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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
The long term solution is that the overton window of the US shifts enough so that the more centrist wing of the democrats is what passes as a "conservative" alternative.
To me, that's the problem: it's completely insane for the choice every four years to be "flawed, but overall sane and resposible government" versus "authoritarian xenophobia full of grifters and voter supression". That's just way too much at risk. At worst, the government should just be mediocre, not a complete disaster like trump. He makes Dubya's presidency look competent by comparison.
Edited by Draghinazzo on Nov 2nd 2020 at 9:18:45 AM
@Ramidel: Yes, lets not forget that historically, the Democrats never lacked for their own form of hypocrisies. I shudder to think what would happen if Establishment Democrats ended up a dynastic party in power with no real opposition. That's why I support more progressive candidates.
I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.![]()
I've made the joke that in a healthy 2016 election, Sanders would have been the Democratic candidate, and Clinton would have been the Republican candidate. I'm aware that the difference between Clinton and Sanders is not actually all the much; I'm just saying how much the Overton window needs to swing back.
Correct, the postscript for Revolt in 2100.
When I read that, I was like, damn, that's so spot-on it's scary.
In a sane election, there would be a debate between single-payer healthcare and a public option in a private insurance marketplace, between a carbon tax and a complete ban on fossil fuels, between a minimum wage and a universal income.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Discounting the unqualified judges pushed through by evil Turtle, most judges care about rule of law and following the processes, even if some of them have interpretations that are a massive stretch. Even Republican judges have an interest in being seen as doing their job by the book, hence this lawsuit getting tossed via technicality.
It's hilarious to me that they lost on a standing judgment. Standing doctrine was developed by conservative southern judges to act as an excuse to immunize the government from civil rights lawsuits by the a.c.l.u. and the like.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.538 only gives him about a 1/3rd of winning, but that's good for a red state at least.
Looking at 538, if the Democrats can win the seats in Arizona, Colorado, Maine and North Carolina, they've got the Senate tied (which means Harris breaks tied votes, assuming party unity is maintained). Upset opportunities exist in Georgia, South Carolina, Iowa and Montana though.
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.Montana is weird in that it's pretty solidly Republican at the federal level but will happily vote for downballot Democrats (see: Senator Jon Tester, reelected in 2012 while Obama lost the state). Bullock is popular from his time as governor, too.
Iowa is pretty evenly split right now, so I wouldn't call Greenfield winning an upset - could go either way.
Edited by nova92 on Nov 2nd 2020 at 5:07:16 AM
The Georgia special election is super frustrating because Lieberman + Tarver staying in the race could be the difference between Warnock winning outright and the election going to a runoff. Neither of them has the smallest chance of winning and I can't for the life of me understand why they haven't dropped out.
Edited by nova92 on Nov 2nd 2020 at 5:30:07 AM
Huh. For people looking for something to distract themselves from election updates, the New York Times put up an "election distractor"
which seems to be a series of vids that have nothing to do with politics.
So just an indication of how much the world has changed, this time last year November 2nd barely took up a page and a half in this thread. The most pressing matter for us then was abolishing pennies and mocking the fact that Trump's wall only needed a saw to cut through.
It was the primaries back then, and the Liberty and Justice Dinner had ended the day before, which apparently I was the only one to watch, and Beto had just dropped out.

Oooh, I bought that one recently. Looking forward to reading it.