2020 Presidential Election

[charley]

Watching news this morning, Bernie Sanders has thrown his hat in the ring to run for President.

From my little Canadian pov, I think I like Bernie the best, having listened to what he says, since he cuts through everything and tells it like it is. I always have the greatest respect for those who dare "speak truth to power". Pls be reminded that we have medicare here for everyone, which is, in fact, nothing less than a reflection of "democratic socialism". Considering how Republican "capitalist" beliefs are spread across the U.S., I am not sure he has a chance.

Insofar as Kamala Harris is concerned, she recently stated that she is not a "democratic socialist". Personally, I think she is playing the political game of trying to win the middle ground so as to win (reminds me of Hillary)! As such, she has lost my personal interest.

This will be one scary election run-off to see who will be chosen by the Dems to run for President.

[dark_crystal]

I like that Bernie announced upon the heels of Schultz trying to blackmail the Dems over nominating him-- bc i, too, am a troll.

Now we are going to get to see who moves to the center to placate Schultz.

And any Dems who want to give Schultz the finger have only 1 way to do it: get behind Bernie. Schultz said specifically who he was most worried about.

ALSO

i like that Russia pushed his narrative to spoil Hillary/help Trump last cycle-- bc now all of their trollery bites them in the ass. Bernie's message is very visible and the Russians helped. Now their tactics become our asset.

It's beautiful.

[Andrea]

Just set up my recurring donation to Bernie's campaign.

Anyone else think a Bernie/Joe combination would be ideal?

Seems like everyone else has some baggage I can't get around.

[MsTinkerbelly]

I will vote for whichever candidate runs against the burgermeister, but I really hope it won’t be Bernie. I would rather see old man Biden winning than Bernie. I know that puts me in the minority, but there you go.

I think that I still have such resentment that Bernie waited so long, and did so little, to help his base accept Hilary as the candidate, that I just can’t see him pulling our fractured party (let alone our country) together.

Of course I have been wrong before........

[CherylNYC]

I am strongly against Sanders or Biden as Presidential candidates or as running mates. I'm against them for the same reason I would be against Hillary if she threw her hat in the ring today. They are all too darned old!

Bernie Sanders is 77 years old now. He would be 79 in 2020 and 83 by the end of a four year term. If he were to win a second term he would be 87 years old. Biden is just one year younger. Ronald Reagan was clearly experiencing dementia in his second term. He was nearly 70 when he was sworn in, which is 10 years younger than Sanders would be. The risk of dementia and disease is only part of it. The job of U.S. President calls for someone more vigorous and energetic than an 80 year old can possibly be. No insults intended, but I am not supportive of someone who I'm convinced couldn't sustain the energy needed for this job.

Apparently, this is a popular subject. I googled Biden's and Sanders' age just to be sure, and 'age' was the second and third suggested google search for each of them respectively.

[Martina]

When I saw that he had announced, I yelled, "Bernie!!!!"

I love the man. I couldn't be happier that he's running.

[C0LLETTE]

Originally Posted by CherylNYC

I am strongly against Sanders or Biden as Presidential candidates or as running mates. I'm against them for the same reason I would be against Hillary if she threw her hat in the ring today. They are all too darned old!

Bernie Sanders is 77 years old now. He would be 79 in 2020 and 83 by the end of a four year term. If he were to win a second term he would be 87 years old. Biden is just one year younger. Ronald Reagan was clearly experiencing dementia in his second term. He was nearly 70 when he was sworn in, which is 10 years younger than Sanders would be. The risk of dementia and disease is only part of it. The job of U.S. President calls for someone more vigorous and energetic than an 80 year old can possibly be. No insults intended, but I am not supportive of someone who I'm convinced couldn't sustain the energy needed for this job.

Apparently, this is a popular subject. I googled Biden's and Sanders' age just to be sure, and 'age' was the second and third suggested google search for each of them respectively.

Maybe you don't really figure out who you really are or what you believe in until you are in your 90s. Wouldn't that be a kick in the ass.



Dance Bernie, dance.

