The 2016 US Election (Part III)

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Re: The 2016 US Election (Part III)

Post by Purple »

The Romulan Republic wrote:I will be voting for Clinton regardless. But there are many who won't. What you are saying is that Hillary Clinton should basically tell the Leftmost quarter of the electorate to go fuck itself going into the general election.
And if she does, what than? What are they going to do? Vote for Trump? :lol:
As long as they don't do that she has nothing to worry about from them.
It has become clear to me in the previous days that any attempts at reconciliation and explanation with the community here has failed. I have tried my best. I really have. I pored my heart out trying. But it was all for nothing.

You win. There, I have said it.

Now there is only one thing left to do. Let us see if I can sum up the strength needed to end things once and for all.
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Re: The 2016 US Election (Part III)

Post by FireNexus »

The Romulan Republic wrote:You seem to think that Clinton can ignore Sanders supporters and they'll just go away. They won't.
Weird. Looks to me like they've begun to do just that.

Image
The Romulan Republic wrote:Basically, the Democratic Party has two choices- it can reach out to Sanders progressives, give them something. Or it can watch increasing numbers of them go third party/independent, go to the Republicans out of spite, or just not vote.
Image
The Romulan Republic wrote:I will be voting for Clinton regardless. But there are many who won't. What you are saying is that Hillary Clinton should basically tell the Leftmost quarter of the electorate to go fuck itself going into the general election.
Image

Listen, you dumb, self-righteous motherfucker: Sanders' "revolution" supporter group is not a reliable voting bloc who can be counted on to even vote in the first place, let alone make pragmatic choices going forward. The ones who are worth courting have already made the rational choice to vote for the best available candidate. Even histrionic, self-righteous, borderline illiterate fucking morons like you have already recognized it and have been polling accordingly.

The Sanders supporters who are still screaming "Bernie or Bust" are a lost cause. And making big policy concessions to them is potentially sacrificing support among the wider electorate to cow a group whose policy proposals have lost resoundingly among even the liberal half of the country.

Once again: Image

Kindly go fuck yourself and stop acting like Sanders has a movement with any kind of lasting political power. It's over.

That image is too obnoxiously, gratuitously large to post four times. Next time you want to make a point, please use your words. - SCRawl
I had a Bill Maher quote here. But fuck him for his white privelegy "joke".

All the rest? Too long.
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Re: The 2016 US Election (Part III)

Post by FireNexus »

Sanders hasn't endorsed Clinton. Has made a big, pissy, toddler-level hissy fit out of refusing to do just that, and the idea that Clinton faces any kind of realistic danger from the BernieBot crowd has already evaporated. You spent the entire god damn primary saying "BERNIE HAS A CHANCE, MAN! STOP PRETENDING HE'S NOT A REAL CONTENDER!!" And he turned out not to be a real contender. And now, you're still fucking running around saying "BERNIE'S IDEAS CAN'T BE DISMISSED! HILLARY NEEDS TO ACQUIESCE OR ELSE!" How many times do you have to be so comically fuckin wrong before you'll change tack?
I had a Bill Maher quote here. But fuck him for his white privelegy "joke".

All the rest? Too long.
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Re: The 2016 US Election (Part III)

Post by Terralthra »

I find it amusing that someone is saying someone else is making a "big pissy toddler-level hissy fit" while repeatedly pasting the same screenshot as if Sec. Clinton's 1% gain in polls is at all relevant to the current conversation. Sec. Clinton's supporters have been talking all along about how important down-ballot races are, and how critical it is that primary voters turn out in the fall, but now, when an admittedly somewhat dopey Sen. Sanders supporter says "The DNC should make some concessions to someone who won 40% of the progressive primary vote", the response is "they don't matter, Sec. Clinton is winning in polls vs. Trump". Do you not see the logical disconnect between those statements?
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Re: The 2016 US Election (Part III)

Post by Gaidin »

Terralthra wrote:I find it amusing that someone is saying someone else is making a "big pissy toddler-level hissy fit" while repeatedly pasting the same screenshot as if Sec. Clinton's 1% gain in polls is at all relevant to the current conversation. Sec. Clinton's supporters have been talking all along about how important down-ballot races are, and how critical it is that primary voters turn out in the fall, but now, when an admittedly somewhat dopey Sen. Sanders supporter says "The DNC should make some concessions to someone who won 40% of the progressive primary vote", the response is "they don't matter, Sec. Clinton is winning in polls vs. Trump". Do you not see the logical disconnect between those statements?
The key point is that we've got someone like TRR saying over and over and over about how if Bernie loses he'll pivot to Clinton and vote for her, but now he's ranting about how she needs to make concessions to try to attract the ones Bernie grabbed from parties like the god damn Green party and there's not a way on earth to make them a dependable vote even if she went so far left as to drive the typical Democratic party insane over it.
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Re: The 2016 US Election (Part III)

Post by FireNexus »

SCRawl wrote:That image is too obnoxiously, gratuitously large to post four times. Next time you want to make a point, please use your words. - SCRawl
Apologies. Won't happen again.
I had a Bill Maher quote here. But fuck him for his white privelegy "joke".

