Democratic Presidential Primary |February OT| It Can't be Worse than Iowa, Right? (Discussion Guidelines in OP)

Deleted member 20630 · Feb 10, 2020

Powdered Egg said:
If Bloomberg gets the nom, I'm not voting for him in the general.

The idea of voting for Bloomberg is the first time I've been given pause and the first time I've legit considered not voting for any candidate and instead just voting downticket. Even if the nominee was a scumbag as huge as Buttigieg I'd probably still vote, but Bloomberg may honestly be the line for me.

Luckily, I don't think there's any reasonable chance he clinches the nomination, but it is disquieting that he's even in the conversation.

His presence in this race, and the manner in which he has thrown his weight around, should be a huge wakeup call to every single person paying attention that the way we currently do things is fundamentally busted and that there is no normal worth returning to. We have to put our energy into fixing things, and fixing them immediately.

JABEE · Feb 10, 2020

The star of the show

Ziltoidia 9 · Feb 10, 2020

Powdered Egg said:
If Bloomberg gets the nom, I'm not voting for him in the general.

I'll vote for him, but I don't think it will matter. I don't see how he would win.

Ottaro · Feb 10, 2020

Finale Fireworker said:
Lol:

Huh...

What will those wacky New Hampshirites think of next?

Spiderz · Feb 10, 2020

If Bloomy buys his way to a brokered convention and somehow walks away with the nomination, I will only vote down ballet in the general.

LegendofJoe · Feb 10, 2020

ScribbleD said:
The idea of voting for Bloomberg is the first time I've been given pause and the first time I've legit considered not voting for any candidate and instead just voting downticket. Even if the nominee was a scumbag as huge as Buttigieg I'd probably still vote, but Bloomberg may honestly be the line for me.

Luckily, I don't think there's any reasonable chance he clinches the nomination, but it is disquieting that he's even in the conversation.

His presence in this race, and the manner in which he has thrown his weight around, should be a huge wakeup call to every single person paying attention that the way we currently do things is fundamentally busted and that there is no normal worth returning to. We have to put our energy into fixing things, and fixing them immediately.

We have to get big money out of politics. It should be priority number one.

fragamemnon · Feb 10, 2020

Kusagari said:
If the election is Bloomberg vs. Trump then this country is fucked anyway and you might as well accept hope is never coming.

Yeah at that point you'd seriously be looking at a wind-down/devolution of the country into regional autonomous states that can actually move with consensus within themselves. This was already kind of inevitable but having those options as your choices in the Biggest Election Ever hammer home that there's no great harmonizer that can come and save us all, but only delay the inevitable.

Mekanos · Feb 10, 2020

Kusagari said:
If the election is Bloomberg vs. Trump then this country is fucked anyway and you might as well accept hope is never coming.

Pretty much. People don't realize how poisoned this country would be past the next four years in this scenario.

ChippyTurtle · Feb 10, 2020

PMS341 said:
Just gonna repost these:
Bloomberg and Trump are on the same side of the coin. Also, "normal-ass Bush"? Bush is much, much worse than Trump is, and that's saying something. The "War on Terror" destabilized the Middle East for generations to come and affected millions of lives, still to this day.

A conservative court for 10+ years, a federal bureaucracy that will ignore the Democrats completely and follow Trump's every order, and reduce Congress's checks and balances on the executive to nil, thats way better than Bloomberg, can't wait. He'll enact any anti-immigrant order he wants, cut the funding to every single democrat value to nothing, for the past 4 years, its been Trump GTFO and now we are on home run and im hearing this bs....

Deleted member 31817 · Feb 10, 2020

Bloomberg is easily the worst candidate in the race but he's still not just as bad as Trump lmao, not even close.

A guy who won't appoint Kavanaughs and actually believes in climate change and gun control is already up a billion points.

Huncho_Houdini · Feb 10, 2020

Psychoward said:
Bloomberg is easily the worst candidate in the race but he's still not just as bad as Trump lmao, not even close.

A guy who won't appoint Kavanaughs and actually believes in climate change and gun control is already up a billion points.

