2020 Democratic presidential primary thread, pt 3: life is very long

yep

Running to the left = "here is another iteration of the New Deal, only fuck you if you aren't white and straight-passing" afaict

or in other words, doing what the US does in moments of crisis

so the New Deal then

xpost yes - I've long held that when things get Serious the US turns directly to socialism i.e. wars, recessions, major league baseball stadia

the gop has no credibility to claim they'll pass even a racist new deal. they're dragging their feet to give working ppl a bone even now in the middle of a major catastrophe

Running to the left = "here is another iteration of the New Deal, only fuck you if you aren't white and straight-passing" afaict

I had wondered about that fine print in the GND!

Can anyone - Simon for instance? - explain to me what it is specifically Sanders wants out of Biden and the party? Not just 'move left', isn't there something specific and achievable?

the gop has no credibility to claim they'll pass even a racist new deal. they're dragging their feet to give working ppl a bone even now in the middle of a major catastrophe

Isn't the GOP currently advocating giving everyone $1000?

Can anyone - Simon for instance? - explain to me what it is specifically Sanders wants out of Biden and the party? Not just 'move left', isn't there something specific and achievable?

I don't know that anyone but Sanders can credibly answer that tbh. Everything is so up in the fuckin air right now.

so up in the fuckin air

Indeed.

it's going to be trump vs generic_dem_biden and biden will do very well bc he's not a woman and ppl seem to generally like him and they hate trump

republicans will attempt to paint biden as ultra-corrupt based on burisma as their surrogate for benghazi. this may help them hold onto their base, but I doubt it will make any dent outside that. most voters are going to have much more pressing and important concerns this year. like economic collapse, several hundred thousands of fatalities and a couple million cases of prolonged debility.

Granted, people don't hate Biden they way they hate Clinton but... remember Bengazi and her emails?

by the way, what was biden's stance on Austerity measures in the wake of the last recession? i guess his actual opinion might be hard to ascertain, since it would have aligned with the administration's, regardless. but it seems like a relevant question, since suddenly THE DEFICIT is set to become an incredibly topic as soon as a democratic president is elected. suddenly it will become a crisis that has to be addressed, unfortunately only "tightening the belt" and making some tough cuts to social security.

i worry more about that, re: biden, than anything else. the revival of the Grand Bargain bullshit, which can only happen when a democrat is president

A revival of Grand Bargain politics under Biden is a real possibility, especially in the third year of his term, after mid-term elections. Given how deep the shit is going to get before Trump can be booted out, this seems like a worry for another day.

i agree with that outcome. i'm just curious what running to the left of biden even means, practically speaking

Trump ordering the suspension of evictions and foreclosures when Obama failed to do the same in 2009 is a good example

Joe Biden will tweet less though so who is to say what's worse?

<3

Bernie Sanders when @mkraju asked his timeframe for a decision: "I'm dealing with a fucking global crisis."

"Right now I'm trying to do my best to make sure that we don't have an economic meltdown and that people don't die. Is that enough for you to keep me busy for today?"

— Eric Bradner (@ericbradner) March 18, 2020

all the pearl clutchers on Twitter about that, omg.

go Bernie.

i generally kind of expect that the worm will finally turn on trump once widespread infection is undeniable and hardship is going on weeks and months, but

some of the reality-denial in the conservative reaches of comment threads across internet-land seems positively psychotic, so

Trump ordering the suspension of evictions and foreclosures when Obama failed to do the same in 2009 is a good example

why do ppl post this innacurate ahistorical type of bullshit (beyond an effort to score ideological points on the internet)

Trump's order applies to HUD properties only ("only to homeowners with mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration, a HUD agency that backs affordable home loans issued through private firms"), not evictions and foreclosures generally. in 2009 I don't think HUD properties was where the majority of mortgage defaults were happening.

ie, why would Obama have done that, that wasn't part of the crisis. The bigger problem was with mortgage securities that had been over-leveraged by irresponsible financial institutions, not the FHA.

suspensions of regular, non-public mortgages and rents will come from state governors, and has already started happening in a few states.

