Failure to exploit our resources doesn’t do any damage to our environment. Fracking is filthy, it’s poisoning our ground water and causing earthquakes.
Nonsense. We transition those jobs to clean energy. Exploiting the sun, the wind and ocean waves doesn’t destroy or pollute anything.
If we don’t frack, we build our clean energy reasources.
Since when? Until you guys get your hands on the reins, they’re a hell of a lot more stable and they provide better benefits.
I assure you, under President Sanders, all government contract jobs will stipulate minimum pay rates for workers. And the country will be thrilled to pay hard-working people a decent wage to get their roads, bridges, sewer systems, et al updated and modernized. We’re downright clamoring for it.
Over-reacting to every poll and media created issue (between candidates, that is) was part of Hillary’s problem vs. Obama. I think she’s doing the right thing by laying low.
I honestly don’t see Bernie as the Dem nominee. I think people are responding to is economic message (and hey, I like it, too), but enthusiasm will fade once we get closer and more topics come to the fore. It’s great to have a candidate in the race who “tells it like it its”, but that isn’t always the best quality in a president.
Obama was able to appear more and more ‘presidential’ as the primaries went on. If Bernie can do that, then he’s got a shot. I don’t think he can, but a lot of people didn’t think Obama could either.
I’ll be very surprised if Sanders can pull an Obama. He doesn’t have the same political skills or narrative appeal. At a superficial level, he’s a 73-year-old white guy who has been a congressman for a quarter of a century without a ton to show for it. His claim to the change label rests largely on the fact that he is a Socialist.
Now, I get that there’s more to him than superficialities. His political record is not especially radical. He’s been a good friend to veterans. He’s got a long history of being on the right side of foreign policy and national security issues. He comes across as genuine and sincere–and is probably both, or as much as any politician is.
But the superficialities matter to the narrative. And I suspect it will take an exceptional politician to overcome them. I haven’t seen him demonstrate those political chops yet. Promising people a $15/hr. wage and free tuition will win him votes. But I suspect that’s not enough, especially if the economy is about where it is now for the next two years.
He’s offering one hell of a lot more than a $15 minimum wage. You should be paying attention. His biggest appeal isn’t even economic, it’s democratic: No more corporate influence in government. And that’s the message that’s resonating. He’s not going to sell us out to Big Oil interests over environmental concerns. He’s quite clear that he’s against the KeystoneXL pipeline, for instance. You know what Hillary’s position is on that? Do you know why you don’t know her position on that?
Because when she was asked, she had the gall to say that if it’s still an issue when she becomes president, she’ll give us an answer then.
The arrogance and lack of understanding how campaigning for president works is appalling.
The more she opens her mouth, the more people she turns off. She’s going to lose this nomination and she’s going to lose it big.
She’s for TPP and moving jobs overseas, she’s for fracking, she thinks better wages will just trickle down on us plebes. People are sick to death of that shit. Sick of it.
And unless or until you’ve been to one of Sanders’ rallies, you can hardly opine on his oratory skills. He’s killing it.
You know, there’s a reason that politicians speak carefully and don’t often give straight answers. ‘Straight talk’, even when a politician is making a reasonable point, often turns off big portions of the electorate. Now, maybe Bernie can be the first one to ride it all the way to the white house, but the historical odds are not in his favor.
Sounds like you are endorsing her current strategy, then.
Bwahahaha! That’s your defense for her passing the buck when a constituent asks where she stands in an important issue? “I may stick my foot in my mouth so I’m just not going to give you the information you might need to determine if I’m fit to lead this country.” That’s your answer? Holy crap that’s as dumb as hers!
But yes I’m loving her current strategy. At this rate, she may as well just drop out and nothing would make me happier.
Elvis, we had this conversation eight years ago. I don’t need to remind you how that turned out, do i? Hillary Clinton is unelectable. She won’t win this time exactly like she didn’t win last time.
I think he has a few ideas that work well for medium-information voters. One is a high federal minimum wage. Another is the claim that Citizens United drastically increased corporate power in Washington or fundamentally changed the law. A third is that the “real unemployment” is much higher than the government will reveal, and that a government that really cared would create lots of jobs. A fourth is that reversing free trade policies will be great for the economy.
Many people don’t vote on policy at all. And as I said, I’m not sure he has a ton to offer them other than an aura of authenticity that I think will probably fade. And people who really care about policy mostly know that those ideas are bad ones. So my gut says he cannot capture a majority of the broad tent that is the Democratic party, for much the same reason that Trump or Cruz is unlikely to get the GOP nod by promising to build a wall.
Union workers build jet engines in my district now. Presumably union workers would build and maintain windmills and install solar farms. And union workers will mine or recycle much of the aluminum, copper, and rare earth metals, I’m guessing.
Long term, that probably doesn’t match up to the man-hours from coal mining, but even longer-term, fossil fuels are really bad news for the economy. So, it depends on what timescale you’re looking at.
Because I’ve watched and listened to and interviewed his supporters, so I know what they’re saying and because I’ve been at one of those packed-arena rallies he held and I listened there too.
I find it curious that you consider those who are suppnorting him 15 months before the election, three months before the first debate and five months before the primaries start, to be "medium-information voters."9
People who actually care about policy know that those are the only way we’re ever going to fix this broken mess. And stop comparing this sane, brilliant, kind-hearted man with those racist, hateful slime buckets on the right. There simply is no comparison and that crap is really getting old.
