All purpose news and politics thread part v: The quickening

[PwrdOn]

If progressive policies were so "overwhelmingly popular" with the public, then why didn't said public vote for Sanders? Can you answer that? Why didn't the people who believed in Sanders and his policies support him when it mattered most on Super Tuesday? What happened? I've said this before and I'll say it again, I don't give a damn who the candidate is come November, Biden or Sanders, I'll vote for either one as long as he can beat Trump, that's the ONLY thing that matters. If you choose to sulk like a five year old denied cookies before dinner because your guy didn't get the nomination, then YOU have the problem.

Sanders didn't lose the primaries based on policy, and in fact I still haven't seen a good argument from Biden supporters why his platform is better than Bernie's. He lost because everybody was so terrified about this electability thing, and decided to vote for this empty suit candidate instead of the scary socialist. Look, I like most Bernie supporters sucked it up and cast a vote for Clinton in 2016, but honestly I don't see much of a point in doing that this time, because I don't feel like jumping on a sinking ship to demonstrate my loyalty to the party will be worthwhile, especially because I don't live in a particularly competitive state.

[Iron Maiden]

Wonder who they're gonna pick next? AOC is out due to her comments. Omar maybe, but I dont think she's going to be a viable option. Wonder if the YTurks will pick one of their own?

who really pays attention to that junk site anyway? For all it's flaws, I'll stick to traditional news sources.

[Iron Maiden]

Yesterday I saw some of Sander's more toxic supporters talking about wanting to deliberately tank the election so they can run their guy again in 2024 instead of having to wait until 2028. I immediately had a headache and decided that was enough Twitter for one day.

That is insane when you have RBG in frail heal and she is 87. Think long term "progressive" people, like the GOP did to stack the courts.

[Jack Dracula]

Look, I like most Bernie supporters sucked it up and cast a vote for Clinton in 2016, but honestly I don't see much of a point in doing that this time, because I don't feel like jumping on a sinking ship to demonstrate my loyalty to the party will be worthwhile, especially because I don't live in a particularly competitive state.

McConnell Has a Request for Veteran Federal Judges: Please Quit

One good reason.

[Tami]

Trudeau Closes Canada’s Borders to Non-Residents, U.S. Exempted

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday announced a plan to significantly restrict entry of non-residents into the country to combat the spread of the coronavirus.

At a press conference from his residence in Ottawa, where the leader remains in self isolation, Trudeau said the government will be denying entry into the country to all foreigners, except for Americans. Airlines will also receive instruction to prevent all travelers with symptoms of Covid-19 to board a plane.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Trudeau Closes Canada’s Borders to Non-Residents, U.S. Exempted

Trudeau should've included the U.S. Chances are more cases of coronavirus will come from the States than abroad because of proximity alone.

[Celgress]

I sincerely don’t see Biden running again in 2024. I think the presumptive case is that Biden is running to be a one-term president and trying to fix what Trump did. I sincerely don’t see a 81-year-old Biden pushing for a second term in the most stressful and aging job on the planet.

I agree with you. A vote for Biden in the General Election is as much a vote for his running mate as it is for him.

[Celgress]

Trudeau should've included the U.S. Chances are more cases of coronavirus will come from the States than abroad because of proximity alone.

Trudeau is a weak leader, IMO. He recently flubbed the indigenous protest crisis which more or less petered out of its own accord. The underlying issues have yet to be addressed. He is a reactive, not proactive leader with zero vision or sense of direction who lurches blindly from one crisis to the next. Then you have Doug Ford the Premier of Ontario who is a grad A moron. I'm worried about my elderly mother who still lives in Ontario.

[Billy Batson]

If progressive policies were so "overwhelmingly popular" with the public, then why didn't said public vote for Sanders? Can you answer that? Why didn't the people who believed in Sanders and his policies support him when it mattered most on Super Tuesday? What happened? I've said this before and I'll say it again, I don't give a damn who the candidate is come November, Biden or Sanders, I'll vote for either one as long as he can beat Trump, that's the ONLY thing that matters. If you choose to sulk like a five year old denied cookies before dinner because your guy didn't get the nomination, then YOU have the problem.

You said it yourself. Democrats will vote for whatever candidate the democratic establishment and media have picked since they don't care about policies.

