The DNC 2020

Disagree. This speech was better given the circumstances and the subject matter without a cheering crowd.

GMAFB, that was a good speech, by any standard. When Karl Rove is on Fox News saying the democratic nominee for president gave a good speech, it was a good speech.

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Maybe watch the speech on youtube and then come here and tell us not to get our hopes up.

This is a 60+ year long strategy discussed in this book, published in July. https://www.amazon.com/Let-them-Eat-Tweets-Inequality/dp/1631496840 The idea being that repblicans gradually had to appeal to more extreme emotional issues (race, religion, guns, anti-immigration) to cover for unpopular policies, especially economic policy.

In Let Them Eat Tweets, best-selling political scientists Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson offer a definitive answer: the Republican Party serves its plutocratic masters to a degree without precedent in modern global history. Conservative parties, by their nature, almost always side with the rich. But when faced with popular resistance, they usually make concessions, allowing some policies that benefit the working and middle classes. After all, how can a political party maintain power in a democracy if it serves only the interests of a narrow and wealthy slice of society?

Todayā€™s Republicans have shown the way, doubling down on a truly radical, elite-benefiting economic agenda while at the same time making increasingly incendiary racial and cultural appeals to their almost entirely white base. Telling a forty-year story, Hacker and Pierson demonstrate that since the early 1980s, when inequality started spiking, extreme tax cutting, union busting, and deregulation have gone hand in hand with extreme race-baiting, outrage stoking, and disinformation. Instead of responding to the real challenges facing voters, the Republican Party offers division and distractionā€•most prominently, in the racist, nativist bile of the presidentā€™s Twitter feed.

As Hacker and Pierson argue, Trump isnā€™t a break with the GOPā€™s recent past. On the contrary, he embodies its tightening embrace of plutocracy and right-wing extremismā€•a dynamic Hacker and Pierson call ā€œplutocratic populism.ā€ As Trump and his far-right allies spew hatred and lies, Republicans in Congress and in statehouses attack social programs and funnel more and more money to the top 0.1 percent of Americans. Far from being at war with each other, reactionary plutocrats and right-wing populists have become the two faces of a party that now actively undermines democracy to achieve its goals against the will of the majority of Americans.

Itsā€™s written in an accessible way by a pair of poly sci profs from princeton and berkeley and is deeply informed. Buy this book instead of Stevensā€™.

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I donā€™t think itā€™s ableist BS if youā€™re electing him to govern. I personally want a good decision maker leading the government. I think Biden has lost a step and wouldnā€™t pick him over the dem field, but heā€™s a million times better than Trump and itā€™s a binary choice. Hell, I have my Biden sign up and the t-shirt came yesterday.

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And you wonder why the Dems donā€™t bend over backwards to cater to you

You wouldnā€™t be happy or vote regardless

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Their job is certainly a lot easier when a Dem us President and they can spend all day bitching about everything they do.

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I donā€™t think that is a fair comment. He was integral to one of the largest expansion of healthcare in US history and plans to expand it further. We would all prefer M4A but to act like he doesnā€™t care about people getting access just isnā€™t a fair critique.

He is too incrementalist and in the pocket of the insurers. Those are fair critiques.

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I agree with this, I get the sense that Joe does care but he accepts the typical eDem centrist dogma that universal health care cannot practically be passed in congress so thereā€™s no point pursuing it. I find that view understandable but a) it really understates the urgency to get health care to a group of people who desperately need it and b) is inconsistent with observed 20th century history where large social justice legislation happened because of bold activism, not deliberate incrementalism.

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iā€™m getting LBJ vibes from biden. he can surprise us, but we wonā€™t know until heā€™s in

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Biden shares one trait with Trump. He is not an ideologue. He is willing to go where the policy winds blow. The left can do the same thing the right did. Use that malleability to allow for the passage of progressive policy and judges.

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Yeah, heā€™s not gonna do that, bro.

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If someone can point out the difference between Vict0ar and a Russian bot / troll farm employee, attacking Biden from the left at this point, Iā€™m all ears.

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I wouldnā€™t bet on it for sure but Iā€™m not convinced itā€™s impossible.

Like, what kind of judges do you think heā€™s going to appoint exactly?

Having looked into the numbers, while M4A does have a support of a majority of Americans in polls, a public option polls even better. Thereā€™s an argument out there that a politician who wants to expand Obamacare to something that falls short of Medicare for All is more in touch with the average American than someone pushing for M4A. (Whether that is the morally correct stance is a separate question.)

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I enter into the record that he has literally said almost exactly this and could have composed this tweet himself.

https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1296645682875506688?s=21

ā€œLBJ but with a smaller dongā€ is probably a better slogan than Build Back Better.

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I think thatā€™s unfair. Russian bots/trolls wouldnā€™t be successful if there werenā€™t already people who are inclined to think that way. I donā€™t always agree with Vict0ar, but his voice has value.

Iā€™d probably sit out the election if the Democrats had nominated Bloomberg. I donā€™t dispute his right to draw a line in the sand because I also draw lines, just at different places.

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