Gabbard*

Deleted member 31817 · Feb 10, 2020

Huncho_Houdini said:
Gabbard*

I forgot about her tbh

ChippyTurtle · Feb 10, 2020

fragamemnon said:
Yeah at that point you'd seriously be looking at a wind-down/devolution of the country into regional autonomous states that can actually move with consensus within themselves. This was already kind of inevitable but having those options as your choices in the Biggest Election Ever hammer home that there's no great harmonizer that can come and save us all, but only delay the inevitable.

what consensus? its been rural vs urban with suburban flip flopping, and any city that cant retain control of the hinterlands is doomed to failure....if the scenario ever occurs wheres its thinkable that we should break up, i have no faith it wont dissolve into some sort of warring states. get that talk out of here, thats just a path to war and death for everyone.

Mekanos · Feb 10, 2020

I'm not even going to humor "at least he's not Trump" conversations. I refuse to normalize Bloomberg as a legitimate Democrat candidate. I have no reason to trust a billionaire Republican who entered this race for his own ego. He can get fucked.

Addie · Feb 10, 2020

(It's funny, because I think I finally understand Bernie stans' arguments.)

Can we please not shift the goalposts on Anyone vs. Trump?

There are countless people with (D) after their name who are better than Trump. In fact, probably all of them are. But if you take this argument to its logical conclusion, any improvement over Trump, however minute, is worth voting for. Except, if it gets to that point, the conversation is off the rails in the first place.

Baji Boxer · Feb 10, 2020

BowieZ said:
OR

the app malfunctioned, coupled with stronger than expected results for Pete (benefiting from weaker than expected first-round support for Biden), and Pete's scummy but obviously smart move to capitalize on the confusion by saying they were "victorious"

no conspiracy, simple

Not quite. The problem is that they released partial results before getting everything on track while they knew they'd fucked up. Whether inentional to boost Pete, or under pressure from DNC or specific campaigns, who knows right now.

PMS341 said:
Just gonna repost these:

Bloomberg and Trump are on the same side of the coin. Also, "normal-ass Bush"? Bush is much, much worse than Trump is, and that's saying something. The "War on Terror" destabilized the Middle East for generations to come and affected millions of lives, still to this day.

It's more like Trump and his team has lacked the competence to pull off an Iraq scale disaster thus far. He still has time though, and he's gaining power that Bush never had.

Not that Trump hasn't caused generational damage. Peurto Rico is still suffering, and he is complicit in ethnic cleansing/genocide against the Kurds.

PMS341 · Feb 10, 2020

ChippyTurtle said:
A conservative court for 10+ years, a federal bureaucracy that will ignore the Democrats completely and follow Trump's every order, and reduce Congress's checks and balances on the executive to nil, thats way better than Bloomberg, can't wait. He'll enact any anti-immigrant order he wants, cut the funding to every single democrat value to nothing, for the past 4 years, its been Trump GTFO and now we are on home run and im hearing this bs....

You won't have to even worry about these things because Bloomberg won't be the nom AND Trump is down in the general against all of the frontrunners in almost every poll. Bloomberg doesn't represent anyone in this country.

Deleted member 6230 · Feb 10, 2020

Psychoward said:
Bloomberg is easily the worst candidate in the race but he's still not just as bad as Trump lmao, not even close.

A guy who won't appoint Kavanaughs and actually believes in climate change and gun control is already up a billion points.

bloomberg fucking sucks

Deleted member 31817 · Feb 10, 2020

infinite said:
bloomberg fucking sucks

Yeah I said that

Deleted member 31817 · Feb 10, 2020

‘He’s A Cop,’ Say Bernie Backers, Withdrawing Support After Realizing Candidate Vying To Be Commander In Chief

NEW YORK—Expressing disappointment that the longtime senator was “just another part of the establishment,” once-vocal supporters of Bernie Sanders withdrew their backing for the presidential candidate Monday after realizing he was vying to become commander in chief of the U.S. Armed Forces...

politics.theonion.com

"Bernie talks a big game about being progressive, but he also wants to lead the world's largest military? No thanks, pig," said Brooklyn-based campaign volunteer Masha Ariely, expressing the sentiments of many former Sanders proponents who derided the White House hopeful as a "dirty cop" for seeking to wield the strength of a vast global superpower with a nearly $700 billion annual defense budget.

