Skeptic Ginger
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That's not true. There are lots of down ticket candidates: all the House members and some of the Senate seats that matter.
2020 Presidential Election
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That's not true. There are lots of down ticket candidates: all the House members and some of the Senate seats that matter.
Skeptic Ginger
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I hope that one would come out in late Oct. but I see it will come out in 2 days.
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angrysoba
Philosophile
Yes, but Craig4 was specifically referring to a vote for president, and the way that it is set up, it really does seem as though voting for president in a number of states is not worth it.
That said, you should still vote. Texas might even come into play this year as the vote has narrowed. I also know Americans who did not vote last time believing that their own vote in Michigan would not be of any consequence, except Michigan did swing to Trump.
At the very least, voting in California for the Democrats helps to illustrate how ridiculous the EC is. If people stayed home or only voted down-ballot, people could look at the vote tally and say, "See, the EC vote is pretty much in line with the popular vote." I think you guys, as Americans ought to use your votes to expose who ridiculous it is to have such a discrepancy.
One of my biggest issues with the EC is that it creates this popular image of huge, landslide victories that don't actually happen.
In 1972 Richard Nixon defeated George McGovern 520 EC votes to 17 (one faithless elector casting a vote for Libertarian candidate John Hospers instead of the pledged Nixon/Agnew ticket accounts for the odd vote out.)
520 to 17 is a slaughter. If you're playing a sporting event and you lose 520 to 17 you never had a chance of winning. You have to wonder why you even tried. Even if a voting populace understands the EC perfectly well on a literal mental level you can't say that isn't emotionally draining and demoralizing.
But the popular vote, while still a strong, no-ifandsorbuts about it win for Nixon, was only 60.67% to 37.52%.
If you lose 6 to 4 it feels a lot more like you still had a chance to win. It's still getting beat, beat bad but it's not embarrassing. It's not a blowout. It doesn't make you wonder why you even tried. Being down 4 points to 6 is something you can come back from. Being down 520 to 17 is not.
In 1972 Richard Nixon defeated George McGovern 520 EC votes to 17 (one faithless elector casting a vote for Libertarian candidate John Hospers instead of the pledged Nixon/Agnew ticket accounts for the odd vote out.)
520 to 17 is a slaughter. If you're playing a sporting event and you lose 520 to 17 you never had a chance of winning. You have to wonder why you even tried. Even if a voting populace understands the EC perfectly well on a literal mental level you can't say that isn't emotionally draining and demoralizing.
But the popular vote, while still a strong, no-ifandsorbuts about it win for Nixon, was only 60.67% to 37.52%.
If you lose 6 to 4 it feels a lot more like you still had a chance to win. It's still getting beat, beat bad but it's not embarrassing. It's not a blowout. It doesn't make you wonder why you even tried. Being down 4 points to 6 is something you can come back from. Being down 520 to 17 is not.
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Skeptic Ginger
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And in the fake videos that support Trump, paid for with taxpayer dollars category:
Paid for by US taxpayer money:
Yahoo News stream: 'The Gotaway': Online video produced and posted by the Border Patrol spreads fear of migrants
And if that wasn't enough they add in references to
They claim
There is a wealth of research that has found that people who entered the country illegally are less likely to commit crimes than those who were born here.
So promoting racism: check
Vilifying undocumented immigrants: check
Fear mongering: check
Using taxpayer dollars for a political ad: check
Kissing Trump's ass somewhere along the line: check
Paid for by US taxpayer money:
Yahoo News stream: 'The Gotaway': Online video produced and posted by the Border Patrol spreads fear of migrants
Sure is easy to spread lies on social media these days.
And if that wasn't enough they add in references to
They claim
Yeah that's real believable.
There is a wealth of research that has found that people who entered the country illegally are less likely to commit crimes than those who were born here.
So promoting racism: check
Vilifying undocumented immigrants: check
Fear mongering: check
Using taxpayer dollars for a political ad: check
Kissing Trump's ass somewhere along the line: check
Stacyhs
Penultimate Amazing
Well, we have been told that Mexico is sending us their rapists and murderers after all.
I was attacked when I was 22 when I lived in California. Thankfully, I fought back and was unharmed except for a black eye. He wasn't from Mexico. Or Hispanic.
I was attacked when I was 22 when I lived in California. Thankfully, I fought back and was unharmed except for a black eye. He wasn't from Mexico. Or Hispanic.
True. But voter turnout is always much bigger in presidential election years than others.
Safe-Keeper
My avatar is not a Drumpf hat
UnAmerican - the Lincoln Project
I understand that they are hammering this message now (gotta forge while the iron is hot), but I think their main weapon leading up to the election should be how Trump decided fighting covid "didn't make sense politically" (to quote Kushner), because the virus was hitting blue states the hardest.
It's the strongest argument against Trump that I can think of.
I understand that they are hammering this message now (gotta forge while the iron is hot), but I think their main weapon leading up to the election should be how Trump decided fighting covid "didn't make sense politically" (to quote Kushner), because the virus was hitting blue states the hardest.
It's the strongest argument against Trump that I can think of.
The Great Zaganza
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A brief look into US history show that what the Trump-Gang is doing is actually very American: traditionally, US politics has always been extremely dirty and corrupt.
Skeptic Ginger
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The Biden campaign needs to go after whatever the Trump du jour argument is.
Trump talks about how much he loves soldiers [gag] hit him with all of his own clips denigrating the military.
He's claiming now that wars are perpetuated by the military industrial complex. That's actually true. So Biden needs to show the evidence Trump is in support of any and every large corporation including the military producers.
That expose on the Kushner COVID response is important to put out there in campaign ads.
