10th November 2019, 9:18 PM
Bevin seems to have lost for governor of Kentucky! Weltall must be pretty happy...
But as for the issue of the Democratic primary, if we look only at the top four candidates, the ones most likely to win the nomination -- that is, Biden, Warren, Sanders, and Buttigieg -- of them, on most issues Warren would probably make the best president. Her foreign policy knowledge is quite weak compared to Biden, but for domestic policy she's mostly great. I do think that going straight to medicare for all is possibly a mistake, as it's highly unlikely to happen and going straight for 'we will kill all the health care companies' is probably not going to do well with the voters who will decide this election in those battleground states while 'we will add a public option' is a message that is less bold but probably more likely to win, but even so, she'd be a fantastic president I am sure, quite likely the overall best of our candidates. Sanders might do fine too, but I have a lot more questions about ho well he'd work with congress, etc. As for Buttigieg, he's so young that who knows, but policy-wise I have issues with him. Biden would be a fine president, but he's clearly lost a step from when he was running with Obama, and while he would be the most liberal president in my lifetime if we believe his current policy positions, he's got plenty of issues beyond his age (though he is younger and presumably in better health than Sanders, he hasn't had a heart attack after all), such as his occasional sexist and racist language.
However, we don't live in a vacuum, people have to actually win. And while I am totally fine with people who vote for the candidate they most like the policies of, right now what I want the most is for Trump to lose, which means, because tragically we haven't gotten rid of the horrible electoral college system yet, winning in enough of those states in that poll in my last post that we somehow manage to beat him.
And that's my main problem with Warren -- while she'd be a great president, can she actually beat Trump? Certainly Trump will attack any Democrat with all kinds of lies and slander, but she is one of the easiest for him to attack, with the whole "Pocahontas" thing he's already repeatedly mocked her for, and her gender is sadly clearly a problem, as it was for Hillary. I want there to be a female president, but can Warren win? I'm not convinced that she can. Oh, we're almost certain to win the popular vote, but that is irrelevant in our broken system. Can she win by enough to actually win the electoral college? I'm far from convinced that she can, unfortunately. I think this country's history puts a serious question to the "we need to move farther left to win" thing you have said a lot.
But as for the issue of the Democratic primary, if we look only at the top four candidates, the ones most likely to win the nomination -- that is, Biden, Warren, Sanders, and Buttigieg -- of them, on most issues Warren would probably make the best president. Her foreign policy knowledge is quite weak compared to Biden, but for domestic policy she's mostly great. I do think that going straight to medicare for all is possibly a mistake, as it's highly unlikely to happen and going straight for 'we will kill all the health care companies' is probably not going to do well with the voters who will decide this election in those battleground states while 'we will add a public option' is a message that is less bold but probably more likely to win, but even so, she'd be a fantastic president I am sure, quite likely the overall best of our candidates. Sanders might do fine too, but I have a lot more questions about ho well he'd work with congress, etc. As for Buttigieg, he's so young that who knows, but policy-wise I have issues with him. Biden would be a fine president, but he's clearly lost a step from when he was running with Obama, and while he would be the most liberal president in my lifetime if we believe his current policy positions, he's got plenty of issues beyond his age (though he is younger and presumably in better health than Sanders, he hasn't had a heart attack after all), such as his occasional sexist and racist language.
However, we don't live in a vacuum, people have to actually win. And while I am totally fine with people who vote for the candidate they most like the policies of, right now what I want the most is for Trump to lose, which means, because tragically we haven't gotten rid of the horrible electoral college system yet, winning in enough of those states in that poll in my last post that we somehow manage to beat him.
And that's my main problem with Warren -- while she'd be a great president, can she actually beat Trump? Certainly Trump will attack any Democrat with all kinds of lies and slander, but she is one of the easiest for him to attack, with the whole "Pocahontas" thing he's already repeatedly mocked her for, and her gender is sadly clearly a problem, as it was for Hillary. I want there to be a female president, but can Warren win? I'm not convinced that she can. Oh, we're almost certain to win the popular vote, but that is irrelevant in our broken system. Can she win by enough to actually win the electoral college? I'm far from convinced that she can, unfortunately. I think this country's history puts a serious question to the "we need to move farther left to win" thing you have said a lot.
Dark Jaguar Wrote:At this point, Biden is also conceding and using a super pac. He's entirely unlikable, he's sundowning, he's against efforts tthat will actually save the world, and he's against real medicare for all and is actively damaging the fight for it. I have family members that are depending on this, and he's against it, so yes, I'm against him because his policy will kill my mom, and that's not hyperbole. I detest Biden.The more moderate wing of the Democratic Party -- Biden, Klobuchar, Buttigieg, and such -- are in favor of a public option, which would eventually end up with us almost certainly having medicare for all, but through a vector that can actually happen, and in a way the public will actually support. A public option is highly likely to be far better than the for-profit insurance companies, and I am sure we would eventually get to the same point the Sanders/Warren plan would... except, again, it would actually happen, while there's no chance whatsover that I can see of "medicare for all" actually passing. I'm not sure if it is a good idea or not, I don't like the health insurance companies at all, but regardless of who we elect, congress isn't passing something which gets rid of every insurance company! No way. Getting a public option through probably wouldn't be easy either, and probably would depend on winning the Senate, but it's definitely possible.