2020 Democratic presidential primary

yeah, wdn't vote for Mayor Pete in a million years just off that fucking tripe

xxp

Kamala, you're supposed to say "to defend HERself"

btw fuck you, copper

I feel like ex-soldiers are ideally placed to critique imperialism.

that's true!

mammals are creatures who make decisions based on feelings

my bff was so disillusioned with america after serving in the marines that he left the country.

also the most irl left-wing person ive ever worked with was ex-AF.

it be like that sometimes

but bootage-edge is not a hardcore lefty and he's still not better than LIZ

it just occurred to me that Buttguy's reasoning is almost identical to the disgraced Missouri governor's story about becoming a SEAL. Both played up a "despite my humanitarian efforts/privilege, I just didn't think I was doing enough vs the salt of the earth who were joining up."

Which is to say I'd place a bet on ambition and resume-building

i actually find it plausible and identifiable that someone's not-particularly-sound reaction to the first puncturing of their class bubble might be "oh shit i have to subject myself to what the Others are subjected to, immediately", whether or not you understood yet that what they're subjected to is the job of subjecting the other others. it's also possible-- indeed easy-- indeed inevitable-- to be startled by the puncturing of yr class bubble even if yr dad is a gramsci scholar. but yeah he is obv an ambitious guy and it is funny that he's willing to admit this revelation came to him in iowa.

and yeah i have known plenty of leftie ex-military, tho that is slightly different.

the most irl left-wing person ive ever worked with was ex-AF.

read this as "ex as fuck" and was like, same

just look at the state of this, smdh

Beto's new campaign manager, Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, comes from Precision Strategies, a corporate strategy firm that has repped GE, Bank of America, Humana, Pfizer and Facebook, among others.

— Lee Fang (@lhfang) March 25, 2019

but Frederik has told us that Lee Fang is a Russian spy

tbf kind of burying the lede there (she was obama's deputy campaign manager in 2012)

idk how much I care about that. PR strategy is PR strategy.

yeah me neither. but fang knows "she did the exact job o'rourke hired her to do for the previous democrat to win the presidency" doesn't have quite the same rhetorical effect.

well obv Beto is the New Obama... does he have a clergyman to disown, though?

maybe he'll own his campaign director for working at jobs.

"I can't disown my pastor for owning a Dave Matthews record any more than I can disown my own mother for liking post-sellout Goo Goo Dolls songs."

decent movies more often than not tbf

not 100% convinced on your maths here

Though Buttigieg has not yet formally announced a 2020 run, he has launched an exploratory committee, making a series of media appearances and speeches calling for unity and inclusivity. If nominated, Buttigieg would become the first openly gay major-party presidential candidate.

“We’ve got to find a way to use our identities to reach other people,” he said, asking listeners to focus on the commonalities they share rather than the differences that separate them.

“I think good art has that, good music has that, good literature has that, good chicken sandwiches and good politics,” he added. “We’ve got to get back to that before this current presidency just completely tears us apart.”

(from this)

good chicken sandwiches and good politics

this has the ominous ring of something he intends to say again

oh sorry they were talking about chik-fil-a already. thought it was just a folksy spasm.

chik-fil-a is one of those things I wish people would just shut the fuck up about

this whole notion of "brokering a peace deal" as if it hasn't just been one side fucking up and antagonizing people is super weird

torn because on the one hand obv huge depressing obama/beto vibes from that kind of talk but on the other hand

asking listeners to focus on the commonalities they share rather than the differences that separate them

is otm? provided you're not pitching the commonalities between me and jeff bezos.

don't think this guy should run for president this year.

can if he wants to obv.

It kind of goes along with what he has said about public service. It's something that brings people from different backgrounds, races, classes etc together to work for a common purpose. A lot of people don't tend to have those types of experiences especially if you stay in the same locale that you grew up in.

public service. It's something that brings people from different backgrounds, races ... etc

yeah, as is a political movement. (a subcategory i guess.) agree that such experiences are too rare; they rewire yr perspective overnight. as tired as we are of purple-state unity talk and as useless as it is unaccompanied by material analysis, it's also possible(+necessary) to offer people (partic nonvoters) an enormous intersectional coalition that obliterates the tv image of america as 51/49 lib/fash.

"offer people" is the wrong construction. "build".

And even AOC has talked about how much benefit there is in having elected officials having worked regular service industry jobs. It's a common joke that all people should be forced to work as a server or in retail for a couple of years in their lives so maybe we would have fewer assholes.

well yeah working-class people are way underrepresented in American politics

But it also gives one a different set of skills. She talks about it.

all people should be forced to work as a server or in retail for a couple of years in their lives

fortunately for us this is exactly where most people are forced to work

Granted, some people do want to work in these areas and aren't just forced.

Universities serve pedagogical Happy Meals these days.

Biden addressing Anita Hill controversy head on. "To this day i regret I couldn't give her the kind of hearing she deserved."

— Mike Memoli (@mikememoli) March 26, 2019

I"m sure he's lost sleep.

Biden is such a sack of shit right there, of course he can't tell where the smell is coming from.

"To this day I regret I couldn't give her the kind of hearing she deserved."

Couldn't?! Fuck you, Joe Biden. You were the chairman of the Judiciary committee. Are you really expecting us to believe the will was there, but your hands were tied? Again, fuck you.

Anita Hill’s family literally has a running joke about Joe Biden pic.twitter.com/eGuDIWMhkB

— Sarah Lerner (@SarahLerner) March 26, 2019

all the good will he seems to inspire at the moment seems like 50% something that rubbed off from obama and 50% those onion articles. he's a sack of shit.

He said “this is a big fuckin deal” on a hot mic at the ACA signing ceremony, that’s like 4% right there

there won't be an ACA left by the time the next president takes office so the very concept of incremental fixes to it are irrelevant nonsense https://t.co/wVZyrCHqKv

— Bill Humphrey 🌳 (@BillHumphreyMA) March 27, 2019

squishy moderation on healthcare should not be tolerated for lots of reasons, but this is an especially solid and pragmatic one.

not sure about that

I had an ACA plan for a couple of years. I don't think it was ever supposed to be a longterm solution. Why keep fixing something that kind of sucks when there is a much more obvious, better solution. So I get Bernie there.

i'm on it right now, and may be living in my sister's spare room by 2021 as a result

It turned into a completely ridiculous, convoluted shitshow.

And there is no reason the catholic church should be allowed to buy up so many hospitals and clinics in the US and be able to deny services. It's so messed up.

RIP

Beto O'Rourke's wife works for an education reform organization that aims to expand charter schools in El Paso. Teacher unions didn't press him on charters when he ran for senate, but say things will be different now https://t.co/zkXbVHiNXO

— Rachel Cohen (@rmc031) March 27, 2019

I've been wondering about this because it's mentioned in every recent longform profile of him.

Beto married into a family that is extremely wealthy. He can stand on a dirt road but at the end of the day he comes home to a world where the first reaction to getting into a fender bender would be “oh let’s just buy a new car”