2020 Presidential Election

[C0LLETTE]

Bravo Cathexis!
I am so tired of people thinking that they are fighting a battle from Square One and ignoring the blood, courage, determination, and , frankly, remarkably intelligent genius that came before.

Bring on your inspiring leaders, those who can lead us into the future with great ideas. Till then admire with great gratitude those who could do that and did.

[dark_crystal]

Originally Posted by C0LLETTE

Bravo Cathexis!
I am so tired of people thinking that they are fighting a battle from Square One and ignoring the blood, courage, determination, and , frankly, remarkably intelligent genius that came before.

Bring on your inspiring leaders, those who can lead us into the future with great ideas. Till then admire with great gratitude those who could do that and did.

We’re not going to get anywhere by telling half the population that their experience means nothing bc they missed the Summer of Love. Nobody under age 60 was old enough to participate in “the real struggle.” Scoffing at people who had the audacity to be born in the 70s does not drive turnout. Or are we thinking we can beat Trump without the 18-34 (or 48! I’m 48 and y’all are going all “you damn kids” on me) vote?

[Martina]

Economically, it's a much bleaker world to get by in now. Yes, there's less institutional and casual racism and homophobia, but economic inequality has destroyed the prospects for many young people. It's a totally different economy. There's way more poverty and much less chance of climbing out of it.

When Hillary began her campaign, they wouldn't refer to economic inequality. Obama was out there campaigning for her saying things are great, that there are just a few pockets of misery that remain. The popularity of Bernie's message and later the election of Trump forced them to wake up. But the question is how could they have been so out of touch.

Biden's comments prove he is still woefully out of touch. I don't like it. However, I would still vote for him. One of the ways we can begin to emerge from this death of neoliberalism is by strengthening unions, and I trust Biden to do that. He's not my first pick, and there are mainstream Dems I wouldn't vote for, but I would still cast a ballot for Biden against Trump.

[ksrainbow]

... being that the electoral college has the final *vote* in every presidential election: my vote does not always guarantee my voice was the most popular.

Ks-

p.s.: the Electrical College is set by gerrymandered districts who suppress voter turnout.

[Martina]

Ks, I know the selection of electors is political, but don't they just follow the voting at state level, meaning if the popular vote in the entire state goes to a candidate, then all electors, regardless of party, vote for that candidate? I know a couple of states split them. Maine?

I know it's not legally required, and I kind of wish they hadn't done it the last time, but . . . .

Originally Posted by ksrainbow

p.s.: the Electrical College is set by gerrymandered districts who suppress voter turnout.

[C0LLETTE]

Originally Posted by dark_crystal

We’re not going to get anywhere by telling half the population that their experience means nothing bc they missed the Summer of Love. Nobody under age 60 was old enough to participate in “the real struggle.” Scoffing at people who had the audacity to be born in the 70s does not drive turnout. Or are we thinking we can beat Trump without the 18-34 (or 48! I’m 48 and y’all are going all “you damn kids” on me) vote?

No one is going "you damned kids" on a middle-aged 48 y/0. Someone is trying to point out that maybe her political views, and the courage to maintain/act on them did not just pop out of some seashell on a beach.

BTW, unless you really insist, I am happily done with this aspect of the thread.
Thank you.

[dark_crystal]

Originally Posted by C0LLETTE

No one is going "you damned kids" on a middle-aged 48 y/0. Someone is trying to point out that maybe her political views, and the courage to maintain/act on them did not just pop out of some seashell on a beach.

BTW, unless you really insist, I am happily done with this aspect of the thread.
Thank you.

i am pretty sure everyone's participation here has been voluntary.

All i said was that Biden is a dumbass for saying the 60s were harder than now. I did not say that anyone's politics popped out of a seashell.

I could say that today's gay teens don't know real struggle because they weren't there with me watching the government kill my friends. But i don't say that because it does not matter that it might be true, as it is not in any way productive.

Say you're a 16-year-old lesbian getting bullied my grown adults on facebook bc your school elected you prom king. Would it help you for me to say "oh cry me a river, at least you don't have AIDS?"

[C0LLETTE]

You insist. OK :

Actually, it would be useful to say "Wow, you got elected prom king. Congratulations! But please do remember, hard as it is, a lot of people probably worked hard and suffered a great deal to get us to this point. Being prom king would have been unthinkable then."

[kittygrrl]

i think all our experience is relevant and we can learn things from each other-we need to stick together and be supportive of all views-that's what we have going for us is our diversity, intelligence and ability to compromise.

[Martina]

I think it's important for people to remember the past, but not so they are grateful or even inspired. The fact is that the past contains possibilities that seem closed off to us now.

Republicans prior to Reagan weren't, for the most part, rabid deregulators. So many things we feel are almost impossible goals now were accepted from the end of the war through the seventies. I wish people knew that.

I don't care if today's activists appreciate what previous folk did, even the terrible loss of life. I would just like it if they had a sense of the world before Reagan when corporate greed had not corrupted most aspects of life. People label as socialist policies that Nixon supported.

We are lying to kids about their future prospects. We don't have the jobs anymore to support most people as middle class workers unless we really tax the rich, create a high minimum wage, and do unprecedented things to make housing affordable. That looks like, and is, socislist. Before we exported jobs and gutted viable businesses to sell them for parts, before our economy was based on finance and services for the rich, it was possible to be a working person and own a house. You could send your kids to college, take vacations, afford health care. We won't be going back to that without also returning to pre-Reagan tax rates. We will never go back to that without changes that seem extremely radical to most Americans. But no Republican of even the Reagan era could have foreseen how fast and deep the decline of the working and middle classes would be.

