2020 Elections: It's not just about Biden vs Trump (congress, minorities, rec. drugs, etc)

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Wednesday November 04, 2020 · 2:02 AM PST

2020/11/04 · 02:02

I know we need to get rid of Trump BUT looks like that vile creature, Mitch McConnell will still be majority leader.

Democrats not holding the senate is devastating as this was the cycle to pick up seats. Even more depressing, is Democrats dropping House seats—some in BLUE districts, in THIS cycle, with THIS turnout against THIS president. WTF? ? Really curious about that and how we think that could’ve happened. Trump we can say Trumpers’ going to Trump, but this one is hard to explain.

Biden vs Trump will get the headlines but congress was going to be just as important. It’s been a bad day. We’re in a pandemic, and the party of Qanoners and anti-healthcare is making gains in congress in as harsh an environment as it can get for them.

The other sad development is we lost ground with minorities. This is not a good long term trend and I hope in future elections, we will actively campaign and speak to them, and not assume they’re our default. Republicans getting ~30+ of the minority vote means we’re relying on voters with more of a “natural” affinity for republicans. Mr. MuslimBanMexicanRapists making gains with minorities?

To the extant that there’s something to feel good about, it’s that there are wins for more progressive recreational drug policy—even places like South Dakota are decriminalizing marijuana, and DC legalizing psychedelics, and Oregon decriminalizing drugs all together.

One worrying legacy of POTUS 45: A Hawkish Left?

superseiyan

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Sunday October 13, 2019 · 12:12 PM PDT

2019/10/13 · 12:12

Short entry here—but basically I hope our side isn’t increasingly sympathetic to neocons or to warmonger types. I”m not ONLY talking about the current alarming tragic situation in Turkey, but the general foreign policy stance and language.

We don’t have to be 100% isolationist, Ron Paul style, but also I get nervous when we echo “tough guy” cowboy Republican talk. I mean the fact that he doesn’t listen to warmongering neocon experts is actually a good thing! Imagine a trigger happy President Rubio.

On foreign policy, the problem with Trump is not that he has isolationist sensibilities and that he’s ok using carrots more than Republicans are. It’s that he’s corrupt AF (Ukraine). It’s that he’s amoral (chumminess Saudi Arabia). The problem is not being willing to talk face to face with Kim Jong-Un. The problem is he genuinely, alarmingly admires and wants to be a strongman like them.

So the problem is Trump himself. Let’s not lose sight of that—the problem isn’t a restrained USA; trying to avoid wars; etc. All things that the NeoCons hate.

I just hope a new hawkish left doesn’t emerge.

The scariest thing about Donald Trump

superseiyan

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Wednesday March 30, 2016 · 1:00 PM PDT

2016/03/30 · 13:00

….is that Ted Cruz is quietly being positioned by the media as the “reasonable guy”. TED CRUZ!

The country dodged one extremist in Little Marco, but Lyin’ Ted is more intelligent than Little Marco.

Trump says crazy stuff like today on abortion and the other day on Muslims, but we need to ask if Ted Cruz agrees actually. What is Ted Cruz’s view on abortion?

I’d also like to see the left blogger, media and the HRC and Sanders campaigns hit Cruz as hard as they are going after Trump.

The problem with making Trump, and only Trump the caricature of Republicans is that if he’s out of the picture they can then pretend to be reasonable and principled. We can’t let that happen.

Like take this latest abortion flashpoint. So conservatives are again feigning outrage. WILL ANYONE ASK THEM WHAT *THEY* THINK OF ABORTION, AND WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN TO WOMEN THAT GET ABORTIONS IF ROE VS. WADE IS REPEALED?

Times a million, Trump’s the symptom, not the disease.

The Right doesn't get to disown Trump

superseiyan

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Saturday March 12, 2016 · 9:58 AM PST

2016/03/12 · 09:58

Guys, media, Daily Kos senior bloggers—can we not let the right get away with sweeping Trump under the rug and pretending he has nothing to do with them? Looking at this Chicago stuff four things stand out to me:

