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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#274726: Mar 19th 2019 at 10:16:18 AM

Yes, sadly the superdelegate system fails if all your vote holders are assholes.

But that's sort of like, "the problem with Gotham City is the people."

At that point, there's not much you can do.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#274727: Mar 19th 2019 at 10:17:00 AM

Besides, the Republican Party apparatus rigging the primary against Trump would have only encouraged voters to back him. And maybe to start mayhem at the RNC. It'd also be undemocratic, the peculiar setup of the GOP primaries nonwithstanding.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#274728: Mar 19th 2019 at 10:18:56 AM

Eh, it depends as a party is a separate institution from the public itself.

Certainly, if the GOP had any integrity, they would have worked together to keep him off the ballot.

But we know they don'.

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Mar 19th 2019 at 10:19:22 AM

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#274729: Mar 19th 2019 at 10:29:00 AM

Going back to Biden, I wouldn't be surprised if he won the primary.

I'm still pulling for Warren and Gillibrand, but it won't come as a shock if our candidate winds up being Biden. He has a ton of support, moreso even than Sanders.

And yes, Creepy Uncle Joe being our candidate is inevitably going to cause some tension between the party and the #MeToo movement if it comes to pass. The best recommendation I can make (other than not picking Joe Biden in the first place) would be for Joe to hold off on announcing a running mate until after the primary and then, if he wins, to select one of his female competitors.

This would help offset the, uh, problems with Joe as a candidate and also create a stark, visible contrast between the Democratic nominees and Trump + Inevitable White Dude VP.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Mar 19th 2019 at 11:31:19 AM

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#274730: Mar 19th 2019 at 10:31:50 AM

Yes, I support Warren and even Bernie to an extent.

I *EXPECT* Biden to blow everyone else away.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#274731: Mar 19th 2019 at 10:32:33 AM

The whole "rigging" argument was and is a rather debased version of the argument put forth by political scientists Zaller et al in "The Party Decides: Presidential Nominations Before and After Reform" about how, excluding the brief window between after the reforms to the primary system, primaries have been largely decided by machine politics.


Prior to Trump's unexpected victory in the 2016 nomination, it was a pretty widely accepted view of the primaries (enough that Nate Silver completely ignored polls and slapped a 2% chance of victory on Trump under the assumption that he'd be soundly beaten by the party machine), which at least on the Republican side showed unexpected weakness in the party system.


IMO having primaries elections in the first place was a mistake; restriction by a theoretically knowledgeable elite of the choices of candidates available to voters was one of the various guardrails against populism that was dismantled over the course of the 20th century, and IMO it's had a seriously adverse effect on the quality of presidential candidates (the only post primary-reforms president I'd place in the top 15 is Obama), and is one of several factors contributing to the polarization of politics.


While the superdelegates have never decided an election, the fact the Democratic party had them and the GOP didn't is illustrative of the greater concern about populism among the party Brass, and as a whole that made the party more resistant to extremism than the GOP.

[up] If left leaning primary voters (let's say that's supporters of Sanders, Warren, and Harris) coalesce around a candidate early enough, they'd be able to challenge Biden. Realistically I don't expect that to happen; Sanders's made a lot of enemies who would be reluctant to rally behind him, and I expect his ego will prevent him from throwing his support behind someone like Warren or Harris, especially if he's still in a clear second place and is thus poised to make the (reasonable) argument that this entitles him to be the compromise candidate for progressives.

Edited by CaptainCapsase on Mar 19th 2019 at 1:37:16 PM

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#274732: Mar 19th 2019 at 10:33:33 AM

I really, really hope it doesn't come down to Biden and Sanders.

I dislike Gabbard more of course, but the odds of her becoming a finalist much less the winner are pretty much nil.

I just hope that whoever wins doesn't decide to make her VP mate for whatever reason.

Disgusted, but not surprised
TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#274733: Mar 19th 2019 at 10:40:02 AM

Sanders might. Doesn't he actually like Gabbard on account of her endorsing him?

Edited by TobiasDrake on Mar 19th 2019 at 11:40:15 AM

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#274734: Mar 19th 2019 at 10:43:21 AM

[up][up] Unless Gabbard actually starts picking up in the polls I don't really see that happening, VP picks are pretty much always strategic. The VP pick is most likely going to be Harris if she doesn't win.

Edited by CaptainCapsase on Mar 19th 2019 at 2:08:31 PM

Mio Since: Jan, 2001
#274735: Mar 19th 2019 at 10:46:30 AM

[up][up][up] Sanders and Biden align pretty nicely with two overarching factions of the party (Progressive vs Moderate).

Unless Biden decides not to run or someone else steals the mantle of the moderates from him I think it coming down too these two is more or less inevitable.