I passed rent suspension legislation by punching my landlord in the face when he asked for it.

lol

I may also be paying by knuckle sandwich next month

how can we ever support a presidential candidate who swears, unlike joe "this is a big fucking deal" biden

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Can’t believe this thread started before covid

Bernie, vanishing mediator? https://t.co/uhsfWCMOKL

— Doug Henwood (@DougHenwood) March 18, 2020

Cool that they're just copying and pasting 2016 tweets now

Henwood?

convinced now that at the first debate trumps gonna promise to do m4a and bidens gonna ask him how hes gonna pay for it

— 𝕭𝖗𝖊𝖆𝖉𝖓𝖇𝖔𝖔𝖟𝖊 🧠📉 (@goodatsexguy) March 18, 2020

we're gonna have Medicare for All
and Mexico's gonna pay for it

Medicare4wall

This has several compelling arguments and a lot of frustrated passion in it:

I’m a Bernie volunteer. Here’s how Joe Biden can win Bernie voters.

Bernie was projected to win a decisive lead on Super Tuesday. Biden was, everyone thought, on his last legs and had not campaigned or established a ground presence in many states. Then, in the days immediately before Super Tuesday, several of his opponents dropped out. Their endorsements and a raft of others carried him to victory.

This was a message to Bernie voters: "Fuck off. We would rather drag Joe Biden over the finish line, knowing that he is no longer mentally competent, than cede anything to the candidate who is winning your votes by fifty points or more."

You may disagree with me about Joe Biden’s mental competence. That’s fine. It has been reported that party insiders believe what I believe about Joe. You could say listen to his speech, he talks about unity, he is not telling Bernie voters to go pound sand, but that is the message my friends heard.

Toward the end of a primary there is often talk to the effect that even if your candidate didn’t win, he changed the conversation, whatever that means, and might be able to whisper ideas in the winner’s ear or even to hold him accountable, whatever that means. This was a fantasy when it came to Hillary Clinton. It is a joke when it comes to Joe Biden. If Biden were the kind of candidate who could be pushed left, no one in the party leadership would have endorsed him. It doesn’t matter if he makes Free College for Some a plank of his platform.

I know by this point you have all kinds of desperate or righteously angry appeals in mind. "Think about Trump’s racism. Think about the kids in cages. If nothing else, think about the Supreme Court!" Sorry, that shit doesn’t work anymore. Never mind that Biden got Clarence Thomas on the Court. This primary came down to one candidate who gave Strom Thurmond’s eulogy and another who — I know you are tired of hearing this — marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. It came down to one candidate who wanted to break up ICE and another whose boss built the cages that Trump filled with children. We know how you chose.

If you want to beat Trump, you will have to work harder than we did and rally more of your army to volunteer. Name recognition is enough to win a primary. It is not enough to win a general election. You need hundreds of thousands of people texting, making phone calls, knocking on doors. You cannot be satisfied with knocking on doors locally, either. We had people who spent every weekend busing into neighboring states. I know this would be harder for Biden voters, who are generally older than us and may, like Joe, have mixed feelings about busing. Have you ever met a Hmong or a Bhutanese person? We had organizers working with them. You have won the black vote, but you cannot take anyone else for granted.

I didn't click the link, but if there were compelling arguments, you should have quoted some.

As ppl are saying here everyday young ppl don't vote so I'm sure Biden's victory won't depend on their turnout (or lack of).

They'll be in grief counselling.

Biden is such a bleak selection—another senile candidate!—especially now that our country seems to have been plunged into a plague and a depression.

Running to the left = "here is another iteration of the New Deal, only fuck you if you aren't white and straight-passing" afaict

― DJP, Wednesday, March 18, 2020 2:35 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

what is this referring to?

A podcast host or something said the Republicans would try to run to the Democrat’s “left,” especially in the time of coronavirus, by offering more robust emergency aid than they’d be comfortable with. I haven’t really seen that to be honest, and DJP is right that Trump’s empty populism isn’t “left” it’s more like a “scam”

I just wasn’t sure if he was talking about the GOP, the democratic party, or biden or sanders in particular, etc. you can bet your buttons that biden and the democratic party will be pushing to means test our way out of this mess

but I'm wearing a kimono

I haven’t really seen that to be honest, and DJP is right that Trump’s empty populism isn’t “left” it’s more like a “scam”

No doubt, but it has a good chance of working for him.

Of course this doesn’t really demonstrate that Trump or Republicans have any special political genius. It does show how feckless and tone-deaf the Democratic leadership is for not coming out with this earlier and more forcefully

Good thread on twitter about this

years of austerity politics has left too many democrats completely unable to think outside of its narrow constraints https://t.co/ajwCmy2MBm pic.twitter.com/U8XDvfZCAK

— b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) March 19, 2020

means testing is good because we can’t trust the white people to vote for universal programs

I think that’s how it goes

lol tulsi endorses Biden

michael tracky to follow suit

Huh, genuinely surprised. Does that mean a 3rd party bid is off the table?