Faux outrage by the right: Their opinion leaders, the likes of NRO, Redstate, Erik effin Erickson (!!!), etc are supposedly shocked and appalled. But these are the people that are ok with torture, that othered Obama, and that are unapologetic islamophobes and homophobes. Trump is the product of their own hate. This is the culmination of their southern strategy. They need to be called out on it repeatedly by bloggers, pundits, etc. They don’t get to sanitize their role in this.
Moral equivalence: This where very very serious people frame Trump as general hostility to the status-quo. The likes of Ross Douthat and Ron Fournier. They basically are trying to say first that “Trump is a creation of Obama” and even more laughable but at the same time enraging, is their habit of saying Trump on the right = Bernie on the left in terms of passion & resentment. Or that Trump as a flawed candidate = Hillary as a flawed candidate. WTFingF is this BS?????? Bernie crowds are not ravenous hyenas for one and HRC is not Donald Trump, WTF.
“Media coverage” as a scapegoat: Yes, Trump has free press. No the free press didn’t cause this shit. Going back to my first point, when the good folks on redstate are looking for why this happened, how about they look in the mirror?
Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz: Aren’t they creatures of the tea party? Isn’t THIS the culmination of Tea Party anger? Sunny, cheerful, opitmistic Little Marco didn’t have a problem riding the Tea Party and doesn’t have a problem saying Obama is “deliberately destorying” the USA does he? F him. Cruz was pretending to be BFFs with Trump when it fit his electoral calcultions until a week before Iowa wasn’t he? F him. They don’t get to pretend that “this isn’t who Republicans are”. It IS exactly who you are.

The mainstream media also adopts the above two frames instead of calling it out. This is one of the more unfortunate things. There is going to be ZERO honest reflection of how Trump happened i.e. politicians from the right inciting and fostering the conditions for what we’re seeing today in Trump voters.

The public needs to be reminded a million times that this is what the GOP has cultivated.

Rubio: The "reasonable, consensus, moderate" re-considered

superseiyan

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Tuesday February 09, 2016 · 6:48 AM PST

2016/02/09 · 06:48

I used to be scared of this dude, and still am a little nervous because of his youth thing and he used to be smooth. However, two things are making me relax a little. First, I hadn’t seen him under pressure, I guess because he’d never really been under pressure. Second, his politics are actually, rather extreme. And what’s surprising “strategically” is that he’s not even obfuscating. He’s straight saying it—and he’s getting a pass so far from the media.

He has this reputation as a reasonable cheerful moderate because he attacks Obama’s “divisiveness” and talks about “bringing American’s together” and because he’s soft on immigration. But

He’s a bigger war monger than Jeb! (think about that for a second—a bigger war monger than a Bush!!!!).
He has the most extreme women’s reproductive rights position I’ve ever seen by a mainstream candidate.
He’s for the biggest tax cuts of any of them running.
He’s a huge anti-muslim bigot.
He’s all in on surveillance.
He wants to roll back gay rights.

This doesn’t sound like the platform of tomorrow and surely the Sanders or Clinton campaigns would remind the general electorate about that? Rubio is more “moderate” than Cruz in temperament and tactics sure. But on policy, this dude is to the right of Cruz. Thing about Rubio, is that I’m now beginning to doubt that he’s even as smooth as Romney. I don’t think he has the skill to pull of the etch-a-sketch.

GOP & the Southern Strategy: Electoral Karma

superseiyan

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Friday August 21, 2015 · 7:56 AM PDT

2015/08/21 · 07:56

Today there are THREE offerings by conservative "elites" who are lamenting the tone and divisiveness of immigration.

There's Domenech, over at the Federalist asking, "Are Republicans For Freedom or White Identity Politics?" (that HAS to be a rhetorical question):

“Identity politics for white people” is not the same thing as “racism”, nor are the people who advocate for it necessarily racist, though of course the categories overlap.
...

If a large – sorry, yuge – portion of the country wants existing bipartisan immigration laws to be enforced, and one party tells them “Yes,” but means “No,” and the other party tells them, “No” but means “You’re a racist,” then it’s only a matter of time before some disruptor is going to emerge to call them out for their game.

Elite consensus indifference to public opinion has created a vacuum

...

Then there is the token moderate, Michael Gerson, who is the Washington Post's answer to David Brooks who is pleading GOP candidates to avoid saying they agree with Trump:

When it comes to Trump, some conservatives have adopted the strategy of saying “There are some good points here, but . . . ” and “He is tapping into some real anxiety, but . . . ” It is an approach that effectively legitimizes Trump’s disturbing enterprise. He is not making a series of arguments about the role of immigration in depressing wages or increasing unemployment. He is choosing an enemy in order to organize and direct public anger. There is a difference between striking a populist chord and feeding cultural resentment with racial overtones.

O RLY? The GOP has been feeding cultural resentment about "others" for DECADES. Remember the existential threat by gay marriage and muslims?