[cathexis]

Bernie is too old, and Sanchez is too green. The MW is probably going for Biden. There no really good choice. It's too bad that Bernie didn't groom someone. Want a "Democratic Socialist," but don't see anyone in the wings.
The Country has gone way to the right since 45 was elected, maybe before.

[Andrea]

Originally Posted by MsTinkerbelly

I will vote for whichever candidate runs against the burgermeister, but I really hope it won’t be Bernie. I would rather see old man Biden winning than Bernie. I know that puts me in the minority, but there you go.

I think that I still have such resentment that Bernie waited so long, and did so little, to help his base accept Hilary as the candidate, that I just can’t see him pulling our fractured party (let alone our country) together.

Of course I have been wrong before........

Perhaps I am misunderstanding. Hilary won the popular vote. The only reason Dear Leader won was due to the electoral vote. Do you believe Bernie could have changed that outcome?

[Martina]

The votes Clinton lost that cost her the election were African Americans in Milwaukee and Detroit and white women who had voted for Obama in Pennsylvania. The African Americans didn't come out. The Pennsylvania women voted for Trump. These were never Bernie Sanders voters.

While a number of Bernie voters did not vote for Clinton, there is no analysis that says that they cost her the election. Not going to Wisconsin even one time cost her the election. Not funding the ground game cost her the election.

You can say Jill Stein won 130,000 votes in those states, but most of those were never going to be hers. The campaign didn't expect them to be. Stein under performed. The votes Clinton counted on -- African Americans and middle class women -- didn't happen. Those last few weeks she campaigned in fucking Texas, where she never had a shot, and ignored the three states that cost her the election.

[Martina]

I was just googling to make sure I was right about something I said in the last post and saw that Bernie made commercials supporting Clinton that they never aired. They did not run out of money. Just too stupid and arrogant.

[dark_crystal]

Originally Posted by Andrea

Just set up my recurring donation to Bernie's campaign

Me too! He raked in 4 million today, which is a record.

[Martina]

Didn't it end up being almost $6 million? *All proud of Bernie*

[Orema]

I’m starting to look forward to the primaries. Thank goodness the Democrats will put forth a somewhat diverse selection. And I think from here on, the Democratic primaries will be more diverse than what we’ve had. That’s an important and good change for me.

I’m open to a lot of people in the primaries. Warren, Harris, Koblachar, Holder ... and I’m looking forward to hearing from Buttigieg, Castro, Beto etc. in the debates.

I think we’ll end up with the “same old same old” as the 2020 democratic nominee, but getting this country to accept a woman, LGBTQ person, or PoC as the top dog is a process.

Still, I’m feeling hopeful and looking forward to the Democrats debating and I’m wondering who will be the moderators.

[C0LLETTE]

Jussie Smollet : got an opinion on how this is unfolding?

is this legitimate political fodder?

[dark_crystal]

Originally Posted by Orema

I’m starting to look forward to the primaries. Thank goodness the Democrats will put forth a somewhat diverse selection. And I think from here on, the Democratic primaries will be more diverse than what we’ve had. That’s an important and good change for me.

I’m open to a lot of people in the primaries. Warren, Harris, Koblachar, Holder ... and I’m looking forward to hearing from Buttigieg, Castro, Beto etc. in the debates.

I think we’ll end up with the “same old same old” as the 2020 democratic nominee, but getting this country to accept a woman, LGBTQ person, or PoC as the top dog is a process.

Still, I’m feeling hopeful and looking forward to the Democrats debating and I’m wondering who will be the moderators.

I donated to Buttigieg today bc he posted that he has to have 65,000 donors to be in the debates.

[dark_crystal]

Originally Posted by dark_crystal

I am concerned about Russia. Whether or not people are currently feeling the anti-mainstream heat, Russia will make sure sentiments like these grow legs.

Chapo Traphouse stated multiple times that interest in the Russia investigation was a litmus test for who NOT to support among the Dem candidates.

It's like they are Russian Meddling deniers, despite extensive proof that the Russians used them last time.

This will make just make the left a better weapon.