All the rest? Too long.
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Re: The 2016 US Election (Part III)

Post by FireNexus »

Terralthra wrote:I find it amusing that someone is saying someone else is making a "big pissy toddler-level hissy fit" while repeatedly pasting the same screenshot as if Sec. Clinton's 1% gain in polls is at all relevant to the current conversation. Sec. Clinton's supporters have been talking all along about how important down-ballot races are, and how critical it is that primary voters turn out in the fall, but now, when an admittedly somewhat dopey Sen. Sanders supporter says "The DNC should make some concessions to someone who won 40% of the progressive primary vote", the response is "they don't matter, Sec. Clinton is winning in polls vs. Trump". Do you not see the logical disconnect between those statements?
It's a 6% net gain. One that flies directly in the face of the rhetoric from TRR and the rest of the BernieBullshitters.
I had a Bill Maher quote here. But fuck him for his white privelegy "joke".

All the rest? Too long.
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Re: The 2016 US Election (Part III)

Post by The Romulan Republic »

FireNexus wrote:Weird. Looks to me like they've begun to do just that.

Image
I'm not sure where all of Clinton's new votes are coming from, but if, as I hope, more Sanders supporters are (somewhat) getting behind Clinton, that does not mean that they have gone away or stopped believing in and pushing for a progressive agenda. It simply means that they're choosing to pursue their goals within the Democratic Party, which is the sensible course of action.

The progressive movement is still there. Its just shifted its efforts to other venues than challenging Clinton for the nomination.
Image
Link doesn't work.
Image
Link doesn't work.
Listen, you dumb, self-righteous motherfucker: Sanders' "revolution" supporter group is not a reliable voting bloc who can be counted on to even vote in the first place, let alone make pragmatic choices going forward. The ones who are worth courting have already made the rational choice to vote for the best available candidate. Even histrionic, self-righteous, borderline illiterate fucking morons like you have already recognized it and have been polling accordingly.
In which a Clinton supporter engages in yet another tirade of personal abuse against a Sanders supporter for daring to suggest that it might be wise to make any compromises whatsoever with someone who won over 40% of the Primary voters going into the general election, or that their might still be voters on the fence who it would help Clinton to win over. :roll:

Which is your right, of course. But if a Sanders supporter behaved this way, I bet you'd be shrieking about "Bernie Bros". Because only one side is allowed to engage in hateful partisan rants and not get called on it, apparently.
The Sanders supporters who are still screaming "Bernie or Bust" are a lost cause. And making big policy concessions to them is potentially sacrificing support among the wider electorate to cow a group whose policy proposals have lost resoundingly among even the liberal half of the country.
"Resoundingly" is a hell of a stretch.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but last I checked, Sanders got well over 40% in the primary. As a socialist and former independent running against a candidate who was about as close to inevitable from the start as you can get and had most of the party establishment backing her.

And much of what he supports is backed by a majority of the party, if not the majority of the country.

The hard core Bernie or Busters may be a fringe (thankfully), but Sanders voters in general, and the policies they support, are certainly not. And pretending they are won't help the Democratic Party in the slightest, because they will be ignoring a large part of their base. And yet you seem to be saying they should do just that. For what? To make a point of punishing Sanders for how he challenged Clinton?

Also, I do not think that it is an unreasonable position to think that their might be some voters still on the fence, that winning over every vote you can is important, and that Clinton shouldn't just take Sanders supporters, who represent a significant fraction of both the Democrats and independents, for granted.
Once again: Image
Once again, link doesn't work.
Kindly go fuck yourself and stop acting like Sanders has a movement with any kind of lasting political power. It's over.
There is a difference between "The Sanders campaign for the Presidency is over" (true for all practical purposes) and "The progressive movement he leads is over" (not true, it will continue to push the Democratic Party to the Left from within, with Bernie as its most prominent spokesperson).

What Sanders represents is the progressive wing of the Left. It was there before Sanders, and it will be their after, and given how young people tended to vote in this election, odds are fairly good that it will get stronger in the future. Sanders is simply the most prominent advocate for it at present. It does not live or die with his presidential campaign.

I do not understand this frothing rage from some Clintonites at the idea that Sanders or his supporters could ever accomplish anything or have a significant voice in the Democratic Party, and your desperate need to marginalize over 40% of Democratic primary voters going into the general election. Except as either spite, or fear. Spite over primary divisions, and fear that what Sanders represents actually is stronger than you'd care to acknowledge.

You won. You got Clinton as the nominee. But its evidently not enough to win, no- apparently nothing less than completely discrediting and marginalizing Sanders, his supporters, and everything they believe in will satisfy you. Yet you'll still take our support for granted, demand it, and blame us if we lose to Trump.

And most of us will probably vote the way you want, if only because the alternative is Trump. That's the right, the necessary thing to do. I'm not Bernie or Bust, and neither is Bernie.

But seriously, are you capable of understanding why a position that can basically be summarized as "Go fuck yourself, you don't matter, now vote for our candidate" offends people?