Finale Fireworker · Feb 10, 2020

Psychoward said:
A guy who won't appoint Kavanaughs and actually believes in climate change and gun control is already up a billion points.

This doesn't answer your assertion directly (or maybe it does), but Michael Bloomberg worked to get Pat Toomey (R) elected in to the senate in 2016, which helped ensure the 50/49 Republican Senate majority that was able to confirm Kavanaugh.

Take from that what you will. 🤷‍♂️

Bloomberg didn't single handedly have Kavanaugh appointed but in that particular battle he contributed to the ultimate outcome and he definitely wasn't on our side.

Deleted member 176 · Feb 10, 2020

Mekanos said:
I'm not even going to humor "at least he's not Trump" conversations. I refuse to normalize Bloomberg as a legitimate Democrat candidate. I have no reason to trust a billionaire Republican who entered this race for his own ego. He can get fucked.

I think his main issue with Trump is that he isn't "presidential" enough.

YaBish · Feb 10, 2020

JABEE said:
The star of the show

Quite the get for his campaign nonetheless. Getting to see the Strokes live would certainly make me hyped as hell.

Deleted member 6230 · Feb 10, 2020

Psychoward said:
Yeah I said that

He sucks even relative to Trump

Brazil · Feb 10, 2020

infinite said:
I know this was posted already but why isn't anyone furious about Charlamange actively campaigning for Buttigieg

joe kennedy III is a republican on Twitter

“WATCH: Pete Buttigieg refers to dark money as “black money” in a room full of black people, catches himself, gets called on it, and manages to swiftly make things worse. Pete may become the first candidate to ever poll in the negative with black voters. https://t.co/vzMwSakpTH”

twitter.com

I had to close the video as soon as the words came out of his mouth.

Couldn't do it.

Ughhhhhhhhh

Kusagari · Feb 10, 2020

Bloomberg helped get Republicans who support caging children, support Trump's racist policies and got Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court elected/reelected in 2016 and 2018.

ChippyTurtle · Feb 10, 2020

PMS341 said:
You won't have to even worry about these things because Bloomberg won't be the nom AND Trump is down in the general against all of the frontrunners in almost every poll. Bloomberg doesn't represent anyone in this country.

national poll, electoral college is the kingmaker, 70k was the votes in several states that turned them for Trump, what a fucking slim margin, wheres the polls on that.

Deleted member 20630 · Feb 10, 2020

Just defeating Trump and going back to normal is not good enough, because if that's all we accomplish than we are put in a far worse position when someone comes along who is a competent and intelligent version of Trump. Normal was already broken. We have to aim to do better than the normal that delivered us to where we are now.

Dahbomb · Feb 10, 2020

ScribbleD said:
Just defeating Trump and going back to normal is not good enough, because if that's all we accomplish than we are put in a far worse position when someone comes along who is a competent and intelligent version of Trump. Normal was already broken. We have to aim to do better than the normal that delivered us to where we are now.

Well we are already at that crossroads.

Bloomberg is a more competent and intelligent version of Trump.

samoyed · Feb 10, 2020

I'm glad Bloomberg could bring this thread together on something, this is the kind of unity I like to see.

ChippyTurtle · Feb 10, 2020

you know, for the past 4 years, democrats have run and successfully i might add, on Trump is the worse thing in the world.

For us to suddenly turn on each other and start saying "But no...Biden/Bloomberg/Warren/Bernie/etc/etc/etc is worse" thats some fucking bullshit....

Can we not torpedo ourselves before the fucking finish line? By all means, knives out for the primary but if we lose the general, we just fucking lose period.

Deleted member 20630 · Feb 10, 2020

Dahbomb said:
Well we are already at that crossroads.

Bloomberg is a more competent and intelligent version of Trump.

I think he's scum, but I don't think he's quite at the point of being a fascist. That's what I'm talking about. The legit fascist who comes next if we don't fix what is broken in the system now that has allowed fascism to rise.