[dark_crystal]

Originally Posted by Martina

I think it's important for people to remember the past, but not so they are grateful or even inspired. The fact is that the past contains possibilities that seem closed off to us now.

Republicans prior to Reagan weren't, for the most part, rabid deregulators. So many things we feel are almost impossible goals now were accepted from the end of the war through the seventies. I wish people knew that.

I don't care if today's activists appreciate what previous folk did, even the terrible loss of life. I would just like it if they had a sense of the world before Reagan when corporate greed had not corrupted most aspects of life. People label as socialist policies that Nixon supported.

We are lying to kids about their future prospects. We don't have the jobs anymore to support most people as middle class workers unless we really tax the rich, create a high minimum wage, and do unprecedented things to make housing affordable. That looks like, and is, socislist. Before we exported jobs and gutted viable businesses to sell them for parts, before our economy was based on finance and services for the rich, it was possible to be a working person and own a house. You could send your kids to college, take vacations, afford health care. We won't be going back to that without also returning to pre-Reagan tax rates. We will never go back to that without changes that seem extremely radical to most Americans. But no Republican of even the Reagan era could have foreseen how fast and deep the decline of the working and middle classes would be.

In 2016 i would get really mad when i felt like progressives seemed to want to de-emphasize social justice in favor of economic justice.

This remark of Biden's really makes the point about that, though. Because all of the struggles he pointed to, with the exception of the draft, were minority struggles. It was totally possible for the average white person to almost completely ignore them. I know because my parents appear to have experienced the 60s exactly as if they were still in the 50s, although they did remark that we were lucky to be attending already-integrated schools and not living through the process of getting them there, like they did.

Today's economic struggle has started hurting the majority, and in 2016 it was easy to point to this as the reason there were suddenly so many whiteboy Marxists, who then began to make a case for why we should tolerate pro-lifers, risk the supreme court with write-in votes, etc.

But if it's a choice between whiteboy Marxists claiming identity politics are a distraction, or a bourgeois cishet white man pointing to civil rights gains as a way to dismiss what we're doing to our young people? I might switch my morning dogwalking podcast from Rachel Maddow to Chapo Traphouse

[dark_crystal]

Originally Posted by dark_crystal

Say you're a 16-year-old lesbian getting bullied my grown adults on facebook bc your school elected you prom king. Would it help you for me to say "oh cry me a river, at least you don't have AIDS?"

Bullied kids are at risk for suicide, so this would not be helpful-- because i would be shaming the kid and implying she's ungrateful, thus adding to any spiral she's experiencing from having her friends' parents on messenger telling her to drink bleach.

A black kid died bc he couldn't buy insulin. The important thing here is that he wasn't lynched, though, in Biden's world.

[Martina]

Just picking up on part of your post, dark_crystal. I think as you point out, there is privilege on both sides, the third party voters and, as you called them in a long ago post (I think) Democrats who are Republicans except for social justice issues.

I don't think Bernie is either-or. And while some of his followers may be up to no good -- the Beto baiting -- it's obviously possible to care about both inequality and social justice.

Rachel Maddow was horrible during the election. She completely misrepresented Bernie's politics and mocked his supporters. I am so tired of her.

I am looking forward to Mueller's actual report though, in part so she can stop obsessing. We know the SOB is guilty of obstruction. It will be a blessing to get that out there.

[dark_crystal]

Originally Posted by Martina

Just picking up on part of your post, dark_crystal. I think as you point out, there is privilege on both sides, the third party voters and, as you called them in a long ago post (I think) Democrats who are Republicans except for social justice issues.

I don't think Bernie is either-or. And while some of his followers may be up to no good -- the Beto baiting -- it's obviously possible to care about both inequality and social justice.

Rachel Maddow was horrible during the election. She completely misrepresented Bernie's politics and mocked his supporters. I am so tired of her.

I am looking forward to Mueller's actual report though, in part so she can stop obsessing. We know the SOB is guilty of obstruction. It will be a blessing to get that out there.

I first heard about Bernie on TRMS, because she was excited about the momentum he had at his rallies and she was indignant that the media were ignoring his movement.

I did listen to Chapo Traphouse today. The hosts are very cool and hip and edgy and ironic. They were having a really good time joking about "accusations of a coordinated attack on Beto" with Liz Breunig, during which they ironically and edgily attacked Beto. I think this was the 12/23 episode.

I think Beto had a big day yesterday, though? With his anti-The Wall video that got millions of views in five seconds or something?

The Wall is some super low-hanging fruit, post-midterms, and i wish liberals and progressives would ignore it.

It would be too easy for BOTH sides to make immigration the focus of 2020, which would be as big of a so-called distraction as social justice.

It's urgent to stop the detentions and restore the asylum process, create paths to citizenship, protect DREAMers, etc,

Many of my friends and family are not citizens, so these are issues that we can get motivated about: the WH has floated the idea of revoking green cards from non-citizens that use social services-- if my mother-in-law gets deported i will have to go with her.

But i don't think immigration affects the majority in the way that healthcare, employment, wages, and education do-- and a Democratic vs a Republican victory on immigration is not going to change their daily lives.

Letting Republicans trick us into making immigration the battleground is going to lower the stakes of the whole election. Most people's opinions about it are compassion- or ideology-based. It's all theoretical to most people. The only people really passionate about it are the immigrants themselves, their families, plus five zillion racists.

If those are the groups driving turnout, Trump wins.