I mean, what's the goal here- to make it impossible for someone to say something even vaguely pro-Sanders or pro-progressives in this thread because doing so means the thread will inevitably get derailed into yet another tirade of flaming? To make it clear to us we're not welcome in the Democratic Party while demanding that we stay?
"I know its easy to be defeatist here because nothing has seemingly reigned Trump in so far. But I will say this: every asshole succeeds until finally, they don't. Again, 18 months before he resigned, Nixon had a sky-high approval rating of 67%. Harvey Weinstein was winning Oscars until one day, he definitely wasn't."-John Oliver

"The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan."-General Von Clauswitz, describing my opinion of Bernie or Busters and third partiers in a nutshell.

I SUPPORT A NATIONAL GENERAL STRIKE TO REMOVE TRUMP FROM OFFICE.
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Re: The 2016 US Election (Part III)

Post by The Romulan Republic »

Essentially, much of what I am arguing, I am doing so because I think its what Clinton needs to do to ensure a resounding election victory. I'm actually on your fucking side, at least insofar as we'd both prefer President Clinton to President Hairpiece (or another nut job Republican, for that matter).

Its just a fact- like it or not, their is a progressive wing of the party that constitutes nearly half the party, may come to represent a majority of the party in the fairly new future, and should not simply be ignored or shut out. I don't want to write off Bernie or Bust voters. I want every Goddamn person we can win over voting for Clinton against Trump. If its 55/45, I want to aim for 60/40. If its 60/40, let's aim for 70/30. I want the Democrats to hand Trump his ass at the polls, send a message that he does not and never will represent the American mainstream.

Telling Sanders supporters, literally, to go fuck themselves won't help accomplish that.

Clinton is smart enough to be a magnanimous victor. So why can't her loyal internet trolls learn from her example?
"I know its easy to be defeatist here because nothing has seemingly reigned Trump in so far. But I will say this: every asshole succeeds until finally, they don't. Again, 18 months before he resigned, Nixon had a sky-high approval rating of 67%. Harvey Weinstein was winning Oscars until one day, he definitely wasn't."-John Oliver

"The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan."-General Von Clauswitz, describing my opinion of Bernie or Busters and third partiers in a nutshell.

I SUPPORT A NATIONAL GENERAL STRIKE TO REMOVE TRUMP FROM OFFICE.
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Re: The 2016 US Election (Part III)

Post by The Romulan Republic »

George Will abandons the sinking ship:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016 ... /86378010/
WASHINGTON – Conservative columnist George Will has left the Republican Party, and he is urging others to make sure the GOP’s presumptive nominee, Donald Trump, doesn’t win.

“Make sure he loses,’’ Will told PJ Media, an online news company, in an interview Friday. “Grit their teeth for four years and win the White House.”

Will, a long-time columnist and commentator, spoke Friday at the Federalist Society luncheon. “This is not my party,’’ he said during the speech.

According to PJ Media, Will said he has changed his GOP registration in Maryland to “unaffiliated.’’

Will, a Pulitzer-Prize winning columnist, has long been critical of Trump. The Washington Post columnist warned in a column in April that Trump’s damage to the party had only just begun.

Trump, he said, would be the “most unpopular nominee ever’’ and unable to get support from women, minorities and young voters.

In a column earlier this week, Will urged Republican donors not to contribute to Trump's campaign.

Trump, in turn, called Will a “major loser’’ last month on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.
Whatever other differences we may have, let's just take a moment to bask in the glorious self-destruction of the Republican Party. It is so richly deserved. :D
"I know its easy to be defeatist here because nothing has seemingly reigned Trump in so far. But I will say this: every asshole succeeds until finally, they don't. Again, 18 months before he resigned, Nixon had a sky-high approval rating of 67%. Harvey Weinstein was winning Oscars until one day, he definitely wasn't."-John Oliver

"The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan."-General Von Clauswitz, describing my opinion of Bernie or Busters and third partiers in a nutshell.

I SUPPORT A NATIONAL GENERAL STRIKE TO REMOVE TRUMP FROM OFFICE.
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Re: The 2016 US Election (Part III)

Post by Purple »

The point, which you are refusing to face is that it does not matter what percentage of the votes the guy got as long as it is not 51. 49.9999999% still makes you a meaningless minority that gets no say in policy because she knows that no matter what she says and does as long as Trump is the only other option you have to vote for her. She does not have to do anything to win you over other than not being Trump. So why would she?
It has become clear to me in the previous days that any attempts at reconciliation and explanation with the community here has failed. I have tried my best. I really have. I pored my heart out trying. But it was all for nothing.

You win. There, I have said it.

Now there is only one thing left to do. Let us see if I can sum up the strength needed to end things once and for all.
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Re: The 2016 US Election (Part III)

Post by Gaidin »

The Romulan Republic wrote: Telling Sanders supporters, literally, to go fuck themselves won't help accomplish that.

Clinton is smart enough to be a magnanimous victor. So why can't her loyal internet trolls learn from her example?
Just because she's being a magnanimous victor doesn't mean she's going to pivot hard enough to the left to try to convince voters that historically can never be guaranteed to be convinced when most of the fighting is in the other direction dude.