KefkaPalazzo · Feb 10, 2020

Thrilled about the Bernie surge, but Bloomberg is worrying me in some of the same ways Trump did...and what he lacks in Trump's masterful manipulation of the media, he makes up for in endless financial resources.

Uncle at Nintendo said:
There's not a whole lot of ways the dems can lose this election.

This is thinking that helped get Trump elected in the first place.

History repeats itself.

Mekanos · Feb 10, 2020

ChippyTurtle said:
you know, for the past 4 years, democrats have run and successfully i might add, on Trump is the worse thing in the world.

For us to suddenly turn on each other and start saying "But no...Biden/Bloomberg/Warren/Bernie/etc/etc/etc is worse" thats some fucking bullshit....

Can we not torpedo ourselves before the fucking finish line? By all means, knives out for the primary but if we lose the general, we just fucking lose period.

Sorry. Bloomberg is a genuinely awful, horrendous person that is antithetical to everything progressive and I will not be nice to him just because he's the D ticket. I'm not going to bite my tongue on that. This country will be at an existential crossroads far greater than the threat of four more years of Trump if Bloomberg is the nom.

Finale Fireworker · Feb 10, 2020

samoyed said:
I'm glad Bloomberg could bring this thread together on something, this is the kind of unity I like to see.

In solidarity. ✊ 🌹 🍩 ✊ Stronger together.

Deleted member 6230 · Feb 10, 2020

ChippyTurtle said:
you know, for the past 4 years, democrats have run and successfully i might add, on Trump is the worse thing in the world.

For us to suddenly turn on each other and start saying "But no...Biden/Bloomberg/Warren/Bernie/etc/etc/etc is worse" thats some fucking bullshit....

Can we not torpedo ourselves before the fucking finish line? By all means, knives out for the primary but if we lose the general, we just fucking lose period.

Biden Buttigieg and Klobb aren't my candidates but I'll support them in the general

Bloomberg I won't

Kusagari · Feb 10, 2020

ChippyTurtle said:
you know, for the past 4 years, democrats have run and successfully i might add, on Trump is the worse thing in the world.

For us to suddenly turn on each other and start saying "But no...Biden/Bloomberg/Warren/Bernie/etc/etc/etc is worse" thats some fucking bullshit....

Can we not torpedo ourselves before the fucking finish line? By all means, knives out for the primary but if we lose the general, we just fucking lose period.

Bloomberg isn't a Democrat. He helped Republicans supporting Trump currently stay in office in 2018. He already showed fascistic tendencies while mayor of NYC, so who the hell knows what he would do after he just bought an election to become president.

If ya'll want a Republican to lead the Democratic Party then I'm out. You've confirmed to all the people who screamed the mantra for years that the parties really are the same.

ChippyTurtle · Feb 10, 2020

Mekanos said:
Sorry. Bloomberg is a genuinely awful, horrendous person that is antithetical to everything progressive and I will not be nice to him just because he's the D ticket. I'm not going to bite my tongue on that. This country will be at an existential crossroads far greater than the threat of four more years of Trump if Bloomberg is the nom.

If you think Trump will be content with 4 years, please give me the drugs you are taking, next will be Trump Jr....

ChippyTurtle · Feb 10, 2020

Kusagari said:
Bloomberg isn't a Democrat. He helped Republicans supporting Trump currently stay in office in 2018. He already showed fascistic tendencies while mayor of NYC, so who the hell knows what he would do after he just bought an election to become president.

If ya'll want a Republican to lead the Democratic Party then I'm out. You've confirmed to all the people who screamed the mantra for years that the parties really are the same.

And for years, you all have screamed Trump is the worse thing in the world, is that a lie?

Deleted member 2145 · Feb 10, 2020

you can shout trump all day long but bloomberg is a tough vote and I can't fault anyone who feels they can't go through with it as long as they fill out the rest of the ballot

samoyed · Feb 10, 2020

I'm just looking at the recession signals. Official recession = Trump loses, no recession = Trump wins. But I was also wrong about Parasite last night so you should adjust for overcynicism if you want to use my gut reads.