Edited by Mio on Mar 19th 2019 at 1:46:50 PM

wisewillow She/her Since: May, 2011
She/her
#274736: Mar 19th 2019 at 10:52:38 AM

I really hope Stacey Abrams runs.

TheRoguePenguin Since: Jul, 2009
#274737: Mar 19th 2019 at 11:02:57 AM

[up]I doubt it. There'd be more activity from her were that in the works.

To change the subject to something everyone can equally hate, the Supreme Court has ruled the government can detain immigrants indefinitely for past crimes, even if they were previously released.

    Article 
In a 5-4 decision that fell along ideological lines, the high court reversed lower court rulings that found immigrants could only be subject to mandatory detention without a bond hearing if they were detained promptly upon their release from custody.

The ruling provides President Donald Trump more authority in his efforts to arrest, detain and deport immigrants convicted of crimes. Trump administration officials frequently lament the inability to remove immigrants due to court rulings around the country.

Justice Samuel Alito wrote in a 26-page majority opinion that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit — a popular Trump target — incorrectly interpreted the federal statute that outlines procedures for mandatory detention.

Alito said “neither the statute's text nor its structure“ supported the contention that immigrants convicted of a crime must be detained immediately to be held in detention without bond.

“Especially hard to swallow” was the plaintiffs’ argument that immigrants could be placed in mandatory detention only if they were arrested on the day they left jail, Alito argued.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh issued a concurring opinion, as did Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch.

In a dissent, the court’s liberal wing argued federal law did not permit mandatory detention for immigrants previously released after a conviction.

“The statute’s language, its structure, and relevant canons of interpretation make clear that the secretary cannot hold an alien without a bail hearing unless the alien is ‘take[n] into custody . . . when the alien is released’ from criminal custody,” they wrote.

One plaintiff in the case, Mony Preap, was a green card holder whose family fled the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia.

He served a short sentence for simply battery in 2013 and was detained without a bond hearing, allegedly based on two marijuana convictions seven years earlier.

Edited by TheRoguePenguin on Mar 19th 2019 at 11:21:56 AM

CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#274738: Mar 19th 2019 at 11:09:03 AM

Including private competition in this context is not good for the consumer, quite the opposite. In America at-least 50% of the political spectrum is fanatically devoted to deregulation, if we allow private entities to exist within the healthcare system then they will inevitably try their hardest to claw back into a position of primacy.

No, healthcare is one of those things that are just too crucial to permit the profit motive to touch. I'd vastly prefer the potential inefficiency of a state program to the racketeering intrinsic to private competition. The costs of the latter far outweigh the costs of the former.

This is what I'm talking about when I say people shouldn't allow ideology to dictate the range of policies they're willing to consider. It shouldn't matter whether the entities offering coverage are private or public. Multi-payer systems work just as well overall as pure single-payer systems, as attributed by the comparable healthcare rankings of the Benelux countries to Scandinavia, and like it or not there's a preexisting 900 billion dollar health insurance industry that needs to be accounted for, not only in terms of their political influence*, but also in terms of the generally negative economic consequences of nationalization attested to by economic research.**


* Though that's a very strong pragmatic point against pure Medicare for All.

** And that's what this amounts to for better or worse.

Edited by CaptainCapsase on Mar 19th 2019 at 2:10:51 PM

speedyboris Since: Feb, 2010
#274739: Mar 19th 2019 at 11:16:57 AM

[up]x2 That ruling only applies to illegal immigrants, right? If you gain citizenship they can't touch you?

TheRoguePenguin Since: Jul, 2009
#274740: Mar 19th 2019 at 11:21:02 AM

I'd assume so, but I wouldn't put it past the administration to try and nab citizens if they could catch them for crimes committed before they became such.

Larkmarn Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Hello, I love you
#274741: Mar 19th 2019 at 11:26:09 AM

Fairly certain it includes all aliens, including green card holders and those on visas. Doubt it would apply to naturalized citizens.

Found a Youtube Channel with political stances you want to share? Hop on over to this page and add them.
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#274742: Mar 19th 2019 at 11:31:44 AM

https://anonhq.com/trumps-report-illegal-alien-hotline-gets-inundated-reported-ufo-sightings/

My opinion in a nutshell.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#274743: Mar 19th 2019 at 11:33:21 AM

For context, the headline of the article linked [up] is "Trump’s Report-an-Illegal-Alien Hotline Gets Inundated with Reported UFO Sightings" and seems to be about exactly what it sounds like.

