And They're Off! The Democratic Candidates for 2020

[ritter]

This thread is possibly the only place I've ever seen the word "populist" not having a pejorative connotation...

[71 dB]

This thread is possibly the only place I've ever seen the word "populist" not having a pejorative connotation...

The term "populist" has very strongly context-related connotations. Most of the time it has pejorative connotation (for example far-right populists advocating discriminatory policies), but in the context of US lefty policies it's the other way around: Lefty economical populists are advocating wideny POPULAR and important agendas such as medicare for all, living wage, ending the wars, legalization of marihuana etc. Trump vs Bernie would be far right populism with a touch of fake left wing populism versus real left wing populism. The US has moved to the era of political populism. That's one of the main reasons why Trump won*. Corporate media doesn't tell you this. They are completely clueless or hiding the fact on purpose. That's why they are enforcing Hillary 2.0 against Trump hoping people don't realize Biden IS Hillary with male parts and dementia. When you understand this, it hits you how CRAZY it is to sent Biden against Trump.

* The reason wasn't Bernie/Bernie Bros/Russia as told by the corporate media.

[Marc]

This thread is possibly the only place I've ever seen the word "populist" not having a pejorative connotation...

Considered to be the first one:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiberius_Gracchus

[Karl Henning]

Poju, you peddle more propaganda than "the corporate media," partly because you don't filter your own waste product.

[drogulus]

     

The establishment is spoon-feeding Biden to people, but many older CNN/MSNBC-brainwashed Americans are too ignorant to even realize it... 

     I think your model is too simple. Someone who might resemble me could decide for Biden as a bank shot that gets the most the system is able to provide in these times. I get how such a decision has a self-fulfilling element. But consider that Sanders has hardly lifted a finger to broaden his coalition and done himself some damage with his remarks on Castro, etc. What signal is that supposed to send? Does Sanders think that keeping his farthest left supporters happy is worth more than expanding towards the center-left where voters are far more numerous?

     I wish AOC had loaned Sanders some of her brainpower to get him to understand what kind of fight he has got himself into.

[Karl Henning]

     
     I think your model is too simple.

Love the economy of your expression here.

[André]

The Poju list of political terms.

- A dozen are enough for an endless string of posts. Reuse, rehash and recycle at will. Unlimited mileage guaranteed.

Bernie
Medicare for all
Kyle
The 1%
Corporate media
Oligarchy
Brainwashed
Corrupt
Big Pharma
Progressives vs Corporates (mortal enemies)
Rat, snake, cognitive decline (check the Kyle Dictionary of Insults for non-Bernie candidates)
Fuck, Fuck it, Fuck them.

[Karl Henning]

The Poju list of political terms.

- A dozen are enough for an endless string of posts. Reuse, rehash and recycle at will. Unlimited mileage guaranteed.

Bernie
Medicare for all
Kyle
The 1%
Corporate media
Oligarchy
Brainwashed
Corrupt
Big Pharma
Progressives vs Corporates (mortal enemies)
Rat, snake, cognitive decline (check the Kyle Dictionary of Insults for non-Bernie candidates)
Fuck, Fuck it, Fuck them.

My parakeet has greater breadth of expression.

[JBS]

Bernie is strong against Trump, because he is a true populist and therefore can beat a fake populist. Bernie's weakness is the Democratic Party who hate him and do everything to bring him down, because Bernie serves the 99 % instead of the 1 %. That's why DNC rather have 4 more years of Trump than Bernie in the White House. If corporate media gave fair publicity to all candidates, Bernie would have won the 2016 primary with a landslide. DNC needed superdelegates to stop Bernie. This time around they have been using reduced publicity strategy with Biden so that ignorant Americans would not find out how bad candidate he is (horrible policies + cognitive decline). In other words in 2016 people knew they hate Hillary Clinton, but now they don't know they will hate Biden too once they know the truth about him. The question is do they realize the truth in time and turn this for Bernie.

Tulsi Gabbard could have been a great younger candidate, but corporate media totally ignored her so her campaign got nowhere. Her proposition of Yang's UBI to deal with the Corona virus crisis is great.

Bernie is not, in American terms, a populist. The leftist agenda is (in American terms) elitist, not populist. American populism is not based on the idea that politicians should do things that benefit the people at large.  American populism is based on the idea that political power needs to held by the people to decide things for themselves.