However bluntly we have to tell you this doesn't change how polite she's going to be about it.
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Re: The 2016 US Election (Part III)

Post by The Romulan Republic »

Some of Sanders' people won't vote for her no matter what. Some will vote for her no matter what.

Some are, undoubtably, undecided. Hell, I might be undecided myself if I didn't loath Trump so much.

And I'm not saying she or the DNC should give Sanders everything he asked for. That would be unreasonable to demand. I"m saying that she should make some concessions to show progressives that they are welcome and their opinions matter in the party.

Their are, in fact, four specific things I'd really like to see her support:

-A moderately progressive VP, or at the very least not a Wall Street insider type.
-Some sort of prominent position in the DNC for Sanders, where he can continue to push for party reforms.
-15 dollars an hour.
-The fracking ban.

There are other things I'd like, but I specify these because the policies I specified are not a huge deviation from positions she herself has taken in the past, and would be nice gestures that would benefit a lot of people without, I think, asking too much, while the appointments I mentioned would not directly affect policy at all, but simply make her administration and the DNC more representative of the progressive wing of the party (it is not at all abnormal for a Presidential winner to offer positions to some of their defeated primary rivals- see Obama picking Biden as VP and Clinton as Secretary of State).

To Purple's point, well, this really shouldn't even need to be said, but the idea that any group comprising less than 51% of the vote is irrelevant is... really not how politics works. For one thing, Clinton cannot win on 51% of primary voters, or 60% of primary voters. She has to win over undecideds and independents. And while many, hopefully most of her primary opponents will vote for her over Trump, elections can be decided by the level of turnout from the base. This is all the more important because their is a certain complacency on the Left, the idea that Trump can't possibly win. So I can see a lot of people who hate Trump, would prefer Clinton, but aren't enthusiastic about her, staying home on election day, thinking their one vote won't matter so they can sit it out. While Trump's raving, bigoted base will turn out for him.

Besides, we shouldn't be content with just beating Donald. Like I said, I want him to have his ass handed to him by as wide a margin as possible. A narrow Trump loss still establishes his brand of politics established as the mainstream alternative to the Democrats.

Also, you've got to think long-term. Those people may vote for her this year to stop Trump, but there is absolutely no garuntee that they will back her in four years. If Clinton runs a Centre Right campaign, and serves as a Centre Right President, I can pretty much promise you she'll get primaried from the Left in four years. Weather I or anyone else thinks that's a good idea is irrelevant.
"I know its easy to be defeatist here because nothing has seemingly reigned Trump in so far. But I will say this: every asshole succeeds until finally, they don't. Again, 18 months before he resigned, Nixon had a sky-high approval rating of 67%. Harvey Weinstein was winning Oscars until one day, he definitely wasn't."-John Oliver

"The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan."-General Von Clauswitz, describing my opinion of Bernie or Busters and third partiers in a nutshell.

I SUPPORT A NATIONAL GENERAL STRIKE TO REMOVE TRUMP FROM OFFICE.
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Re: The 2016 US Election (Part III)

Post by The Romulan Republic »

News has been flying lately on the debates going on in the Democratic Platform Committee, which has been drafting the Platform they will present at the Democratic Convention in a month. Predictably, Bernie has gotten a little, though not as much as he might have hoped for:

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing ... erss-clout
Democrats' platform drafting committee took a first step toward giving Bernie Sanders a major concession, voting to adopt language in support of a $15 minimum wage.

The 15-person committee, chaired by Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), finalized its draft of the guiding document Sunday after days of negotiations.

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The panel also aligned itself with progressive ideas such as abolishing the death penalty and expanding Social Security, the Associated Press reported. The minimum wage language adopted echoes a common refrain by Sanders, calling the current federal minimum of $7.25 a "starvation wage."
An amendment from Sanders backer Rep. Keith Ellison (Minn.) to strengthen the language supporting a $15 minimum wage and index it to grow with inflation was shot down, however.

The platform also tackles financial reform, calling for "an updated and modernized version of Glass-Steagall."

But the panel did block several proposals favored by Sanders and his supporters. It refused to adopt a proposed amendment by Ellison that would have opposed President Obama's Trans-Pacific Partnership; both Sanders and Hillary Clinton have spoken against the trade deal.

It also rejected amendments putting a national freeze on fracking, imposing a carbon tax, and promoting a single-payer healthcare system.

In a statement to the AP, Sanders said he is "disappointed and dismayed" over the panel's decision not to oppose the TPP but applauded the inclusion of death penalty abolition and financial reform.

Sanders has refused to suspend his campaign and endorse Clinton despite the fact that she has clinched the nomination. He has turned his focus to instilling progressive ideas into the party's platform — the draft could factor into Sanders's potential support of Clinton.

"Right now, to be very frank with you, we are talking to the Clinton campaign to try to determine whether or not they can come up with some very serious proposals which will help us transform America," Sanders said to supporters at a rally in Albany, N.Y., Friday. "Whether it will happen or not — that's a good question. I don't know. We are working with them right now."

Clinton has proposed raising the federal minimum wage to $12 but has expressed support for movements calling for $15 in places like New York and Los Angeles.

Sanders has also called for the end of the superdelegate system and the inclusion of Independent voters in all primary contests.