Edited by sgamer82 on Mar 19th 2019 at 12:35:20 PM

Parable Since: Aug, 2009
BlueNinja0 The Mod with the Migraine from Taking a left at Albuquerque Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
The Mod with the Migraine
#274745: Mar 19th 2019 at 12:15:58 PM

Still, I feel confident that overall the roster has much better then worse.
Same, I just felt the commentary was worth sharing. We have a couple of good candidates, and some alright ones, and only a few really bad ones.
Seems...unnecessarily complicated.
Welcome to American Politics.
Out of all the high profile Democratic Candidates, which of them do you think that TRUMP thinks he has the best chance of beating?
I would wager that Trump feels confident going up against Sanders (as a self-professed socialist), and any female candidate (because they're women). I don't think he fears any candidate, because he's an egotistical idiot, but I think he would underestimate Warren and Harris the most.
I do admit that the mental image of Elizabeth Warren brandishing a harpoon while screaming "From Hell's Heart I stab at thee!" while facing a giant whale made of money is pretty badass.
I do agree with that. This image is great.
I think Bernie has a good chance of winning not just became name recognition but because want to buy what he's selling. He's also a very charismatic speaker. The idea he doesn't stand a chance misses the fact a lot of people DO like Bernie and don't necessarily feel the desire to rally around other candidates.
I think at the current moment, some of Bernie's popularity just comes from the fact that he's had national exposure far more than other politicians like Booker and Harris. Once the debates and hardcore campaigning start, I think some voters will shift their support, especially as people start dropping out of the race.
Nunes has no real case, he's just wasting his time and his money.
The point in lawsuits like this is to try and make the company they're suing waste their time and money. Plus given the state of the courts these days, he might win a legal victory just by having Republican judges find in favor of the Republican plaintiff.
The best recommendation I can make (other than not picking Joe Biden in the first place) would be for Joe to hold off on announcing a running mate until after the primary and then, if he wins, to select one of his female competitors.
If Biden wins the primary, I would be surprised if he doesn't pick Warren or Harris as his VP choice.
This would help offset the, uh, problems with Joe as a candidate and also create a stark, visible contrast between the Democratic nominees and Trump + Inevitable White Dude VP.
Is there any indication that Pence is going to disappear after one term?
Sanders's made a lot of enemies who would be reluctant to rally behind him, and I expect his ego will prevent him from throwing his support behind someone like Warren or Harris, especially if he's still in a clear second place
You're talking about Sanders dropping out before the primary was over? Because he gave his support to Hillary, even if his followers were less help.
"Trump’s Report-an-Illegal-Alien Hotline Gets Inundated with Reported UFO Sightings"
Has anyone called in to report a UFO? Anyone want to?

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw
CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#274746: Mar 19th 2019 at 12:23:32 PM

[up] Sanders should have left in March, his position was untenable after super Tuesday.

Ultimatum Disasturbator from the Amiga Forest (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Disasturbator
#274747: Mar 19th 2019 at 12:25:07 PM

> Has anyone called in to report a UFO? Anyone want to?

Someone should play War of worlds down the line and see what happens..

have a listen and have a link to my discord server
DingoWalley1 Asgore Adopts Noelle Since: Feb, 2014 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love
Asgore Adopts Noelle
#274748: Mar 19th 2019 at 12:49:46 PM

[up]x3

The point in lawsuits like this is to try and make the company they're suing waste their time and money. Plus given the state of the courts these days, he might win a legal victory just by having Republican judges find in favor of the Republican plaintiff.

But who has more money? 1 Politician (who without a doubt is a Millionaire) or a Super Tech Company that makes Multi-Millions, if not Billions, a year?

On top of that, the Court Nunes is going through, the 14th Judicial Circuit Court of Virginia in Henrico County, which doesn't appear to be a Court where individuals are elected, and it doesn't even appear to work much on Cases that deal with Constitutional Issues. It appears to be your basic Civil (Civic?) Court, that focuses on squabbles between 2 parties (Criminal and Not Criminal). It's true that the Courts could find in favor of Nunes, but I'd believe if they did then that would mean Twitter was doing something criminal (not simply expressing their first Amendment rights). As of now, it does appear that Nunes is in way over his head, especially if Twitter counter sues, and they absolutely should.

Edited by DingoWalley1 on Mar 19th 2019 at 3:50:06 PM

Deadbeatloser22 from Disappeared by Space Magic (Great Old One) Relationship Status: Tsundere'ing
#274749: Mar 19th 2019 at 12:55:10 PM

For context, the headline of the article linked [up] is "Trump’s Report-an-Illegal-Alien Hotline Gets Inundated with Reported UFO Sightings" and seems to be about exactly what it sounds like.

As I recall, that happened pretty early on in his reign. Lots of people ringing in claiming to have seen Superman.

"Yup. That tasted purple."
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#274750: Mar 19th 2019 at 12:59:20 PM

It was widely reported and mocked, and that no doubt inspired additional people to call. It's a win-win to my way of thinking.

Edited by Fighteer on Mar 19th 2019 at 3:59:38 PM

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

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