Trump is, I agree a fake populist, using populist rhetoric for elitist goals. But progressives are also fake populists. Their only difference from Trump is that they want a different elite, composed of technocrats and bureaucrats.  But like Trump they want the people at large to be dominated by an elite.

Which is why, if you are truly anti-elitist, you would be against both the progressives and the oligarchs (there is btw some mixture of the two, especially where Silicon Valley is concerned).

BTW, a whole bunch of people, including several corporate centrists, have taken up Yang's idea in the last few days. Tulsi deserves no special credit there.

[drogulus]

     What If Andrew Yang Was Right?

     Yang proposes giving people money directly instead of indirectly through other spending. There is nothing in the space/time continuum that could make it wrong for a money system to do this.

[T. D.]

     What If Andrew Yang Was Right?

     Yang proposes giving people money directly instead of indirectly through other spending. There is nothing in the space/time continuum that could make it wrong for a money system to do this.

I believe that this "helicopter money" method (term coined by Milton Friedman in 1969) will actually be applied in the US. But as an emergency measure to kick-start the economy after the COVID crash.
See for instance https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-16/cash-handouts-are-gaining-support-in-congress-as-best-virus-fix?srnd=premium
And the Orange Swindler will push for it in a big way, in order to buy votes.

[drogulus]

I believe that this "helicopter money" method (term coined by Milton Friedman in 1969) will actually be applied in the US. But as an emergency measure to kick-start the economy after the COVID crash.

     I think that raises unnecessary confusion. Friedman imagined the central bank could be given spending power or steal it from those actually responsible. Did he foresee present day chimp-onomics by our representatives?

     The right thing to do is to act against a demand crisis with demand. It's what you do when you need it to work, and then when the crisis is over it will be safe to go back to stupid ideas again.

[JBS]

As of 10:15 PM EDT tonight, in both Illinois and Florida, Biden is getting approximately 60% of the vote.  In Florida, Bernie is only getting 22% of the vote! In Illinois, he's about 37%. The difference seems due to Bloomberg, who is getting about 8.5% of the vote in Florida.  Perhaps the result of absentee ballots sent in before he dropped out.

Arizonans still have an hour or so of voting to do, so no results from there.

[71 dB]

Not a good election day for Bernie, but something positive:

BREAKING: Justice Democrat Marie Newman UNSEATS Corporate Democrat Dan Lipinski In IL-03!

[Herman]

the optics of Bernie keeping on in a lost race and continuing to raise money for himself aren't pretty.

[drogulus]

     People run for President for many reasons. Some think they have a good chance of becoming the nominee and winning the general election. Others are issue candidates for the most part. Sanders is some of both. His prospects of winning have dropped to zero. Yet Biden needs him very badly in order for Dems to present a united front. Sanders has leverage and right now he must be thinking of how he might best use it. Part of that calculation must be how his more rabid supporters can be encouraged to vote for Biden.

     Sanders is ready to drop out. He'll try to do it consistent with defeating Trump and moving policy in his direction. This is less a matter of intellectual firepower than of raw political feel. He has to intuit how much space there is to combine his goals.

[Karl Henning]

I really wonder just how his more rabid supporters can be encouraged to vote for Biden; can even Magic Bernie wave that wand? I wonder how many of them are committed earth-scorchers.

[Karl Henning]

Should Biden lose to the Wankmaggot Dotard, America will forever curse the name of Sanders.

[71 dB]

Should Biden lose to the Wankmaggot Dotard, America will forever curse the name of Sanders.

It's not Sanders' fault Biden is a weak candidate. It's the fault of the corporate media and DNC these election are insanely rigged against progressives so that Dems keep sending corporate candidates against a fake populist to lose.

There is a chance the economy tanks so badly Trump loses to anyone and Biden gets to WH, but a lot of progressives won't vote for him.

[Karl Henning]

It's not Sanders' fault Biden is a weak candidate. It's the fault of the corporate media and DNC these election are insanely rigged against progressives so that Dems keep sending corporate candidates against a fake populist to lose.

There is a chance the economy tanks so badly Trump loses to anyone and Biden gets to WH, but a lot of progressives won't vote for him.

The rabid progressives not voting for Biden doesn't mean he's a weak candidate;  can you guess correctly what it does mean?

You drone on and on, but the fact is, the voters have spoken.