The party's full platform committee will consider the draft at next month's convention.
Now, I'll admit the Hill is a biased source (hard to find one that isn't), but I find this rather interesting.

I expected not to get single-payer health care from Clinton, but its still disappointing not to at least get a statement of theoretical support. And I am deeply disappointed over the failure to adopt the fracking ban. TTP is just baffling, since the committee went against both Sanders and Clinton on this, unless we assume that they are doing so out of allegiance to Obama, or that the Clinton camp is saying one thing publicly and another thing privately to its supporters.

However, I am happy to see the return of Glass-Steagal, and pleasantly surprised that opposition to the death penalty was adopted (I've read elsewhere that it was actually adopted unanimously).

15 an hour... well, its something, even though I'd have preferred a stronger stance.

But it seems like there's a serious effort at compromise going on, so I applaud that.

Edits: Fixed link.

And another warning that the link's security certificate is invalid. Again, this is a site I use all the time and have used without trouble, so I don't know why the hell this happens, but fair warning.
"I know its easy to be defeatist here because nothing has seemingly reigned Trump in so far. But I will say this: every asshole succeeds until finally, they don't. Again, 18 months before he resigned, Nixon had a sky-high approval rating of 67%. Harvey Weinstein was winning Oscars until one day, he definitely wasn't."-John Oliver

"The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan."-General Von Clauswitz, describing my opinion of Bernie or Busters and third partiers in a nutshell.

I SUPPORT A NATIONAL GENERAL STRIKE TO REMOVE TRUMP FROM OFFICE.
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Re: The 2016 US Election (Part III)

Post by Terralthra »

FireNexus wrote:
Terralthra wrote:I find it amusing that someone is saying someone else is making a "big pissy toddler-level hissy fit" while repeatedly pasting the same screenshot as if Sec. Clinton's 1% gain in polls is at all relevant to the current conversation. Sec. Clinton's supporters have been talking all along about how important down-ballot races are, and how critical it is that primary voters turn out in the fall, but now, when an admittedly somewhat dopey Sen. Sanders supporter says "The DNC should make some concessions to someone who won 40% of the progressive primary vote", the response is "they don't matter, Sec. Clinton is winning in polls vs. Trump". Do you not see the logical disconnect between those statements?
It's a 6% net gain. One that flies directly in the face of the rhetoric from TRR and the rest of the BernieBullshitters.
Are...are you sure you read my post?
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Re: The 2016 US Election (Part III)

Post by FireNexus »

The Romulan Republic wrote:But seriously, are you capable of understanding why a position that can basically be summarized as "Go fuck yourself, you don't matter, now vote for our candidate" offends people?
No, you misunderstand me. My point is "Go fuck yourself, and do whatever you want. I don't care what you think or do, or how you vote."

I feel this way because you've all been self-righteous pricks for way longer than is entertaining given how early it was clear you were never going to win, and because
And most of us will probably vote the way you want, if only because the alternative is Trump. That's the right, the necessary thing to do.
With that in mind, you're basically asking for a participation trophy. Want concessions on the platform? Win.Win over and over again.Get a large percentage of people who aren't young, white, and clueless to vote your way. Stop saying "I'm going to do what I think is right, which is what you want anyway, but you should do what I want, OR ELSE!!!!"

BernieBots either were never going to vote until they got a chance to hang out in a stadium with people who were going to agree with them, or they were always going to do the right thing in the end, and be pretty much happy with the result. You have no leverage. You have no power. You lose.
I had a Bill Maher quote here. But fuck him for his white privelegy "joke".

All the rest? Too long.
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Re: The 2016 US Election (Part III)

Post by FireNexus »

Terralthra wrote:Are...are you sure you read my post?
I did, and you missed the point, which doesn't really surprise me. Despite Sanders trying to play his leverage, refusing to tell his supporters it's ok to vote for Clinton, her lead has widened for a month. Because that 40% was mostly fine with Clinton. I'm advocating ignoring a bunch of people who will just assume her change in positions is naked political maneuvering, and who would be right. They're not going to care that she changes her policy positions, and it wouldn't result in any action because she wouldn't really want or expect to achieve those policy positions.
I had a Bill Maher quote here. But fuck him for his white privelegy "joke".

All the rest? Too long.
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Re: The 2016 US Election (Part III)

Post by Terralthra »

FireNexus wrote:
Terralthra wrote:Are...are you sure you read my post?
I did, and you missed the point, which doesn't really surprise me. Despite Sanders trying to play his leverage, refusing to tell his supporters it's ok to vote for Clinton, her lead has widened for a month. Because that 40% was mostly fine with Clinton. I'm advocating ignoring a bunch of people who will just assume her change in positions is naked political maneuvering, and who would be right. They're not going to care that she changes her policy positions, and it wouldn't result in any action because she wouldn't really want or expect to achieve those policy positions.
No, you missed my point entirely. Her lead is not relevant. Barring a massive earthquake-level shift in American politics, Donald Trump is going to lose to Sec. Clinton, and he's going to lose hard.

