2020 Democratic presidential primary

https://i.imgur.com/y7lc7W6.jpg

“I know, right?”

This is good:

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) will unveil a major new initiative on Tuesday designed to make sure every family can afford high-quality child care, according to several people who have heard about the proposal or seen material describing it in the past week.

The plan seeks to make access to child care universal, the sources told HuffPost, by offering federal funds to providers that offer care at their facilities on a sliding income scale.

No family would have to spend more than 7 percent of its household income on child care, no matter the number of kids. Families with incomes below twice the poverty line, which is roughly $50,000 a year for a family of four, would pay nothing.

Only providers that meet federal safety, staffing and curriculum standards could qualify for the funding.

Officials with Warren’s 2020 presidential campaign declined to comment on the proposal and the sources familiar with the plan cautioned that some details were still in flux as of last week.

I understand that universal childcare is important and a necessary step into the fully cybernetic abolition of the family but I never get excited about it because I’m a nulliparous aesthete

She's not really talking about universal childcare anyway.

First candidate to talk up universal surrogacy gets my vote

Democratic voters shrugging off Warren's ancestry.

In interviews over the last month with about three dozen Democratic voters, many in early primary states, almost all of them expressed far more interest in Ms. Warren’s policy ideas than her ancestry and said that they were exhausted or uninterested by the story line. They described it as overblown, reflecting a disconnect between voters in the party’s base and some political elites, media commentators and conservatives who have been preoccupied with the issue.

“Right now is a time to listen to ideas,” said Holly Sauers, a staunch Democrat and resident of Charleston, S.C. “That’s what we’re focused on.”

Among these voters, who were mostly white and black Democrats who acknowledged their own misunderstandings about Native American communities and history, Ms. Warren is not a perpetrator of harm, but a victim of a Washington culture that delights in any scandal among politicians — and particularly elected officials who are women.

and:

Julian Brave Noisecat, a Native American journalist and activist who has criticized Ms. Warren previously, said: “Based on my conversations with tribal leaders and advocates, the consensus position is that she’s one of the strongest allies of Indian country in Congress. She has good relationships with tribes across the board. And I think that’s relevant.”

Mr. Noisecat said the ancestry matter had become double-edged: More than any other Democratic presidential candidate, Ms. Warren has caused the most upset among Native American communities, but has also probably done the most outreach and is more vocal on issues that effect tribal citizens than other presidential candidates.

So apparently this other dude is running?

pay no heed, he actually stands for stuff

A little surprised at the tone/style of the announcement video, which seems primarily interested in countering the "Bernie gets nothing done" narrative.

i'm glad he's running. people here can say what they want, but bernie sanders has done more than anyone in america to advance the issues that are most important. because of him, issues like raising the minimum wage, medicare for all, and free college—just to name three—are mainstream positions that almost all of the current candidates say they support.

as an american this is more important to me than what his supporters do online. i fucking hate the internet anyway.

he served his purpose as a dyspeptic John the Baptizer.

that's if you trust all the other candidates to actually prioritize the american people while in office. history has shown that the platforms people campaign on are only a rough indicator of what their priorities will be once in office.

what did his supporters do online?

i'm not on twitter so i don't even know. but that seems to be the knock against bernie—that there are roving bands of "bernie bros" like susan sarandon harassing people and poisoning the public against mainstream democrats.

it's just a complete invention. Every candidate has a number of enthusiastic/annoying supporters, the real poisoning of the public was this cynical neolib assertion that enthusiasm for his policies was actually some kind of personality cult

also— *that's* the personality they think a misogynistic cult would form around?

i agree with you. i think it was overblown and ultimately a smear from hillary partisans. but on ILX people believe that "bernie bros" were a thing and enough of a thing that it gives them reservations about the candidate. maybe they see it more in their corners of the internet.

yeah it worked

re. him being old and "dyspeptic"—paving the way for a younger, smoothers candidate—I like people who are awkward and rough around the edges. glamorous people who make an incredible first impression haven't always been the best people, in my experience. i also like elizabeth warren's normcore stylings and general awkwardness.

