2020 Elections

[ciao_yall]

Updating: Sanders is obviously toast.

Yeah. And it's too bad, because this is the time for the new New Deal he's been talking about, and it's the time when the country needs his policies and when that need is at its most evident. Hell, it's the time when crappy short-term versions of those policies are being seriously proposed!

I'm pretty sure Biden is toast now too, though. He's been nowhere, and it's a time when he, as the presumptive nominee, should be rallying Democrats together and doing his utmost to ensure that they get to work on quick, effective, and wide-ranging policy. It's his chance to show his leadership skills and point out incessantly how Trump and the Republicans are dropping the ball. Instead, the Democrats are completely out of touch and ineffectual (which isn't surprising, since they've spent the last year dithering and trying to smother the Sanders agenda, which is exactly what they now need to enact). The Republicans and the President are worse, to be sure, but that's not what it's going to look like when the dust settles and they've had months to point to things they tried and did and to spin the narrative.

I suspect that the leadership vacuum favours the status quo, and Trump's current polling seems to bear that out.

Too soon to roast/toast Biden. The narratives of the current crisis are only just being written and will be revised continuously in the weeks to come.

Where is Biden?  Now, admittedly, I tend only to read the headlines, but I haven't seen his name in the news very much this last week.  I'm not saying he should be setting up a shadow government, but it's definitely in his interest that we remember that he exists and think of him as at least intellectually active during this period.

I wonder if his advisers are telling him, "Just keep your head down, sir.  Trump will f--k this up, and you'll be the only alternative.  No need to say anything."  That may work, but it's risky business.

I would rather Biden be proposing smart things to do than just taking whiny potshots at whatever Trump does.

[mahagonny]

Riskier than letting him speak?

[writingprof]

Riskier than letting him speak?

It's lines like this that make me think that Trump's strategy--convince America that Sleepy Joe will nap all day while hard leftists run the country in his name--has a chance to work.

[Anselm]

Riskier than letting him speak?

It's lines like this that make me think that Trump's strategy--convince America that Sleepy Joe will nap all day while hard leftists run the country in his name--has a chance to work.

I want to hear more of his stories about Corn Pop.   

I guess that we are seeing less of him since you can't have mass gatherings anymore.   TV interviews may be pointless since people are more interested in the current pandemic. 

[Ruralguy]

Are they?  I'm at my limit. When I want to, I can look up stats online.
If I feel like reading a story,  I will, but I am sick of all of tv being the 24-7 Corona Network.

[jimbogumbo]

Are they?  I'm at my limit. When I want to, I can look up stats online.
If I feel like reading a story,  I will, but I am sick of all of tv being the 24-7 Corona Network.

You need to change your channel. Right now for example one of the Lifetime channels is airing Psycho Stripper (I am a guide checker). I actually texted my daughter one night last week when they were showing Revenge for Daddy. It reminded of the wonderful line from that classic(?) Red Dawn, "Avenge me son! Avenge me!"

Yes, you will have to lower your standards, but the awfulness is amazingly enjoyable, and quite the palate cleanse from reality.

[writingprof]

I can't hear enough about his travails in South African prisons.  "You can't arrest me!  I'm Middle-Class Joe!"

[Parasaurolophus]

I guess that we are seeing less of him since you can't have mass gatherings anymore.   TV interviews may be pointless since people are more interested in the current pandemic.

Partly. But just before the pandemic, his team was already hard at work to limit his public appearances (he even started handing out FAQ leaflets to journalists in lieu of answering questions). The pandemic is clearly a convenient way of providing cover for the strategy they always planned to adopt anyway.

[mahagonny]

Let him stay indoors. I hope Old Joe doesn't get sick. I'm hoping to vote for him. He's not perfect but he'll do.

[Parasaurolophus]

Meanwhile, the Sanders campaign has been using its staffers and volunteers to raise money for coronavirus relief.

[mamselle]

Here's a what-if....

What if Romney somehow got the Republican nomination (say Trump just completely lost it, or something...), and Biden were up against him?

Having seen the former's integrity, it might be a harder choice between the two than one might think.

Other things equal, I might still take Biden...have seen R. in action before, and he's not perfect, either.

But it just occurred it me.

What if?

M.

[spork]

Will never happen. Trump has hollowed out the Republican party and Elaine Chao is still Secretary of Transportation.

[secundem_artem]

Will never happen. Trump has hollowed out the Republican party and Elaine Chao is still Secretary of Transportation.

From the NY Time Sunday Magazine article on Bernie:

"In defeat, Sanders has prompted a reckoning within the Democratic Party. He has forced upon it an airing of ideological differences, compelling progressives and moderates to choose their leader and then make the case in public. Since the rise of the Tea Party, self-described "principled conservatives" like Senators Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton have claimed that they, too, yearn for such a debate with the Republican Party's center-right establishment, only to opt for Trumpism instead."

So Bernie (and probably Warren) have started actions that may result in a Tea Party equivalent of the left (The Herbal Tea Party??).  This is a good thing.  As both parties stand right now, they act to amplify the passions of the social justice left or the  red meat right.  If the Tea Party would actually cleave off into a separate party and there was an equivalent from the left, then both the R's and the D's would have to operate from the middle - where most people live.

[RatGuy]

My experience may not be reflective of the nation as a whole, as I live in a deeply red state. My college town seems to be split between Warren and Sanders supporters. My Warren friends are saying they'll hold their nose and vote for Biden. My Sanders colleagues and friends (both here and online) are claiming that they're all voting for Trump. Since we've left campus, at least two of my colleagues--instructors in my department!!-- have posted to social media that COVID-19 is a "hoax" designed by the DNC to take the wind out of the Sanders campaign's sails. Four years ago they loved "Uncle Joe", and now they want to bury him. It's all very bewildering.

[marshwiggle]

My Sanders colleagues and friends (both here and online) are claiming that they're all voting for Trump.

This is a fascinating glimpse into the power of populism, regardless of ideology. I don't think many people would have imagined this kind of thing even 10 years ago.