Deleted member 31817 · Feb 10, 2020

Finale Fireworker said:
This doesn't answer your assertion directly (or maybe it does), but Michael Bloomberg worked to get Pat Toomey (R) elected in to the senate in 2016, which helped ensure the 50/49 Republican Senate majority that was able to confirm Kavanaugh.

Take from that what you will. 🤷‍♂️

Bloomberg didn't single handedly have Kavanaugh appointed but in that particular battle he contributed to the ultimate outcome and he definitely wasn't on our side.

True ugh

Deleted member 6230 · Feb 10, 2020

phanphare said:
you can shout trump all day long but bloomberg is a tough vote and I can't fault anyone who feels they can't go through with it as long as they fill out the rest of the ballot

There's barely any daylight between them with how they'll govern. The big difference is I guess is Bloomberg won't do mobster cosplay in the White House

xenocide · Feb 10, 2020

samoyed said:
I'm just looking at the recession signals. Official recession = Trump loses, no recession = Trump wins. But I was also wrong about Parasite last night so you should adjust for overcynicism if you want to use my gut reads.

A recession would lead to a complete collapse for Republicans. It's the only thing they can really run on—all their other positions are revoked by a majority of the public. Remove that silver lining and they don't stand a chance.

Chaos Legion · Feb 10, 2020

No chance Bloomberg wins the nomination. But maybe I'm just not seeing his path and not sure how he's not handing Bernie the nomination, which is what he joined the race to prevent. Should be an interesting couple of weeks, to say the least.

DisasterMaster · Feb 10, 2020

I would actually take fucking Pete over Bloomberg that's how much Bloomberg sucks.

Ecotic · Feb 10, 2020

I'm having to get caught up on Bloomberg. I've put it off and hoped I wouldn't have to, but PredictIt now gives him the second most chance of getting the nomination, so it appears I have to.

The question I'm trying to answer for myself is whether Bloomberg is in any way an intrinsically mean-spirited individual, or does he just sometimes support bad policies after he followed a good-faith decision-making process? I can live with a guy who has a good decision-making process and can be persuaded to follow a different path if the evidence shows he was wrong or someone puts a better argument in front of his face.

ChippyTurtle · Feb 10, 2020

honestly, we should have all the other candidates pool their money together to defeat Bloomberg if nothing else....

but none of them will fall behind the other. maybe if bernie overrides them.

Deleted member 46493 · Feb 10, 2020

Tbh I find the Bloomberg worry premature. People that are voting for him on the polls are just repeating the last name they saw on TV. These were the people that had Biden was #1 for so long.

Mekanos · Feb 10, 2020

jcs said:
Tbh I find the Bloomberg worry premature. People that are voting for him on the polls are just repeating the last name they saw on TV. These were the people that had Biden was #1 for so long.

Regardless, I think it's important to start the conversation right now that Bloomberg would be an unacceptable Democratic candidate and push back against any sort of "well, maybe he's not so bad" rhetoric. Many of us are saying we wouldn't vote for him in a general. If people are so concerned with beating Trump, that message can help push against the "he's so electable" idea.

This country's done for if it's Bloomberg vs. Trump in the general.

Democratic Presidential Primary |February OT| It Can't be Worse than Iowa, Right? (Discussion Guidelines in OP)

Who's Going to Win South Carolina?

Joe Biden

Bernie Sanders

Elizabeth Warren

Pete Buttigieg

THE KLOBBERER

Tom Steyer

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account

▲ Legend ▲

Deleted member 31817

Deleted member 31817

▲ Legend ▲

One Winged Slayer

Chicken Chaser

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt-account

User-requested account closure

Deleted member 31817

Deleted member 31817

Love each other or die trying.

User requested account closure

Unshakable Resolve - One Winged Slayer

User-requested account closure

Actual Brazilian

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account

Community Resettler

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account

▲ Legend ▲

Love each other or die trying.

User-requested account closure

User requested account closure

Deleted member 31817

User-requested account closure

The Wise Ones

User requested account closure

▲ Legend ▲