[TheDarman]

Sanders didn't lose the primaries based on policy, and in fact I still haven't seen a good argument from Biden supporters why his platform is better than Bernie's. He lost because everybody was so terrified about this electability thing, and decided to vote for this empty suit candidate instead of the scary socialist. Look, I like most Bernie supporters sucked it up and cast a vote for Clinton in 2016, but honestly I don't see much of a point in doing that this time, because I don't feel like jumping on a sinking ship to demonstrate my loyalty to the party will be worthwhile, especially because I don't live in a particularly competitive state.

Maybe because if we have Trump replacing justices like Breyer and RBG, it won’t matter if you get a Sanders or AOC presidency in a few years. All of their policy proposals will be shot down by the Courts. And, yeah, I know it happened with FDR, but, at the time, FDR still had four friendly justices on the Court and only needed one to switch to give him the needed majority to make his policies constitutional. How well will that work when public opinion is more divided about your plans than FDR’s AND there is a 7-2 Conservative majority on the Supreme Court? You don’t have to like Biden. But at least vote to ensure that Medicare For All, should it happen, won’t be struck down by a Conservative court.

[XPac]

Remember that Bernie was leading the polls in virtually all of the Super Tuesday states and was predicted to win pretty decisively, so the results were a surprise not just to progressives but to everyone. And as far as the echo chamber goes, pretty much all of the evidence I've seen suggests that our actual policy ideas are overwhelming popular with the public, only that people tend to disagree with our methods of trying to get there. And given that the consensus among moderates that the way to get what we want is just to keep yielding ground and throwing away leverage, I'm more inclined to believe that it is they who are stuck with the groupthink mentality, and not us. Progressives know that accomplishing any real change in this country will be an extraordinary struggle, and that we'll have to go far beyond sweet rhetoric and promises to get to the kind of society that we want, but it's really hard to build coalitions when we're expected to compromise on everything and aren't promised a damned thing in return. Why exactly should we vote for Biden? He's a terrible candidate who can hardly finish a coherent sentence, and despite what his supporters have deluded themselves into thing, will probably lose badly to Trump in November. We aren't going to just throw our support behind him when we aren't getting any concrete policy promises.

I think first and foremost this just tells you that you take polls with a grain of salt.

As far as progressives voting for Biden... I've said this before, but I think it's as simple as whether or not you consider him as bad as Trump. If you do, don't vote for Biden either. End result won't matter to you, so you might as well vote third party. But if you do, then vote for Biden anyways.

[babyblob]

I agree with you. A vote for Biden in the General Election is as much a vote for his running mate as it is for him.

I think however Biden pick as his VP will have to have a strong presence In the White House and Media to prove that he can do the job after Biden.

[Billy Batson]

Maybe because if we have Trump replacing justices like Breyer and RBG, it won’t matter if you get a Sanders or AOC presidency in a few years. All of their policy proposals will be shot down by the Courts. And, yeah, I know it happened with FDR, but, at the time, FDR still had four friendly justices on the Court and only needed one to switch to give him the needed majority to make his policies constitutional. How well will that work when public opinion is more divided about your plans than FDR’s AND there is a 7-2 Conservative majority on the Supreme Court? You don’t have to like Biden. But at least vote to ensure that Medicare For All, should it happen, won’t be struck down by a Conservative court.

But Biden already promised to veto it.

[XPac]

who really pays attention to that junk site anyway? For all it's flaws, I'll stick to traditional news sources.

I'll admit I've become semi-addicted to all the Young Turk meltdown videos on Youtube.

An uncharitable portion of my mind was secretly hoping Sanders would lose just so I could their reaction. Not the best reason in the world to not root for a candidate.. but it was there.

[XPac]

I sincerely don’t see Biden running again in 2024. I think the presumptive case is that Biden is running to be a one-term president and trying to fix what Trump did. I sincerely don’t see a 81-year-old Biden pushing for a second term in the most stressful and aging job on the planet.

It's kind of sad how old ALL the guys running in this election were. I'm not sure ANY of them could be a 2 term president (outside Trump of course).

Bidens choice for VP should be pretty interesting, especially if we know it's going to be a woman.