would be great but with a few rare exceptions, his cultist admin people are afraid to do anything but follow him even off a cliff. » Posted By AdLib On June 19, 2019 @ 2:19 pm I don’t think Dems would ever have a contending candidate who was a Dem version of Trump, Dems aren’t the party of celebrating ignorance and hatred of women and minorities. » Posted By AdLib On June 19, 2019 @ 2:04 pm Whataboutism (also known as whataboutery) is a variant of the tu quoque logical fallacy that attempts to discredit an opponent’s position by charging them with hypocrisy without directly refuting or disproving their argument, which in the United States is particularly associated with Soviet and Russian propaganda https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism » Posted By AdLib On June 19, 2019 @ 2:00 pm History is Made In North Carolina!! Don’t know if you saw this segment on Full Frontal about Pride month, it’s clever and timely:
» Posted By AdLib On June 13, 2019 @ 3:25 pm Hey Opie, fixed it for you! » Posted By AdLib On June 11, 2019 @ 11:21 am This is indeed history, Angela! So happy for you, Janice, Wendy and the rest of the Transgender Caucus, for the transgender community, for us as Americans, for Dems and for North Carolinians. It’s pretty remarkable that as Trump and the reptilian brained Repubs try to drag the country back to the days before fire was discovered, such historic progress can be made for the transgender community and equality overall. Congrats!!! » Posted By AdLib On June 11, 2019 @ 9:23 am Very funny!!! A couple more? Flesh eating virus 51% Certain Death 51% Ouch! » Posted By AdLib On June 12, 2019 @ 2:08 pm I think both Warren and Harris are going to be strong contenders for the nom though Warren is my favorite between the two. Remember, the whispers about Obama during the primary was that America might not be ready for a black president so the whispering about America not being ready for a woman president is just as mistaken. The latest polls show all of the top Dem contenders beating Trump handily so as the primary continues, I think the argument about being a woman could be a liability will be disposed of. » Posted By AdLib On June 12, 2019 @ 2:00 pm That seems to be the case. What’s interesting is how Warren, Buttigieg and Harris, who have much lower name recognition, have all been rising in the polls while Biden and Sanders have been dropping. I think Biden is riding a bubble that’s not going to last through the debates. » Posted By AdLib On June 12, 2019 @ 1:55 pm Exactly. And just as we saw in previous primaries, once voters get to see candidates in debates and get to know them, name recognition fades away as a factor. Really looking forward to the debates. » Posted By AdLib On June 12, 2019 @ 1:52 pm I think we can both avoid personal attacks on Dem candidates while being honest about their positives and negatives, otherwise we would be playing that same game of intentional blindness that Trump supporters play. Biden is a decent man, he has accomplished positive things in his career, he has a very welcoming personality and he is smart. None of that is negated by pointing out his weaknesses as a candidate and as a potential president. We need to be able to discern between candidates to pick the one that we feel would both win and make the best president. I know you agree, you expressed this same point. With regards to Biden having done good things in his career, that is important but so are the things he’s done that weren’t good and have caused harm to Americans. Especially because Trump will not mention the good things the Dem nominee has done but hammer him/her on the bad things they have done (including ones that Trump will make up anyway). Who would have thought that Hillary’s campaign, which looked pretty inevitiable as a winner, would get so wrapped up and buried in an email server scandal? No damage was done, Trump is violating security in far bigger ways now but the fact that there was a negative that could be so hugely exploited, damaged Hillary’s likely-to-win campaign. Biden has a number of these negative issues in his massive baggage that Trump will pound on incessantly. The simple proposition would be, “Wouldn’t it just be better not to have a candidate with damaging baggage?” As for Biden himself, this is an observation not a personal attack. The tone of his campaign is one of entitlement. He is refusing to provide details on any issue except the environment and that was plagiarized, he offers pandering happy talk like claiming Republicans will suddenly become reasonable and happy to work with Dems…if only Biden is elected. He has avoided multiple events where most of the candidates have appeared, he is keeping his distance and apparently trying to only appear in very controlled events to protect his front runner status. His answers to reporters on issues have been plainly evasive, non-specific and uninformative. Biden is essentially trying to protect his lead by avoiding saying anything specific, aside from saying Trump is an existential threat. That’s not exactly bravery when you’re only trying to appeal to voters who don’t want to vote for Trump. It should be asked by Dem voters, why is Biden playing his front runner role like it is fragile and could be threatened so easily by him taking specific stands on issues and engaging with the other candidates? Does he and his campaign have a good reason for keeping him in bubble wrap? Don’t you only do that with things that are fragile? Biden has a rep for having poor judgement in what he says, being a gaffe machine, and the strategy here seems to be to keep him on script, keep him out of specifics and just making general platitudes that won’t offend anyone and trying to slide by and win the primary from within that protected bubble he’s in. I am very concerned because I think he could lose to Trump when being a vague and distant candidate fails to inspire voter enthusiasm or, being protected from ongoing pressure and conflicts, he is unprepared for the Trump onslaught if he became the nom and he makes gaffes and founders because he hasn’t been conditioning along the way for such a fight. I do not dislike Biden. I would support him if he became the nominee but fingers and toes would be nervously crossed. I do not think he is the person we need to be President following Trump, a half-measures, vague guy. We need a real leader with a strong vision and to date, Biden has not expressed any genuine vision for a presidency, just vague words supporting things that everyone supports. We need to win in 2020, that is unquestionable. Whoever the Dem nom is will need all of our support. But we are in a position now to choose a nominee who we think is strong, reflects our values and demonstrates the charisma and courage we want in our next candidate. I think there are several Dem candidates much better