However, given the way that Republicans gerrymandered and redistricted in 2010, they have a massive structural advantage in the House of Representatives. In 2012 and 2014, they carried the House majority despite receiving an overall minority of votes cast for Representatives. In order to have a chance at passing any progressive agenda, whether Sec. Clinton's or someone else's, the DNC needs to overcome that structural advantage with a wave of high turnout. If even 1% of potential DNC voters stay home on election day because Sec. Clinton's campaign's position is "I won the primary, I don't need to compromise with the loser", that's somewhere between 3 and 5 congressional seats effectively conceded. And your reason for that concession is "go fuck yourselves, how dare you have voted for Sen. Sanders and want influence on the DNC agenda"?

Seriously, dude, "what about down-ticket races? Sen. Sanders doesn't care about a House majority" was the line of Sec. Clinton supporters a month or two ago, and now you're writing off turnout and with it, House seats, because of petty sore-winner-syndrome? As I said in my previous post, do you not see the logical disconnect?
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Re: The 2016 US Election (Part III)

Post by The Romulan Republic »

FireNexus wrote:No, you misunderstand me. My point is "Go fuck yourself, and do whatever you want. I don't care what you think or do, or how you vote."
Translation: "My spite and hate are more important to me than whether Donald Trump suffers a crushing defeat." Got it.

Plus, like Terralthra said, down ballot races.
I feel this way because you've all been self-righteous pricks for way longer than is entertaining given how early it was clear you were never going to win, and because
Way to stereotype, asshole.
With that in mind, you're basically asking for a participation trophy. Want concessions on the platform? Win.Win over and over again.Get a large percentage of people who aren't young, white, and clueless to vote your way. Stop saying "I'm going to do what I think is right, which is what you want anyway, but you should do what I want, OR ELSE!!!!"
The lie that Sanders only has significant support from young white people has been refuted over and over again. There is little point in doing so again, except to point out that you are peddling a racist narrative that falsely paints non-white people as a more or less homogenous pro-Clinton block.
BernieBots either were never going to vote until they got a chance to hang out in a stadium with people who were going to agree with them, or they were always going to do the right thing in the end, and be pretty much happy with the result.
Considering your entire argument here is predicated on a stereotype, I'm not terribly convinced.
You have no leverage. You have no power. You lose.
So by your definition, any faction of a party that comprises less than fifty percent of the total is irrelevant and powerless?

Sure, you could run a party that way, but you'll probably start bleeding supporters pretty fast, until one of these days that fifty percent plus one is pretty much all the party you have left. I don't want that to happen. You, apparently, don't give a fuck.

But hey, in ten or twenty years, all those young Bernie supporters will have aged, risen through the ranks, and will be running the Democratic Party, unless people like you succeed in driving them out. And then all this will be moot. :D

Edit: Anyway, this is once again starting to veer off-topic, so I'll leave it of that, unless you have something of actual substance to address.
"I know its easy to be defeatist here because nothing has seemingly reigned Trump in so far. But I will say this: every asshole succeeds until finally, they don't. Again, 18 months before he resigned, Nixon had a sky-high approval rating of 67%. Harvey Weinstein was winning Oscars until one day, he definitely wasn't."-John Oliver

"The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan."-General Von Clauswitz, describing my opinion of Bernie or Busters and third partiers in a nutshell.

I SUPPORT A NATIONAL GENERAL STRIKE TO REMOVE TRUMP FROM OFFICE.
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Re: The 2016 US Election (Part III)

Post by maraxus2 »

The Romulan Republic wrote:The lie that Sanders only has significant support from young white people has been refuted over and over again. There is little point in doing so again, except to point out that you are peddling a racist narrative that falsely paints non-white people as a more or less homogenous pro-Clinton block.
It's pretty much indisputable at this point that young white folks are Bernie Sanders' political base. They were his political base at the beginning of the election, and the only "color" they added over the course of the election came from young people of color. Everyone else rejected him as their candidate. This is why, with the sole exception of Michigan, Sanders failed to win a single primary in a diverse state. And given how poorly he fared in the beauty contest primaries after two caucuses, it's unlikely that he would have fared well in diverse caucus states either.
So by your definition, any faction of a party that comprises less than fifty percent of the total is irrelevant and powerless?

Sure, you could run a party that way, but you'll probably start bleeding supporters pretty fast, until one of these days that fifty percent plus one is pretty much all the party you have left. I don't want that to happen. You, apparently, don't give a fuck.

But hey, in ten or twenty years, all those young Bernie supporters will have aged, risen through the ranks, and will be running the Democratic Party, unless people like you succeed in driving them out. And then all this will be moot. :D

Edit: Anyway, this is once again starting to veer off-topic, so I'll leave it of that, unless you have something of actual substance to address.
In short, yes. FireNexus is hitting this point a bit on the nose, but there's substance to it. Bernie's been given unprecedented levels of consideration post-primary, particularly with the DNC granting him seats on the platform committee. The fact that he's seeking to get Hillary Clinton to adopt aspects of his agenda is also unprecedented. Bernie is hardly the first left-wing populist to enter the primary, be thoroughly repudiated by the national party, and then have a hard choice about what to do going forward. He is, however, the first one to make serious demands that the nominee adopt his policies and priorities wholesale. This strikes me as a bit odd, considering that Sanders supporters complained loudly and endlessly about Clinton's alleged poaching of his ideas. Now that the Primary is over, and now that the Primary was very clearly over from about March 15th, the main demand is...to have Hillary poach Sanders' ideas wholesale.

