Your 2020 Presidential Candidate Speculation Thread

(granted this is because they've abandoned any and all pretense of adhering to anything resembling a principle)

https://huffingtonpost.ca/entry/kirsten-gillibrand-al-franken-2020_us_5b58994ae4b0b15aba945e79#click=https://t.co/cGOJvdXyDK

link not working for me, care to summarize?

I'm trying to think of what the right-wing equivalent of lefty-purist-handwringing is and am coming up short

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, August 1, 2018 4:19 PM (eleven minutes ago)

just be honest and say you don't care. these are actual policy issues and tailoring messaging by playing into the hands of GOP legislative priorities, as moodles pointed out, is bad politics!

I really try to remind myself that Twitter is not an accurate microcosm of America, but jesus there sure are a lot of motherfuckers on there who DESPISE Gillibrand solely for the Franken fallout. It's deeply deeply depressing.

cleaned up link https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/kirsten-gillibrand-al-franken-2020_us_5b58994ae4b0b15aba945e79 xxp

Thx Brad, posting on mobile is hell for links

yes, that is bullshit and also 100% clearly not what kamala harris is talking about

She's not talking specifically about that, but her message helps legitimize the notion that only a subset of people deserve basic things like shelter. It's not exactly leaps and bounds away.

like Chris Hayes just tweeted about, and so you're already talking about a group of people who have self-selected as being interested in following Chris Hayes, so you'd think their misogyny wouldn't be QUITE so near-universal.

I understand that any democrat will always be preferable to any republican, which is why I will vote for democrats until I die or until the parties change again. but pooh-poohing good-faith criticism of democratic leaders seems to be not the best play, to me

sorry xpost, i'm talking about the Gillibrand stuff still

I would think by this point, after years of rehashing the same shit, it's p obvious I don't care about Morbz's troll-bait nonsense

xp

thx Simon

good-faith criticism of democratic leaders

this is not what Morbz does and you know it

I understand that any democrat will always be preferable to any republican

in fact, can we start a countdown clock for Morbz to come in and give you shit for this

well, unlike some of you apparently, my opinions and meta-opinions about democratic politics are not filtered through my opinion of morbs. it's honestly sad how none of you can just ignore him or keep his name out of your mouth when commenting on other shit. but this is the same shit we went through in the 2016 primary, so whatever

it's honestly sad how none of you can just ignore him or keep his name out of your mouth when commenting on other shit.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

here's how I feel about Harris' tweet (which Morbz posted, for the record): 1) in general, a program addressing renter's financial burdens strike me as a good thing, 2) a jobs requirement for such a hypothetical program seems unnecessary, but whatever, baby steps, 3) the details of any such program would inevitably change during the legislative process so best not to get hung up on it anyway, BUT 4) the whole reason for posting things like this isn't to actually get bills passed but to stake out ideological territory, in which case the jobs thing seems like an unnecessary self-inflicted wound (the right's not gonna be on board for anything like this, nor give her credit for a jobs requirement, so why bother) BUT 5) this is one tweet that will be forgotten within a week, I'm not gonna lend it too much time or thought, it isn't worth it.

the end

addendum: using such a minor thing as a weapon to (further) tar one of the only women of color in a significant position of power in this country as being insufficiently leftist *really* irritates me, she'll never be good enough for some people (mysogynists, racists, idiots like Morbz etc.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cNsmt2YZXA

for u, Shakes

ok lol

what does this even have to do with morbs? the issue at hand is whether dems should run on the WJC-esque cooptation of right-wing "deservingness" of social services. there's a real, serious, substantive difference between a paradigm that says everyone should have access to these things, and one that says only some people deserve access to them. harris's statement was years past its sell-by date and it is not unreasonable to expect a dem to at least remember that huge swaths of the population have no chance of getting a "full-time job." if you're running for office in 2018, an awareness of that reality should be informing your platform and your public statements. it reads like a freudian slip.

a Freudian slip seems accurate to me

thinking of it as "whatever, baby steps" and being okay with proposals that only benefit people who are comparatively well off already, is how we end up with clintonian "middle class" obsession and never actually doing anything about structural poverty.

anyway it's bad politics in 2018. "medicare for all" fires people up because of the "all." if it was "medicare for people with full time jobs who meet the qualifications listed on form D-6..." nobody would give a shit.

otm

haha yeah I don't disagree

Yup. And Gillibrand seems to be the one who gets this the most.

I didn't have a full time job for 6 of the last 17 weeks; i should be grateful i had shelter (and cancer medicine)

"The Love Candidate" just voted in favor of the $717bn military spending budget

Isnt that the movie that stopped mike myers?

the Strangelove candidate

I thought Louis Abolafia was dead

"The Love Candidate" just voted in favor of the $717bn military spending budget

― wayne trotsky (Simon H.), Wednesday, August 1, 2018 8:35 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

in his defense, he never specified what he loved

charter schools

Responses to the HuffPo piece about Soros et al. being butthurt with Gillibrand over how she handled the Franken thing have been awesome.

https://splinternews.com/liberal-donors-are-snubbing-kristen-gillibrand-1828041390

http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2018/08/assassination-al-franken-coward-kirsten-gillibrand-absolutely-nobody-else-contd

I'm seeing people with "Al Franken 2020 Anyway" bumper stickers

I’m so glad we don’t drive

Gillibrand's endorsements are the one thing holding her lefty cred back

Sen. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND endorses GRETCHEN WHITMER for governor. pic.twitter.com/dApnVpbirr

— Daniel Strauss (@DanielStrauss4) August 2, 2018

(The lefty favorite is Abdul El-Sayed.)

that sucks even worse than her endorsing Cuomo over Nixon, at least in that case you could make the argument Nixon isn't "qualified" (whatever the fuck that means/is worth) but El-Sayed certainly seems to be the real deal.

at least she didn't endorse the guy who murdered all those puppies!

What is El-Sayed's appeal? What makes him better than Whitmer? A cursory search turns up no evidence of evil on her part. They both seem fine, and I can understand Gillibrand endorsing another woman.

god I just looked at a recent poll and El-Sayed isn't even beating the puppy-murderer. blue, red, doesn't matter, there are a lot of dumb motherfuckers in this country.

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/02/could-abdul-el-sayed-be-the-real-deal

Chucklebee's son is running for gov of Michigan?

xp

From that Current Affairs link:

I am limitlessly suspicious of Shiny Young Political Wunderkind types. Frankly, I don’t really trust anyone who runs for political office, and think that the desire to be elected should itself disqualify a person from holding public office. (I prefer the idea of randomly selecting our representatives, so that we’d end up with fewer people who harbor the mad delusion that they are competent to hold power over others.)

Now I want the author to have the job, because this is literally my core position w/r/t electoral politics, and has been since high school.

so that we’d end up with fewer people who harbor the mad delusion that they are competent to hold power over others

this seems like a foolish assumption at best

cuz I'd say the vast majority of ppl harbor that delusion

tbh i distrust ppl who want to run businesses way way more than i distrust ppl who want to hold public office

I like NJR generally but since he's (I assume) his own editor he lets a dopey line or two slip through on occasion

lol J.D. otm

it's like, yeah we should be skeptical and critical of politicians, but the "i don't trust anyone who wants to have power" line strikes me as kinda libertarian-y

Power’s great, who wouldn’t want it