I identify as a Democrat now, so I can vote the second to last option. But I notice you left out “I’m not a Democrat, but I still will vote for the Democratic Candidate because Trump is so awful.” I know a lot of people like that, and I would think they’d be important, too.
I mean, if it wasn’t for how bad the Republicans are, I would likely want to avoid labels, keeping the idea that I’m a free and independent thinker, not beholden to any party. But, the way things are now, I do not even consider voting Republican, and there aren’t any third parties with a chance, so I’m going to vote Demcoratic. Hence I am effectively a Democrat.
(That said, the only time I ever signed up for a party, it was as a Republican, in college, before I knew it was more than just a team. I do use that technicality to my advantage when trying to appeal to my Republican congresspeople.)
Bloomberg is horrible, Buttigieg is owned by horrible people, Gabbard is a nonentity - but if one of them were to be the nominee, they’d have my vote against Trump. Ditto any of the others.
I have a strong preference for the nomination (Warren), but it’s absolutely necessary to kick Trump out of the White House, and voting for the Dem nominee is the way to make that happen. End of story.
I’m not a Democrat or Republican, so didn’t vote in the poll, guess I’m far more fiscally conservative than either party wants to be.
I feel like both parties take the middle-class working people for granted, but I’m more sympathetic towards the Democratic party due to some social issues (not all), including understanding climate change and wanting to do something about it. I’d love for either party to actually figure out a way to make health-care affordable, and not just in name, but neither party seems capable of cooperating enough with one another to even do this, and just lets pharma and special interest groups keep the costs as high as they want it to be.
Bloomberg, Steyer, and Gabbard. If the Dem party can’t find a way to keep Republicans from running as Democrats, then I’m voting for Trump and watching the whole MF burn.
It’s a shame we have only a two-party system. It would be nice to vote for one’s ‘ideal candidate’.
But I live in reality. In reality, any vote (or non-vote) that is not for your party’s candidate (or the major party that most closely aligns with your party or independence) is a vote for the other party’s candidate.
Would I like to vote for a candidate that will move the United States closer to a social democracy like the rest of the Western countries? Yes. Would I vote instead for a Corporate Democrat to keep a Fascist out of office. Yes.
I find this mystifying. If you are “fiscally responsible” (“fiscally conservative” is a loaded term), and the choice is the fiscal record of the Dems vs Pubs over the last 50 years, the Dems have a quantifiably more fiscally responsible record.
I agree that neither party is as fiscally responsible as I would like, but again no contest which one has a considerably worse record…
Look at this poll (or any of the similar ones) the next time you’re worried about how deeply divided the Democrats are.
I said I would vote for any Democrat, and I almost certainly will. But if it’s Bloomberg there’s a nonzero possibility I may just give up on democracy entirely and become a Maoist. If it’s Tulsi…never mind. It’s not going to be Tulsi.
I think we are close to agreement, but I want to run this by you first, see what you think. You probably know more about it than me. We know enough of both parties over the last 50 years, to have some idea of how each party wants to handle the economy, but I don’t find anything stellar for their fiscal responsibility. At least all Democratic candidates admit that our taxes are going to go up if they get elected, and that hopefully will help reduce the debt some, but considering what this new round of leading Democrats are wanting, I’m not remotely sure how we will have money for what they want either.
What quantifiable results do you have in mind? Clinton and his administration? If so, take his surpluses and the slight net gain over his eight years (four years exceptionally good) which was a huge improvement of what we’ve been getting ever since, nothing compares. But I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of economists that agree the seeds of the housing crisis that led to the Great Recession started in his administration that snowballed further into Bush’, both parties seemed oblivious as to what was happening or too incompetent to know, or just didn’t care to know, and this cost us many trillions of dollars that were instantly taken out of the economy. Obama inherited this mess, and our deficits really hasn’t recovered since, his last term it finally started to come down considerably, but still bad, but then Trump stepped in, and here we go again, the sky is again the limit. One TIME article names 25 people that are often blamed for the financial crisis that led to the Great Recession. Others lists are similar, your list may vary.
If some of the leading Democrat contenders get their way, with so much of this stuff they are proposing, where is this money going to come from? Think their proposals are realistic on what we can afford? Quite a few want to forgive trillions of dollars of school debt (some opt for only partial). All wanting free health care for illegals. Various proposals for black reparations and costs associated with it. Don’t think Sanders is for that one though. Climate change is going to start costing plenty. We have a very serious infrastructure problem that is mounting, and trillions more needed just for that, but we’ve gotten use to kicking that can down the road too. The various health care proposals and how cost effective it will be is somewhat undetermined.
With all of this to consider, I don’t think we’ll ever remotely see balanced budgets or anything close to it again. I wish one party or the other, preferably both could take care of it, but like everything else, if their past history is any indication over the last half century, it’s not going to get fixed, but partisan politics as usual, and let’s keep kicking the can.