Finally, we have warmonger, Krauthammer, imploring the GOP to back off:

The Democrats’ presumptive candidate is flailing badly. Republicans have an unusually talented field with a good chance of winning back the presidency. Do they really want to be dragged into the swamps — right now, on immigration — that will make that prospect electorally impossible?
Yes, I understand. The anger, the frustration, etc., etc., that Trump is channeling. But how are these alleviated by yelling “I’m mad as hell” — and proceeding to elect Hillary Clinton?

Krauthammer if you remember had a genius suggestion for the GOP to solve their problems. He basically called on them to fold completely 100% surrender on immigration, and change absolutely nothing else.

None of these very serious adult mature conservative pundits have put out a self-reflection on what has pretty much been the official electoral strategy of the GOP

You start out in 1954 by saying, “Nigger, nigger, nigger.” By 1968 you can’t say “nigger”—that hurts you, backfires. So you say stuff like, uh, forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff, and you’re getting so abstract. Now, you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, blacks get hurt worse than whites.… “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, uh, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “Nigger, nigger.” - Lee Atwater, former GOP Campaign Consultant

Karma's a bitch people. You reap what you sow.

No, early polls are NOT "meaningless"

superseiyan

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Monday August 17, 2015 · 12:01 PM PDT

2015/08/17 · 12:01

Can we stop parroting the conventional wisdom that early polls are meaningless? Both on the left with Sanders doing better than expected, or on the right with Trump not going away*, you can't say that the polls don't mean anything. People love to tout Giuliani's poll numbers in August 2007, but that misses the point. It's not that polls this far out predict the winner. It's that they have a clear influence on: Debates, the ability of the eventual nominee to credibly do the etch-a-sketch thing, the eventual party platform, the view of the party to onlooking moderates (moderates, NOT independents who are generally undercover GOP types), etc.

Let me put it this way, if polls didn't matter, if Trump was polling 2% in Iowa, would Scott Walker have cowered and said, "his immigration plan is very similar to Trumps" and added that "we should have something like in Israel and Palestine?" (probably thought he sounded smart on this last bit when really he done effed up even more than Romney's "self-deportation" stuff).

Looking at team Blue, whether you support Sanders or Hillary, Sanders polling within touching distance in NH and having sizable national support is good because it will improve the content of the Democrat party platform for 2016, because Sanders is talking about good stuff. If people want to go out and see this Sanders guy who is challenging Clinton in the polls and pulling in crowds, that is GOOD.

* BTW, this is a separate issue but I HATE how the MSM frames Sanders = Trump. The MSM is really awful sometime.

Obama in Kenya: That was just magical

superseiyan

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Sunday July 26, 2015 · 4:45 PM PDT

2015/07/26 · 16:45

What a historic moment. What a man. We will miss him. He is one for the ages.

Here is his speech in full, well worth watching in full. He knew his audience and exactly how to push for change without lecturing or making us feel small.

Bonus points for unapologetically calling himself "KENYAN"-American and talking confederate flag, it's like he's basically kicking the right-wing in the nuts, they won't like that hyphenating at all will they?

Watch the speech in it's entirety on YouTube (don't know how to embed the video).

ELI5: Why is "religous freedom" not acceptable?

superseiyan

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Sunday July 12, 2015 · 8:34 AM PDT

2015/07/12 · 08:34

I come in peace and I'm asking to be educated. I support the Supreme Court's ruling on gay marriage, but I find the "religious freedom" argument sympathetic--as refers to NON-GOVERNMENTAL entities. In that regard, if a priest in a church (a church, not a county court) won't marry a gay couple why should they be sued and sentenced to one year in jail like the current Vermont case? Why can't a restaurant owner refuse to bake a wedding cake without getting their livelihood destroyed? That part I don't understand. I support gay marriage, but if we're talking about private people and entities, I don't get why they have to be coerced to act in any certain way. Isn't that rather authoritarian? I feel like there is a simple rationale that I'm not seeing, or that I'm buying into some dishonest conservative narrative--hence this diary asking fellow Kossites to set me straight--in layman's terms. Is the answer to my question as simple as substituting "black" for "gay"?

EDIT: I am asking from genuine ignorance, and seeking to debunk right-wing talking points. At it's face the "religious freedom" argument DOES seem sympathetic provided it's not being applied in the public sector. Hence, I'm seeking to understand. Nothing more, nothing less. I am a gay marriage SUPPORTER, but nonetheless apologies if this is offensive to anyone.

superseiyan

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Sunday June 28, 2015 · 3:15 PM PDT

2015/06/28 · 15:15

There's a lot of chatter from the MSM intellegitsia that supposedly, the ACA, Confederate Flag and Gay Marriage have been a NET GAIN for them.