P sure he allied with Putin to elect Trump and turn the nation's college students into mansplainers or something. Tad Devine's last name was in the subject line of an email, you know.

lol

Sanders' 2020 agenda, per aides:
- Medicare 4 All
- Green New Deal/climate
- $15 min wage
- Criminal justice reform
- Free college
- Break up biggest banks
- Gender pay equity
- Paid leave
- ⬇ Drug prices
- Expand Social Security
- Save unions
- DREAM Acthttps://t.co/CyM52Cw2pf

— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) February 19, 2019

i'll vote for that platform

all of it is necessary in order to even get the country started on a path to becoming something other than a capitalist dystopia.

w/ the exception of Warren there is not a single other candidate who would actually carry that platform through to the general election

I don't know where she is on the college thing

There's a few more planks in the thread btw, including ending cash bail - does Harris have a stance on that?

i agree with that very much, hadrian. bernie and warren seem to see america like i do -- a country that is increasingly unaffordable, where people feel trapped and hopeless while the powerful profit more and more each year -- and the other candidates don't seem to get it. harris should be commended for the homeowner relief—not a small thing—but in general i see her as a pragmatist, not someone crazy enough to believe that america could actually be a decent place for ordinary people to live.

xp

ha Bernie coming out swinging at Trump hard in announcement video

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2019/02/19/bernie_sanders_announces_2020_run_for_president.html

I'd rather see a woman tbh

history has shown that the platforms people campaign on are only a rough indicator of what their priorities will be once in office.

But Bernie will be different! You'll see!

a dyspeptic John the Baptizer

like Sotosyn I expect the actual nominee to cure lepers and be crucified after 3 years in office

i'm glad he's running. people here can say what they want, but bernie sanders has done more than anyone in america to advance the issues that are most important. because of him, issues like raising the minimum wage, medicare for all, and free college—just to name three—are mainstream positions that almost all of the current candidates say they support.

― Trϵϵship, Tuesday, February 19, 2019 7:21 AM (forty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

he's not a fucking Democrat, unperson, that's different enough.

He had my vote in 2016, and the current political moment owes everything to him, but he's a bit like Goldwater in that his moment is gone. I just have no interest in an old white dude running against an obese white dude.

Trump is orange

this bernie lad has some alright policies eh

my apologies xpost

I might also be more enthusiastic for a hypothetical bernadette sanders, but in the end what i care about is getting america off the path of nihilism and oligarchy

fortunately we have more than one option this time

"We have a president of the United States who is a pathological liar." From the announcement video. But whoever the candidate is, THIS. This needs to be repeated, forcefully and w/o apology, all the way to November.

i agree. still, i sometimes wonder if there is anyone in america who doesn't know that already.

ending cash bail - does Harris have a stance on that?

Harris has proposed legislation that would create a three-year $10 million grant program to encourage states to figure out how to find alternatives to their cash bail systems. The legislation is co-sponsored by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.)...

Sanders, an independent from Vermont, has released a bill that would directly outlaw cash bail in the federal criminal justice system. The legislation, co-sponsored by Gillibrand, would also give states money to reform their bail systems, said Inimai Chettiar, director of the Justice Program at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice.

“The Harris bill would be helpful, but the Sanders-Gillibrand one is more aggressive,” Chettiar said. “The Harris bill would have an impact, but it’s hard to quantify.”

This article from In These Times looks at both bills and concludes that both are too weak but Sanders's is a little stronger. Both seem to be based on providing funds to states for bail reform but Sanders's requires states to actually show reductions in their incarcerated populations in order to qualify for funds, would withdraw funds from states that do not pursue reforms within three years, and does not rely on predictive algorithms to decide whether people should stay in jail.

fortunately we have more than one option this time

The large primary field this time - heavily populated with much more appealing candidates - will weed him out relatively quickly. The only real question is who his cult will blame for his flameout this time.

xxp Treeship right but it's not about persuading ppl, it's about making the accusation directly and putting GOP back on their heels with it

can we stop with the "cult" thing?

More appealing based on what criteria?

Xp

Also yeah i agree with you hadrian re trump