Originally Posted by dark_crystal

NBC News: Russia's propaganda machine discovers 2020 Democratic candidate Tulsi Gabbard, by Robert Windrem and Ben Popken, Feb. 2, 2019, 6:03 AM CST

The Russian propaganda machine that tried to influence the 2016 U.S. election is now promoting the presidential aspirations of a controversial Hawaii Democrat who earlier this month declared her intention to run for president in 2020.

An NBC News analysis of the main English-language news sites employed by Russia in its 2016 election meddling shows Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who is set to make her formal announcement Saturday, has become a favorite of the sites Moscow used when it interfered in 2016.

Russia-deniers on both right and left dismiss these concerns with "they're not doing anything we don't do" and that's true.

Information warfare has always existed and exists on all levels-- at work, in entertainment, in advertising, and in the official explanations of our own government on every topic.

Possibly the hysteria over information warfare is the MSM (note the source, NBC News)/centrist way of reviving Russia as an enemy now that terrorism is becoming less effective, so they can maintain the corporatist system, which is in itself yet some more information warfare.

"Beating Russia" as an agenda will be a lot cheaper than "saving the planet."

The problem i have with information warfare is it is so asymmetrical. It is the powerful against the weak on every level, and one side is not at all equipped for it.

Russia efforts to reach Bernie Sanders supporters more than was known, researcher says - The Washington Post

Sanders told Vermont Public Radio last year that one of his campaign workers figured out what was going on, alerted the Clinton campaign and told them, “I think these guys are Russians.”

Only recently, with the latest analysis of Twitter data, has the extent of the Russian disinformation campaign been documented on that social media platform.

A pair of Clemson University researchers, at the request of The Washington Post, examined English-language tweets identified as coming from Russia, many of which were designed to influence the election. It is impossible to say how many were targeted at Sanders supporters because many don’t include his name. Some 9,000 of the Russian tweets used the word “Bernie,” which were “liked” 59,281 times and retweeted 61,804 times.

But that was only one element of the Russian effort to target Sanders supporters, the researchers said. Many thousands of other tweets, with no direct reference to Sanders, were also designed to appeal to his backers, urging them to do anything but vote for Clinton in the general election.

“I think there is no question that Sanders was central to their strategy. He was clearly used as a mechanism to decrease voter turnout for Hillary Clinton,” said one of the Clemson researchers, Darren Linvill, associate professor of communications. The tweets examined in the new analysis “give us a much clearer understanding of the tactics they were using. It was certainly a higher volume than people thought.”

The effort to promote Sanders as a way to influence the U.S. election began shortly after he declared his candidacy in spring 2015, according to Mueller’s indictment of the Russians. Russia’s aim was to defeat or weaken Clinton, who had angered Russian President Vladimir Putin when she had been secretary of state.

One reason that Sanders was on Russia’s radar has been little noted: he, like Trump, opposed trade deals such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Russian President Vladimir Putin had been critical of the TPP, saying it was secretive and “hardly facilitates sustainable development of Asia Pacific.”

During the primaries, Sanders gave at least three interviews to a Russia-controlled television network, RT, in which his trade stance was highlighted. The network in February 2016 criticized MSNBC for breaking away from Sanders after he said he was “helping to lead the opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership.” The network posted a story headlined, “Bernie Sanders 'censored' by MSNBC while criticizing trade deal.”

This bothers me because i am starting to see anti-Bernie sentiment from people i never would have suspected. People who i would have expected to be anti-centrist. People like DeAnne Smith-- white, queer, vegan (lol)-- people i would assume to be a natural fit for the DSA. People i would have expected to be Hillary nose-holders (although DeAnne Smith is Canadian, i know.)

I feel like a lot of the anti-Bernie sentiment is about the stridence and aggression of his "followers," post-nomination and post-election.

But what we're seeing is that most of them were not real people. I mean, my colleague's husband and my high school bgf were two of the most obnoxious, and 100% real, but i think the rhetoric they were consuming was modeling that rage to them, making them believe this was what Bernie supporters were supposed to be like. And that rhetoric was 100% manufactured, for 100% evil purposes, and we mostly did not know.

And i think a lot of people don't even see Bernie when they think about him-- they see Bernie's most toxic followers, who never existed.