That is twice today that someone suggested you belong in politics. I’m not sure how you can put up with such insults so magnanimously. Unless you may well be destined for public office.
Being the Arlington district Rep sounds like a great job – good pay, great benefits, interesting and meaningful work, no need to maintain two houses like most Reps, etc. But getting there? Ugghhh…
If Quicksilver were saying this of all progressives, you’d be right. But I think he’s specifically saying it of the “Biden has to earn my vote” crowd. In which case, he’s right. And I’m not an expert in wooing voters by any stretch, but that crowd is going to need some flavor of the “you aren’t going to get what you want, and you should still vote Biden” argument. Preferably, the most effective flavor of that argument.
Guess I should have clicked on that link in the OP.
That said, maybe it’s nothing more than a telling point about me, but I don’t get the idea that “passionate support” of a candidacy is even all that common, much less a prerequisite for getting one to stand up and perform one’s duty.
I’m a progressive Independent. I suspect there are many progressive Independents on this message board and in this very thread and many like it. Most of us are disenchanted with the choices facing us in this election and many others. Lament the two party system in the US all you want but do so knowing you have no idea how tortured a multi-party system can be (e.g. Israel, Canada) and how it can paralyze a nation with political infighting and backroom deal making. Talk about a “bullshit” system. Honestly, your ideas about politics are unbelievably idealistic and naive if you think the grass is greener elsewhere. Where are these utopian nations where the choices are between great and awesome?
Every other first world country on the planet has a healthier political discourse than the US. They are less blatantly oligarchic. They actually try to, generally, serve the public as a whole, and the government isn’t just the enforcement arm of the rich and corporations trying to loot their country. Other than perhaps some corruption issues in a few countries, I don’t think there’s a rich country in the world that has a worse political landscape than we do. Nowhere else is the choice between a right wing corporatist party completely run by the rich, and another right wing corporatist party run by the rich.
Wtf? You’re lumping Canada in with Israel? Multiparty democracy is not tortured in Canada, at least not in any way similar to Israel. I honestly don’t even have a clue what you mean.
It gets annoying listening to everything be blamed on the left.
Sanders wins the primary but loses the general - the left is to blame
Biden wins the primary but loses the general - the left is to blame.
Sanders drives away suburban voters and loses the general - the left is to blame
Biden drives away liberal voters and loses the general - the left is to blame
It gets old. The left make up nearly half of the democratic voting establishment, nearly 30 million voters. They also probably make up the bulk of that 1 billion a year in small donor fundraising the democrats enjoy. Also liberals probably make up a huge fraction if not outright majority of volunteers.
Liberals vote consistently more than other democratic groups. They donate more money, they volunteer more. In return they get treated like shit.
I never saw any of you guys speak to suburban purple voters like this about why they should support Sanders if Sanders won the primary. When there were fears Sanders would drive away purple voters in the suburbs it was all ‘we have to stop Sanders’. now that there is fear Biden will drive away leftist voters its hatred and rage against them. Apparently the left dont’ deserve the same level of respect that moderate republicans in the suburbs get.
And yes I’m voting for Biden. But jesus, its sad that in 2020 the best we can do is a guy like him. People need time to mourn that in a nation where 70% of voters are non-whites and women, that our candidate is a gullible centrist who happily sells out his voters and has a history of sexual accusations. Give people time to grieve.
There are a multitude of very real, and very serious issues in America (mostly relating to democracy, economics, health care and sustainability). They aren’t being addressed in a responsible fashion by either party, and all that anger and disappointment isn’t going to go away.
I htink a lot of that comes down to racial resentment and low voter turnout.
Due to racial resentment, a lot of voters honestly don’t give a shit what economic policies a party supports as long as it supports racial resentment. Back when the democrats were truly a party of social democracy (under FDR), southern whites were overwhelmingly democratic because the democrats were the party of racial resentment. After LBJ and the southern strategy most southern whites are overwhelmingly republican despite the republicans being a party of plutocracy. Lots of angry white voters don’t seem to understand or care about politics outside of race and it shows. Southern whites will vote for a socialist party and they will vote for a plutocratic party, just so long as that party supports racial resentment against non-whites.
But also, our voter turnout is low. We get 60% on a good presidential year and 40% on a good midterm year. If our turnout was closer to 80% (which may be possible with automatic voter registration and mandatory voting by mail) our politics would reflect that.
But sadly, our democracy just rewards rural voters more and right now rural voters tend to have high levels of racial animosity. Rural voters have more influence in the house, senate and presidency than urban voters on a per capita level.
Speaking of Don Beyer, he is the author of the Fair Representation Act, a bill which changes the method of electing the House of Representatives in such a way that a Democratic Socialist Party would have a real shot at formal representation in Congress. If Donald and the Republican gang win again, we’ll be at least, at least, another four years before election reform helping third parties is even discussed in a meaningful manner.
If it’s this hard to keep track of what people say and express in the relatively small sandbox of the SDMB, I suggest to you (and everyone) that your personal analysis (and all of our analyses) about how virulent and pervasive the “Bernie or no one” attitude is just might be inaccurate, and based more on our personal bubbles, and our desire to feel a certain way about certain people than some real understanding about the numbers of generally Dem-leaning voters who are planning on staying home.
Mandatory meaning the only option. In some states the default option is to vote in person but you can request a ballot by mail.
In Oregon none of that is accurate, you can’t pick between mail in ballots vs in person, and you don’t request a ballot. In Oregon they automatically register everyone, and they automatically mail ballots to all registered voters. There is no option to vote at a polling place.
A system like that can drive up voter turnout quite a bit.
I know Australia has mandatory voting. It is something we should look into in the US but I’m not sure how we could enforce it.
The reason Joe Biden is the candidate is that more people voted for him than Bernie. The very people who you say Bernie champions looked at him and decided they wanted the other guy. He wasn’t imposed on the USA by Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.
And in November tens of millions of ordinary people will line up to vote for Donald Trump.
Currently the Liberal party has a minority governmentand has to rely on NDP:
Not the first time this has happened in Canada. Not as bad as Israel, I agree. But just wanted to show SenorBeef that a multi-party system has a whole other set of issues to contend with.