If Biden simply runs on "Not Trump" then I fear that this will not turn out well 
If this is the sole message then I anticipate a large number of voters will simply stay at home because they don't like either candidate (and fail to grasp that one candidate is about a billion times worse than the other) and President Trump's base will swing it in his favour.
I've said it many, many, times: Democratic Presidential candidates who have been elected since 1980 have been "rock stars" with charisma and an intoxicating, positive, message.
Bland candidates have been unsuccessful every time. Joe Biden is bland IMO
If this is the sole message then I anticipate a large number of voters will simply stay at home because they don't like either candidate (and fail to grasp that one candidate is about a billion times worse than the other) and President Trump's base will swing it in his favour.
I've said it many, many, times: Democratic Presidential candidates who have been elected since 1980 have been "rock stars" with charisma and an intoxicating, positive, message.
Bland candidates have been unsuccessful every time. Joe Biden is bland IMO
Roger Ramjets
Philosopher
Who says it's the sole message?If Biden simply runs on "Not Trump" then I fear that this will not turn out well
If this is the sole message...
That's not what polls are indicating. People don't dislike Biden like they did Hillary.
Of course republicans will vote for Trump anyway, no matter how much they dislike him or how much they like Biden. So it's up to democrats (and left-leaning 'independents') to not just like Biden, but get off their backsides and vote. I don't think many will make the same mistake they did last time.
But please do keep up the doom and gloom. The less certain it is that Biden will win, the more people will be scared into making it happen.
So democrats don't vote unless their candidate is a 'rock star'? I don't believe that is the case. We have seen what a "rock star" with charisma and an intoxicating positive message gets you today - Trump.
In Presidential Elections since 1980 that seems to be the case - and with Democratic voters.
Bill Clinton and Barack Obama - rock stars
Hillary, Gore, Carter, Mondale, Kerry, Dukakis, doubtless lovely people, many, most or all of whom would have made perfectly satisfactory presidents, but IMO they lacked the wow factor that would have turned out the vote.
OTOH, Republicans seem to like personable dopes.
Reagan, Dubya, Trump all managed to convince Republican voters that they were the kind of person they would like to spend time with - George HW was an outlier. OTOH Dole, HW (second time), McCain and Romney all came across as smart but somewhat unapproachable.
I think it's paradoxically both more complex and simpler than that.
The Democrats (and at times the Republicans as well) tend to foster in their strategy this mentality that most voters are sitting down and actually putting deep thought into who they vote for, that voters across the country are sitting down and actually listing out pros and cons, run cost benefit analysis, and
Real talk with some unpleasant truth. Most voters in America choose who they are going to vote for based on a more more vague, much more gut feeling.
It's a term I've expressed my issues with in the past, but "Electibility" is a very real thing, regardless of how hard it is to define a metric for.
The Democrats (and at times the Republicans as well) tend to foster in their strategy this mentality that most voters are sitting down and actually putting deep thought into who they vote for, that voters across the country are sitting down and actually listing out pros and cons, run cost benefit analysis, and
Real talk with some unpleasant truth. Most voters in America choose who they are going to vote for based on a more more vague, much more gut feeling.
It's a term I've expressed my issues with in the past, but "Electibility" is a very real thing, regardless of how hard it is to define a metric for.
Delvo
Дэлво Δε&#
Especially if he undermines that message by taking SG-like advice and ends up highlighting similarities between Trump and himself, or between Trump and the Democrats in general, instead of the differences.If Biden simply runs on "Not Trump" then I fear that this will not turn out well
Biden's only advantage is that Trump is Trump instead of any previous Republican Presidential candidate.
The latter point does not contradict the former. Both points can be true and are: that Democrat voters vote more for someone who gives them something exciting to vote for, and that Trump is an example of Republican voters doing the same.
And Democrat strategy has usually been to apply the concept exactly backward from reality, claiming that the type that always loses for them is the winning type and the only type that's won for them is the losing type.
I dread what's about to become of the party if this election finally gives them their very first example ever that finally goes the way they've been claiming it would.
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Distracted1
Philosopher
I have forgotten where I heard it (perhaps it was James Carville), but I remember a pundit pointing out after Gores' loss that "The Democrats keep thinking it's Jeopardy, while the Republicans have figured out that it's American Idol."If Biden simply runs on "Not Trump" then I fear that this will not turn out well
If this is the sole message then I anticipate a large number of voters will simply stay at home because they don't like either candidate (and fail to grasp that one candidate is about a billion times worse than the other) and President Trump's base will swing it in his favour.
I've said it many, many, times: Democratic Presidential candidates who have been elected since 1980 have been "rock stars" with charisma and an intoxicating, positive, message.
Bland candidates have been unsuccessful every time. Joe Biden is bland IMO
angrysoba
Philosophile
They'd have better luck playing pick-up sticks with their butt cheeks.
Stacyhs
Penultimate Amazing
At least a Jeopardy watcher would know it's "Gore's".
Skeptic Ginger
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Let's unpack this crap. GOP candidates since the Karl Rove Playbook was implemented have been using the tactic of throwing back at their opponents anything whatsoever the GOP candidate is accused of regardless of how valid it is when applied to the Democrat.
angrysoba
Philosophile
If Biden simply runs on "Not Trump" then I fear that this will not turn out well
If this is the sole message then I anticipate a large number of voters will simply stay at home because they don't like either candidate (and fail to grasp that one candidate is about a billion times worse than the other) and President Trump's base will swing it in his favour.
Yes, it is up to the voters to do that, but it is also up to the Democratic Party to inspire them to do that.
Trump will repeat the whole "America First, MAGA, Keep America Great, China Virus, Law and Order, Let's protect the nice* suburbs from the urban* decay" narrative, but Biden needs one of his own. I would say it is nowhere near as clear and obvious what that is.
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