The argument is basically that with that stuff off the table, they can hammer Ds on national security and the economy.

Their arguments are like this:

Dear fellow gay Americans: now that marriage equality is here there is no sane reason to be a Democrat.
— Chris Barron (@ChrisRBarron) June 26, 2015

Many establishment type righties were salivating over Martin's New York Times column, where he made this argument saying that, "As Left Wins Culture Battles, G.O.P. Gains Opportunity to Pivot for 2016". From his NYT column:

Collectively, this optimistic thinking would have it, June will go down as the month that dulled some of the wedge issues Democrats were hoping to wield next year.

Lastly we have Lindsey Graham today waving the white flag on Meet the Press.

Now it's a GOOD thing if they put away the pitch forks, but I think they're mistaken on economic and national security issues.

The problem is that the media is probably economically conservative, but, Dems are on the right side of issues like minimum wage, "sharing the pain", environment, etc. We just need a good messenger. Awkward as Hillary supposedly is, she's good at explaining and connecting on bread and butter issues (a pity about her relatively close wall street ties though).

On national security, if they think people are eager for world war 3, then good luck with that.

Anyway, I disagree that their base will let them pivot from social issues that easily. If anything the shouts will be louder right now.

Clinton Foundation and D overconfidence?

superseiyan

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Thursday February 26, 2015 · 7:12 AM PST

2015/02/26 · 07:12

First of all, no this is not a "debbie downer" but an assessment of the landscape. The other side operate in an echo chamber and bury their heads in the sand--we should be all about political reality (granted we should also work to persuade the electorate).

Second, this is NOT about ideological purity.

Anyway, I've been seeing stuff about the Clinton Foundation which I had dismissed as smears. The latest news though about the Algeria government stuff is making me nervous. The problem is it appears potentially corrupt, all about big money and not very transparent. In this political climate that's a disadvantage.

My fear is that the GOP nominate a reasonable, charismatic sounding and looking ticket (Rubio/Ayotte, Bush/Martinez, etc) that appears all fresh and revolutionary vs. "crony, entitled more of the same" Clinton.

Team blue officials should make sure they are constantly advocating for fresh, bold ideas and they should NOT run from Obama. Especially with the possibility of high-profile re-runs in 2016 (Strickland, Feingold, etc) we can't afford to appear like the party of "more of the same".

We know the Grande "tea" Party has lurched to the right, but they are getting smarter and putting out younger candidates that lie while smiling instead of shouting and look good on TV (see: Cory Gardner).

We need to pummel them with both good candidates and ideas.

Executive Immigration = Obamacare = Policy & Politcal Winner

superseiyan

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Wednesday November 19, 2014 · 9:47 AM PST

2014/11/19 · 09:47

The pending Executive Order on immigration has similarities to Obamacare.

- The pundits are screaming for something "bipartisan" yet...

- The policy itself is already bipartisan in terms of policy

- It will probably never be popular in the abstract.

- Some of the dissaproval is probably from the left, just like for Obamacare. This is conveniently never reported on by the pundits and the MSM that is supposedly in the tank.

- Most importantly, like attempting universal health care, this is simply the moral and correct thing to do. Just as there are tangible benefits from healthcare, there will be from this executive order. Shouldn't conservatives who value FAMILY be all about Obamacare and all about minimizing deportations? Shouldn't conservatives who love big business be all about a captive market for insurance companies and a larger labor pool?

Lastly on this issue, again the analysis misses the point in thinking that Democrats will be punished for this at the poll. Well is ANY pundit even wondering whether:

1. It will be viable for the GOP 2016 presidential candidate to repeal and executive order on immigration?

2. Whether blue state Republican senators up in reelection are off the hook? I don' t think they are. Let's make Flake, Kirk and Rubio vote against immigrants and we see how easily they can do it.

Basically, though, we need Team Blue to hold the line. Obama is sometimes plays for the mid- to long-term while some of his allies are stuck poll watching (and even then, they misread the polls) and paying attention to GOP demagoguery. If Democrats start splitting they allow the narrative to turn into bipartisan opposition and they also let Republicans off the hook in 2016. It would be political malpractice and extremely short-sighted cowardice for Democrats to start jumping ship on this one.

Look how shrill and loud the voices are from the other side. They are scared.

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