Bernie is tremendously overplaying his hand here. The longer he holds out a Clinton endorsement, and everyone agrees that he will ultimately endorse her, the less power he actually wields. The main reason for this is that Clinton is demonstrating that she doesn't actually need his endorsement to win the damn thing.

You seem to think that Bernie can impose his agenda onto Clinton. That's not how the Presidency works. This is not a parliamentary system where different factions come together to make a group consensus moving forward. Clinton will have her own agenda as President, and nobody can serve in her administration without subsuming their own agendas to hers. This is why Bernie will never get a position in the DNC, and why he'll never get a position in Clinton's cabinet. The DNC and the Cabinet do not exist for people to wield independent power and pursue independent agendas. Unless Bernie demonstrates that he can be a good soldier, and literally everything about the man militates against this, he will stay in the Senate and do his own thing. Thinking that he'll be rewarded for doing a good job in the election is a profound mistake on your part. It does not jive with how Presidential elections work, nor how they've ever worked.
Patroklos wrote: Be specific. What expense from this article rings as inappropriate to you? Why is that?

Lets be real here, the article is a hit job. It brings up $400 spent on ice as as if we should care. The only difference between this and other campaigns is that Trump has businesses interests that can cater to the activities campaigns normally engage in. It would be stupid not to utilize them.
You don't think it's at least a little bit grifty that Trump's campaign has spent twice as much money on Make America Great Again hats as they have on paid advertising?
What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
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Re: The 2016 US Election (Part III)

Post by Purple »

The Romulan Republic wrote:To Purple's point, well, this really shouldn't even need to be said, but the idea that any group comprising less than 51% of the vote is irrelevant is... really not how politics works. For one thing, Clinton cannot win on 51% of primary voters, or 60% of primary voters. She has to win over undecideds and independents. And while many, hopefully most of her primary opponents will vote for her over Trump, elections can be decided by the level of turnout from the base. This is all the more important because their is a certain complacency on the Left, the idea that Trump can't possibly win. So I can see a lot of people who hate Trump, would prefer Clinton, but aren't enthusiastic about her, staying home on election day, thinking their one vote won't matter so they can sit it out. While Trump's raving, bigoted base will turn out for him.
All she has to do to get those votes is to scare people of Trump. That's it. No policy changes required.
Besides, we shouldn't be content with just beating Donald. Like I said, I want him to have his ass handed to him by as wide a margin as possible. A narrow Trump loss still establishes his brand of politics established as the mainstream alternative to the Democrats.
And why should she care what you want? She is an ancient carrier power seeker whose only goal is to finally get ultimate power. That's it. Why would she care if she won by one vote or 99%? Same result.
Also, you've got to think long-term. Those people may vote for her this year to stop Trump, but there is absolutely no garuntee that they will back her in four years. If Clinton runs a Centre Right campaign, and serves as a Centre Right President, I can pretty much promise you she'll get primaried from the Left in four years. Weather I or anyone else thinks that's a good idea is irrelevant.
If she manages to be alive and in running condition by the time the inertia on her as president should be sufficient to prevent that. Like as far as I know the only presidents of yours that don't get a second term almost by default are the ones that got impeached or a bullet.
It has become clear to me in the previous days that any attempts at reconciliation and explanation with the community here has failed. I have tried my best. I really have. I pored my heart out trying. But it was all for nothing.

You win. There, I have said it.

Now there is only one thing left to do. Let us see if I can sum up the strength needed to end things once and for all.
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Re: The 2016 US Election (Part III)

Post by FireNexus »

The Romulan Republic wrote: But hey, in ten or twenty years, all those young Bernie supporters will have aged, risen through the ranks, and will be running the Democratic Party, unless people like you succeed in driving them out. And then all this will be moot. :D
See, I agree with you here. These people will grow up, they will enter politics to some extent and they are the future of the Democratic Party. But, here's the thing about growing up (and correct me if I'm wrong, but if you're more than a couple of years older than 25 I'll be amazed): You stop being an intransigent asshole, mostly. You become a part of the world and a part of the system and you get more pragmatic. Bernie will ultimately be an unimportant footnote because he never learned how to do that, and seemed to fail his way upward through most of the second half of his life.

The people who are so angry at the nomination of Clinton will be cheering to nominate someone just like her in thirty years. Probably further to the left and with a different set of problems, but a flawed part of the political establishment which they believe to represent the best hope for incremental change. The only kind of change that actually happens in the world.

These people will not be young, fired up, and clueless. They'll be willing to accept compromise positions. They will not expect the world to bend to their will because they could theoretically represent a relatively minor weak point. I have no desire to kick them out of the party. Because by the time they've done what you said, they won't be a bunch of know-nothing kneejerkers threatening (whether implicitly or explicitly) to burn down the house because we didn't choose the heater they wanted.