equipped to excite voters to go to the polls, stand toe-to-toe with Trump and who have vision for the America they would help to shape. I’m more interested in them winning than Biden but I’m supporting whoever wins. » Posted By AdLib On June 12, 2019 @ 11:41 am First off, I am in complete agreement that this kind of “playing-it-safe” mentality that has Biden at the top of polls is a mistake and is exactly how Dems lose elections. Americans like to be inspired, they really do like hope and change, they want to be excited about how a new president will make things much better and try different things. It worked in Trump’s favor in 2016, it won’t in 2020 but it won’t work for Dems in 2020 if they pick a candidate who doesn’t represent something fresh and optimistic. Voters don’t get excited by someone who is pointedly not really about change and instead embraces small, incremental tweaks to a system that is not working for most Americans. It may seem curious at first, Biden’s #1 ranking in the polls, but considering that the two main factors for this will soon dissipate, I think his initial lead in primary polls will decline similarly to Hillary Clinton against Barack Obama in 2008 and Jeb Bush against Donald Trump in 2016. Polling this early is rarely accurate in predicting outcomes since debates and the actual campaign haven’t begun yet. So all that polls can be based on is name recognition, the bits and pieces about candidates some voters pick up from news items and early campaign stumping which is localized. As for Biden getting Mulligans, I couldn’t agree more. We castigate the GOP and Trump voters for ignoring the terrible things (and crimes) Trump does because they favor bigger political goals Trump represents to them (like ending Roe v.Wade and purging people of color from the country). Dems doing the same with Biden and overlooking his positions and decisions that are terribly wrong because they think he’s the best candidate to beat Trump is similarly unprincipled. Polling always tightens up as elections near and whoever the Dem candidate is will not have a huge advantage by the time November rolls around. Biden’s support for old school, conservative positions are a liability that Trump and Russia will no doubt hammer in a General Campaign if Biden was the nominee. The truth is, there is no candidate more vulnerable to being chopped down over his political baggage than Biden. It is unacceptable, in today’s Democratic Party, that a Dem candidate would favor the oppression and prejudice that the Hyde Amendment represents. In essence, it created two classes of American women, those who have money and can exercise their Constitutional right to abortion and those who are poor (and mostly people of color) who can’t exercise their Constitutional right to abortion because they are poor. Supporting Hyde was supporting prejudice and a stripping away of Constiutional rights from poor women. That’s not okay. Biden’s unflattering flip-flop on this exposed the very weakness of his candidacy. He folds as easily as a wet napkin on a supposed principled position he’s held for decades? Because it’s now a political problem? How would Trump portray Biden in a General Election if he does it then too? As weak, unprincipled, desperate and pandering. Biden has sabotaged himself in other presidential runs, I don’t see why anyone would think he would suddenly become a perfect candidate instead of self-destructive as usual. And consider how many other issues over which he will be put on the defensive, where he supported something that runs contrary to current day Dem values or American values. Biden supported the crime bill that led to record imprisonment of African Americans. Biden mistreated Anita Hill and other women in the Clarence Thomas hearings who risked sharing personal stories of sexual harassment to help the country (or wanted to, Biden blocked another woman from testifying about Thomas’ sexual harassment of her). Biden voted for the Iraq War. Biden opposed the ACA/Obamacare. Whether one can make legitimate excuses for some or even all of these positions, it would be Trump-supporter-level denialism to think that these won’t be hammered on by Trump’s campaign to damage and muddy up Biden. Wouldn’t it just simply be better to have a candidate who was never on the wrong side of all those issues and more? And if you think Russia was successful depressing Dem turnout for Hillary, imagine how effective they could be depressing Dem turnout with all this ammunition against Biden. Add to that, Biden is running a cynical front-runner campaign of avoiding details on issues, plagiarizing other candidates and organizations position papers, dissing Progressive Dems as “elitists” and “socialists” and frankly, coming off as a bit creaky and stiff on the stump. I think that if a candidate so out of touch with the modern day Dem base was the nominee, we could see a 2016 type loss or worse, despite the Hillary-like advantage Biden may have now in polling against Trump. Dems need a candidate that they can get enthusiastic about and combined with the passion to remove Trump, that would be a powerful voting block that could yield big results for Dems as happened in 2018. We ran an old school, establishment and corporate-friendly candidate against Trump in 2016 and lost. The numbers proved that voter turnout went down for Dems in 2016, enough to swing the election. There were multiple factors for this, including James Comey’s sabotage of the election, Wikileaks and the Russian disinformation campaign on social media. However, there is no question that voter enthusiasm for Hillary was lower than for Obama, voters wanting someone new leaned for Trump and the high negatives of both Hillary and Trump discouraged some voters from voting for either of them. What we need in 2020 in a Dem candidate for president is someone who doesn’t carry decades of baggage that can be used to bury him/her, someone who offers vision, energy and enthusiasm to American voters, someone who has modern day sensibilities on what is right and just and someone who’s not afraid to push for the big changes this country needs. Unfortunately, Biden doesn’t check any of those boxes. So I think that as the debates begin in about two weeks, we’ll see this sugar-high polling lead of Biden’s dissolve as other Dems step up to hold his feet to the fire on his negatives as a candidate and promote their charisma and determination to the American public. » Posted By AdLib On June 11, 2019 @ 10:35 am Or a comic golden toilet seat. » Posted By AdLib On June 7, 2019 @ 1:48 pmComments Posted By AdLib
Trump 40%
Trump 40%
Biden supported the bankruptcy bill that stripped Americans of many rights to claim bankruptcy (Biden did this to help banks over Americans because he’s in Delaware where many banks are based).
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