ELECTION 2020

[Maggot]

Dutches is on the finance committee?

I wish she was, she would show them fuckers how to handle our money and look good doing it!

[Duchess]

Dutches is on the finance committee?

Yes, Mork, I am.

[HairOfTheDog]

Beto O'Rourke lost his senatorial run in Texas to incumbent Ted Cruz by just 3% last year and raised incredible amounts of money strictly from small individual donors. He officially threw his hat in the ring as a Democratic presidential candidate for 2020 today.

O'Rourke is more centrist than most of the other candidates and supports some of Trump's goals, though he strongly objects to Trump focusing heavily only on his base rather than on all Americans.  O'Rourke, a married father of three, is aiming to attract voters from all political, economic and religious affiliations in rural and urban areas.

Anyway, he's getting a lot of press and buzz.  He's got the cover story in Vanity Fair today, he released a video with his wife declaring his candidacy, and he held a televised launch at a small venue in Iowa today (video excerpt below).

[HairOfTheDog]

O'Rourke supports guaranteed universal healthcare, more focus on climate change, better trade policies which don't alienate our established allies and negatively impact our farmers and rural workers indefinitely, a woman's right to choose, more aggressive criminal justice reform (including the closing of for-profit private prisons), a path to citizenship for DACA recipients...  More on the issues:  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/14/us/po...ssues.html

O'Rourke is a three term Texas Congressman and doesn't speak from any scripts.  He's pretty charismatic and very articulate taking questions off the cuff, though it took me a while to get used to his constant hand gestures.  He says he knows some on the left won't for him because he's a white man and this country hasn't elected anything but white men for President, with the exception of Obama, and he understands that.  But, for those inclined to support him, he assures that his team reflects the diversity of the U.S. population.

I think O'Rourke is probably more of a threat to Trump getting re-elected than any of the other Democrats currently running.  But, a lot can happen between now and the primaries.

[pyropappy]

[Maggot]

Is that the guy that left the scene of an accident and got a DUI? or am I thinking of the guy that says he's latino.

[Fry Guy]

Yes, Beto, the guy that lost his race for senate and who tries to shoehorn Mexican identity into his Irish-American identity, like Elizabeth Warren tries to shoehorn Native American identity. I just don't understand how this makes him a frontrunner?

[pyropappy]

I've heard of Black Irish, but I have never heard of Mexican Irish.

[Maggot]

He's just like a Kennedy!

[pyropappy]

#draft Lester Wolff for President 2020

[Duchess]

Never heard of him. How old is he? 

[BigMark]

Dirt calls him sir.

[Maggot]

He's so old it takes him ¹⁄₂ an hr to blink.

[pyropappy]

Never heard of him. How old is he? 

he is the oldest living Democrat, he is only 100

Lester Wolff

he is not a socialist, he doesn't eat dirt and he never took his mother to see Deep Throat.

[Duchess]

  I like how you said "he is ONLY 100".

Go Lester go!

I think Lester is a little too old to be running for prez.

[Carsman]

He's so old it takes him ¹⁄₂ an hr to blink.

He's so old, that when he farts, he farts "dust"!  

[HairOfTheDog]

I'm really liking what I've seen of Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg more than the other candidates at this point.

He's the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana.  He's also a Navy veteran and the first openly gay elected official in Indiana (he had to attract a lot of Republican voters to win his race; no small feat in a state being governed by Mike Pence).

Every time I've seen him interviewed, he's informed on domestic and global issues, measured, very intelligent, and doesn't skirt answering or repeat party talking points.

I also like that he's willing to appear on FOX News to make his case.  None of the other Democratic candidates do so because it's a propaganda network for the President at this point.  Well, in my opinion, that's precisely why a challenger should take the opportunity to espouse alternative views to voters who get their political news only from FOX (which has the largest audience).



While I disagree with some of her proposals more so than Buttigieg's, I also think Elizabeth Warren is very good and direct when it comes to addressing and communicating issues and policy solutions, and I don't give a shit about the butthurt "Pocohanas" idiocy.  

I was told I was primarily Dutch my whole life by my parents.  My last name is Dutch.  However, when we had our family DNA analyzed a couple of years back, nada on the Dutch.  We're Irish, Scottish, and English.  No one in my family was lying about our heritage all these years, we were just misinformed.

(continued)

[HairOfTheDog]

Anyhow, Buttigieg was asked about his view of the broad spectrum of thinking regarding the American economic system in a recent interview and I was nodding in agreement with his response. 

I think the word “socialism” has largely lost its meaning in American politics because it has been used by the right to describe pretty much anything they disagree with. To the extent there’s a conversation around democratic socialism — even that seems to be a little squishy in terms of what it actually means.

I think of myself as progressive. But I also believe in capitalism, but it has to be democratic capitalism.

Part of the problem here is that you have one generation that grew up associating socialism with communism like they’re the same thing, and therefore also assuming that capitalism and democracy were inseparable.

 I’ve grown up in a time when you can pretty much tell that there’s tension between capitalism and democracy, and negotiating that tension is probably the biggest challenge for America right now.

You don’t have to look that hard to find examples of capitalism without democracy — Russia leaps to mind. And when you have capitalism without democracy, you get crony capitalism and eventually oligarchy. So a healthy capitalist system, working within the rule of law, is the stuff of American growth and can be the stuff of equitable growth. But we don’t have that right now.  https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/...capitalism

I've shared a similar view as Buttigieg with my mom a few times over the last three years (in terms of how Americans wrongly equate some socialist policies to communism and how unfettered capitalism conflicts with democracy).

[pyropappy]

Anyhow, Buttigieg was asked about his view of the broad spectrum of thinking regarding the American economic system in a recent interview and I was nodding in agreement with his response. 

I think the word “socialism” has largely lost its meaning in American politics because it has been used by the right to describe pretty much anything they disagree with. To the extent there’s a conversation around democratic socialism — even that seems to be a little squishy in terms of what it actually means.

I think of myself as progressive. But I also believe in capitalism, but it has to be democratic capitalism.

Part of the problem here is that you have one generation that grew up associating socialism with communism like they’re the same thing, and therefore also assuming that capitalism and democracy were inseparable.

 I’ve grown up in a time when you can pretty much tell that there’s tension between capitalism and democracy, and negotiating that tension is probably the biggest challenge for America right now.

You don’t have to look that hard to find examples of capitalism without democracy — Russia leaps to mind. And when you have capitalism without democracy, you get crony capitalism and eventually oligarchy. So a healthy capitalist system, working within the rule of law, is the stuff of American growth and can be the stuff of equitable growth. But we don’t have that right now.  https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/...capitalism

I've shared a similar view as Buttigieg with my mom a few times over the last three years (in terms of how Americans wrongly equate some socialist policies to communism and how unfettered capitalism conflicts with democracy).

by all means, please explain the difference between socialism, democratic socialism and communism

[HairOfTheDog]

I'm not interested in posting a lesson here Pappy.  You can find a myriad of definitions with a simple Google search.

I care more about the policies and how they affect all American citizens and the health of the country.

For me................policies like a public universal health care option, social security, supplemental welfare assistance, and the like are not contradictory to a capitalistic economic system, unless that capitalism gets to a point where money rules all and social inequities grow from generation to generation (which I consider capitalism without conscience).

Such social policies/priorities are however necessary for a democratic political model to endure and thrive.  There should be a significant government  focus on the quality of life for all citizens, in my opinion.    

That's my long-held opinion and I liked Buttigieg's response to the question.