For a lot of us, and for me in particular, this is the source of the open hostility to the Bernie Sanders movement. It represents a type of political position I once held and grew out of. And watching you with your proclamations that it will be a HUGE MISTAKE (TM) to ignore the kind of person who ought to be ignored reminds me of that.
I had a Bill Maher quote here. But fuck him for his white privelegy "joke".

All the rest? Too long.
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Re: The 2016 US Election (Part III)

Post by FireNexus »

You are not a political revolution. You are the young people who represent the forward March of the slow political evolution. And when you get old enough to actually have some power, we'll make concessions to you. Before then, your threats aren't scary.
I had a Bill Maher quote here. But fuck him for his white privelegy "joke".

All the rest? Too long.
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Re: The 2016 US Election (Part III)

Post by FireNexus »

Terralthra wrote:Seriously, dude, "what about down-ticket races? Sen. Sanders doesn't care about a House majority" was the line of Sec. Clinton supporters a month or two ago, and now you're writing off turnout and with it, House seats, because of petty sore-winner-syndrome? As I said in my previous post, do you not see the logical disconnect?
No. I'm doing the exact opposite. Support for Clinton among Sanders' voters is insanely high (not among those who currently support Sanders, which is in the toilet but not really significant). It's like 81%. Yeah, half of the people who still say they support Sanders getting the nomination say they won't vote for her, but they're never going to. Making concessions to try to get those voters would be stupid. More people who supported Sanders said they would vote for Clinton when asked by CNN in May than Clinton supporters who ever said they would vote for Obama in 2008.

There is nothing Clinton can do to excite holdout Sanders voters to vote for her. Nothing. No policy position she could take, no rhetoric she could repeat. The only thing she'll do by making concessions (and I'm not suggesting she say it the way I do, just that she not acknowledge Bernie Sanders any further) is hurt herself. They'll accuse her of lying, of saying whatever she needs to to be elected, and GOP voters might be driven off the couch. She'll gain nothing, but stands to lose something.

I'm rejecting the notion that the kind of Sanders voter who is still not behind Clinton right now actually represents one who can be convinced, thus one who may affect turnout. I'm also modulating my fear of dire outcomes because the predictions of a revolt among Sanders supporters because most of the people predicting it were predicting a Sanders win as late as May. You may not have been one of them, but if you're bitching about this still, you're in their echo chamber and your analysis is color by their delusions. This group of people, including TRR, have a provably incorrect notion of the kind of support Sanders' left-wing tea party approach to progressivism enjoys. Excuse me for not quaking in boots over predictions of doom by people who haven't made a right prediction all year, and certainly not from six months out.
I had a Bill Maher quote here. But fuck him for his white privelegy "joke".

All the rest? Too long.
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Re: The 2016 US Election (Part III)

Post by FireNexus »

The Romulan Republic wrote:The lie that Sanders only has significant support from young white people has been refuted over and over again. There is little point in doing so again, except to point out that you are peddling a racist narrative that falsely paints non-white people as a more or less homogenous pro-Clinton block.
Oh, come off it. I made no claim that non-whites are a homogenous pro-Clinton block. I said that young, white and clueless people (such as yourself) are a homogenous pro-Sanders bloc (different word, no k). It is not a lie that the demographic breakdown of the election, such that it can be measured, broke down along demographic lines. Young people of color did support Sanders more than older ones, no question. But Sanders' base was white people. The states he won were whiter than average. The ones that weren't were caucuses, and the beauty contest primaries plus the ND/SD split showed that Sanders massively overperformed in caucuses.

Just because something is inconvenient to your worldview doesn't make it a lie. I can see why Flagg had so much fun riling you up, though. What clear trend are you going to call a lie next?
Considering your entire argument here is predicated on a stereotype, I'm not terribly convinced.
My argument is predicated on the consistent demographic trends in votes. If it was a primary, the single best predictor of result was the number of black and hispanic voters. If it was a caucus, mostly it was whether your name was Bernie Sanders irrespective of all other factors. But dude, like it or not, Bernie did not enjoy wide support of black and hispanic voters. They broke for Clinton by well over 2-to-1. It's not racist to point that out, it's just inconvenient for... I don't know really. Your argument in this instance is not supported by pretending it isn't true.
So by your definition, any faction of a party that comprises less than fifty percent of the total is irrelevant and powerless?
No. I'm saying don't pretend they're in charge when they were mostly okay with the actual outcome (most democrats on both sides would have been fine with either candidate). The faction that is demanding concessions are not even the majority of Sanders' voters. Every poll showed that the vast majority of Sanders supporters were ultimately cool with Clinton. That number receded near the end, but it never got under 70 before the voting stopped and only the true believers bothered to answer that Sanders should be the nominee.

The idea that Sanders' voters represent a significant faction that could be a mortal threat to the party is pure fantasy. And peddled by people, I might add, who were predicting that Sanders was going to be nominated far later than anyone who has a clue would have predicted it. Should I go back and see how embarrassingly late it was when you finally admitted it wasn't happening?
I had a Bill Maher quote here. But fuck him for his white privelegy "joke".

All the rest? Too long.
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