My bolding; how does that passage NOT describe Russia?
And, yes: it’s pretty rare to hear someone on your side describe Russia as a shithole country—despite its history (past as well as recent) of dictators grabbing wealth for themselves and their cronies, while the mass of the population, lacking the freedoms and protections of a free society, live in reduced circumstances.
An economic powerhouse it is not; innovation? entrepreneurial strength? Nope. Russia has been bailed out to an extent by its oil. But its economy, without the oil, is basically a basket case.
Yet: somehow not a “shithole country”…now why would that be???
Do you really think they’ll run to become republicans? Republicans are the party of white southerners and rural whites. Blacks may not love the democratic party, but they aren’t going to become republicans anytime soon IMO.
Black voters tend to be aligned with the democrats and against the GOP on immigration. Also despite pretending immigration is about the law, the GOP’s attitudes about immigration are about keeping scary dirty brown people out of the country. This fact isn’t lost on black people.
But yes … it is true that if a GOP presidential candidate won 20% of the Black vote and kept the non-college educated white (NCEW) margins that Trump got they’d win. And a D who won more of the NCEW vote while keeping everything else the same would win.
It is unlikely that any D nominee, including a Black one, will recreate the performance Obama had in that demographic. HRC against Trump did better in Black turnout and share than any modern D candidate not named Obama.
Meanwhile running a fairly explicitly racist administration has impacts. 2018 midterms saw record midterm numbers for Hispanic and Black voters and they were voting for Democrats overwhelmingly (90% of Black voters voted D).
It would likely be true that a GOP that did not allow itself to be branded as the racist party could make inroads into non-white D support. Trumpism has gotten in the way of that bigly.
Yes. In the Kremlin’s efforts to interfere with the 2016 election they are known to have prioritized dissuading black voters from voting for Democrats:
(This article goes into a lot of detail on the Russian operation, complete with pics of the made-up “advocacy groups” and so on.)
Black voters tend to be practical. Of course all voters, of any demographic, would like to believe that the candidate they support will give precedence to their best interests, or at least treat those interests equivalently to the interests of people of other demographics. But most people are realistic enough to acknowledge that there are a lot of competing interests. Smart people vote for the best possible outcome given the choices—not for an elusive “perfect” outcome.
Also, any black voter who becomes aware of how the GOP and Kremlin tried to manipulate him-or-her in 2016, is going to be much less interested in GOP/Kremlin messages this time around.
I agree with this. Efforts to paint evolving positions as a “lack of authenticity” and the like seem disingenuous to me. (Frankly, I think the “lacking authenticity” accusation is, fundamentally, just another excuse for dismissing an already-disliked candidate.)
How long would it take $25/bbl crude to collapse the country? My meta-view: any rise in crude prices aids Putin and any fall hurts his interests, and all Russia short-term.
Because some Russians can still afford foreign holidays. I’ve spent time between Tehuantepec and Honduras, a region drawing more European than USAnian tourists, and I’ve validated some national stereotypes. If I see overweight, sunburnt, sloppily-dressed folks, I go downwind and inhale. If I smell body odor, they’re from Russia; if not, they’re from USA and spent more on soap. Otherwise they’re pretty similar.
Yes. Russia is overly-dependent on just that one industry.
!!!
But, sure, some Russians make out well in their corrupt economy. In any corrupt economy, some people are going to be able to afford to go on vacations, with or without soap.
Sorry for spinning off-topic with that last post. Does EW’s politicking damage her campaign? I have no idea, any more than I know if any Dem moderates exist. Isn’t the US electorate too polarized for moderation? (Yes, that’s another thread around here.)
A leader accommodates their constituents or is soon out of work. How large a voting constituency can EW gather with ANY healthcare proposal?
I forget: Anything 11 years or longer is considered decadeS, right? As recently as 2010, 42% of Hispanic voters said there “was no difference between D and R parties in their concern for Hispanics/Latinos.”
To a large extent, the political division in today’s America is not left vs right, but between truth and propaganda. The modern idea that truth is what we want it to be; that we should report not what is true but whatever falsities or exaggerations fit our agenda of the moment. Where do we all stand on that; key to today’s division?
Mr. Stone? I didn’t see your answer to my #20; did I miss it?
Though off-topic, a brief review of Russia’s per-capita GDP may be in order.
They rank behind most of Europe, but ahead of Asia (except Japan and the “Tigers”), South America and way ahead of Africa. Their nominal per-capita GDP is behind Argentina, but well ahead of Mexico, China, Turkey, and Bulgaria. Their GINI is somewhat lower than four of the countries just mentioned. (Bulgaria’s GINI is about the same as Russia’s.)
Two special factors pulling in opposite directions:
(1) Russia has very cold climate. Its people have a huge incentive to vacation in tropical climes. (Some Thailand resorts are dominated by Russian tourists.)
(2) The Russian rouble is severely undervalued. This is due to fears of default or devaluation, though increased sanctions seem to be the worry rather than falling oil prices.
In regard to the Democratic debate tonight - I am curious as to how Ms. Warren responds to MFA questions since she put her finger into the wind and found her previous plan is deeply unpopular.
I hope she’s hit hard. Her supporters have become insufferable on Twitter lately. She basically adopted Pete’s plan and then her troll army has spent the last few days slinging everything at Pete.
From what I can see on Twitter, they all have troll armies. Well, at least most of them do. Haven’t seen any ‘enemies of Cory Booker/Andrew Yang/Tom Steyer must be defeated’ tweets, yet, anyway. Maybe they’d show up if any of those three hit the top of the polls, though.
What I’ve seen on Twitter is posting of the variety ‘the media all hate Mayor Pete and fail to cover his great features but give massive coverage to things that hurt him.’
There may also be some attacks on other candidates by pro-Mayor Pete accounts; I don’t claim to be an expert and haven’t made a study of what’s going on in each camp. But I’ve seen a lot of tweets in my regular feed that would fall into the “angry fan of Candidate A sounds off” category. It’s not by any means the case that the idea 'let’s stay positive and remember that defeating Trump is what’s important’ is the rule being honored–at least not on Twitter. (I don’t use Facebook or look at it, so couldn’t offer an opinion about it.)