Your 2020 Presidential Candidate Speculation Thread

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

The next president should be a tree

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.

this is literally Douglas Adams, who people on the internet seem to frequently forget was a satirist

this is literally Douglas Adams, who people on the internet seem to frequently forget was a satirist

And satire is always flippant, empty jokes with no real truth or meaning behind it.

I see what you did there

my distrust of Gillibrand comes from the gun-lovin' centrist she was when appointed to the Senate. what year does she change back?

Her views on revolvers were evolving.

And satire is always flippant, empty jokes with no real truth or meaning behind it.

― grawlix (unperson), Thursday, August 2, 2018 4:27 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

satire is always meant to convey meaning, but is not to be taken literally. unless of course you ate irish babies for breakfast this morning under the orders of jonathan swift.

they were delicious

The next president should be a tree

― President Keyes

if you were the president what kind of tree would you be?

Pretty sure Americans would vote for the tallest money tree without thinking much about it

my distrust of Gillibrand comes from the gun-lovin' centrist she was when appointed to the Senate.

jfc, that was almost 10 years ago. Her voting record since entering the senate has been very anti-NRA and Sandy Hook was a pretty hard/permanent reset for her on the issue.

Gillibrand's endorsements don't seem to be strategic outside of the Cuomo one. She endorsed Kelda Roys in WI, who's polling at less than 5% in the dem primary poll for gov.

God forbid a novice politician should appropriately represent the wishes of her constituents

Xp

my distrust of Gillibrand comes from the gun-lovin' centrist she was when appointed to the Senate.

This identifies her as a pol who knows which side her bread is buttered on. So, the best approach is to keep buttering her bread on the side you agree with.

The next president should be a tree

― President Keyes, Thursday, August 2, 2018 4:48 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

how about a skeleton

They have more life experience

I fucking hate all you idiots