Democratic Party Presidential Candidates for 2020

[Brian]

I freely admit my bias. I did not want him to run and I am loathe to experience the Bernie bro assholes again and the progressive purity test bullshit. I hope he does not get the nomination.

This purity test includes more than just Bernie. Anyone associated with him is seen the same way. Mentioning Nina Turner is just as bad. The crowd I've listened to the most are black women and I believe it's the right group to get a candidate cleared through before any other. They don't see Nina Turner any better than they see Candice Owens, Ben Carson, or Kanye West. Even Warren would need a little more distance but she seems to have a better standing.

I would still vote for him, but there are many people more deserving of it than him at this point.

And this is where the problem is with a lot of poc. When they claim they see little difference between the purity crowd and Trump on race issues, combined with determined payback, the General Election is endangered for Presidency. They are very willing to vote down ballot and work on having a strong Democratic Congress keep a Republican President neutered.

I know this doesn't really sound good but it is a real probability. It's the reason that refusal to revisit 2016 helps no one. It is seen as a tumor that is being ignored, festering, and not cured by ignoring it.
It isn't really a reboot of the past when it was never shut down in the first place. Just the idea that the "rigging", "corporate dem", etc. was allowed to be left to see it as you wish pretty much says that nothing has changed.

I don't know what will happen in the end here. Just laying out what I'm seeing.
ETA: And not just POC, but the strongest of HRC supporters as well.

 

[Cristalle]

Americans Maintain a Positive View of Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders is more popular among people of color than among white people. Maybe that overlapping group of HRC supporters and POC in your bubble are against him, but the general polling from Gallup begs to differ.

 

[Cristiano]

Thanks for a poll from last year, before he announced that he is running. I have a positive view of him overall, it doesn't mean I want him for president at this point. Also, I love how you keep referring to "my bubble" and people like me. Everyone has their own bubbles, you're not above it all.

 

[Lianne Marten]

Hooray.

Bernie is running again.

Wonderful.

Looking forward to the caucus being a miserable experience again in 2020.

 

[Brian]

He is more of a Democrat in principle than many people who are registered Democrats, like Joe Manchin, Claire McCaskill, etc. He is transforming the party in good ways, on policy.

This ideal view you have is not really true. Refusing to be officially labeled a Democrat, especially after promising this, along with regularly attacking the party lead (and base with them), is seen more as dividing than anything else.
The stands on issues he's had did not originate with him. They are only seen that way because he did manage to deliver messaging nationally, convincingly when he first came under the spotlight.

The reasons they were not pushed to the extent he chooses before is the same reason he would not be able to get them passed as President: It isn't just the decision to go all the way for this particular goal; it's realizing what will get through Congress without heavy Democrat majorities. Even Trump couldn't kill healthcare all the way like he wanted while controlling both Houses. Without a super majority in the Senate, it will take years, just as the scale tilting this far to the right didn't happen overnight.

In order for him to be able to really take that role of leading change, he would have to lead on healing the division. That would include admitting being wrong about everyone else being morally corrupt or serving corporate interests. Our Revolution itself is very much a dark money PAC and everyone seems ignorant of this. The hypocrisy here is rich.

The issues themselves ARE Democratic Party issues. This is why you don't hear as much uproar over AOC and the few others associated with Justice Democrats in Congress. When the district is dark blue, you can expect to have excellent chances of more left leaning Representatives. Still, there is a little bit of the same criticism just because of how JD itself operated as a nonconnected committee yet supporting only one candidate in the end who happened to also be one of its only two officers.

The truth is that it does take money and behind the scenes planning to have successful elections.

You also have to realize that money donated to candidates always are for campaigns, not personal wallets; insinuating donations are bribes as a general rule is dishonest.
And issues that politicians run on are developed BEFORE they solicit funds, not afterwards.

 

[Cristalle]

Thanks for a poll from last year, before he announced that he is running. I have a positive view of him overall, it doesn't mean I want him for president at this point. Also, I love how you keep referring to "my bubble" and people like me. Everyone has their own bubbles, you're not above it all.

I'm well aware that I have a bubble. I wasn't saying mine was superior or definitive. I let the money do the talking. He broke Kamala Harris' fundraising record in less than 4 hours. That's stronger evidence of support than people on Twitter.

 

[Brian]

Thanks for a poll from last year, before he announced that he is running. I have a positive view of him overall, it doesn't mean I want him for president at this point. Also, I love how you keep referring to "my bubble" and people like me. Everyone has their own bubbles, you're not above it all.

The Harvard-Harris poll is the same one and only one they all use now.
Next comes Bernie chained to a black woman and being carefully carried away so as to not have his glasses fall off. That still works for 50 yrs of civil rights work.
I think there's one small kit of supplies being used by everyone.

 

[Porsupah Ree]

I'm quite surprised he's only viewed unfavorably by 69% of Republicans - with the continued cries of "socialism!", I'd've thought the Fox Faithful would see him as worse than Stalin.

I'm in the group that very much likes a lot of his platform, but were I able to participate, would be leaning more toward Warren at the moment; that said, it's very early days, and it's only to be expected the candidates positions will change somewhat over the course of their campaigns, and more will become known about the details of their respective platforms, not just the feel-good headlines.

 

[Cristalle]

So, in 24 hours, Bernie has proved to be the Six Million Dollar Man. That's 4x Kamala Harris' first-day donations, and over 225k donations. I wonder how much of that is set to recur monthly.

Sanders campaign says it has raised $6 million in its first day

 

[Katheryne Helendale]

So, in 24 hours, Bernie has proved to be the Six Million Dollar Man. That's 4x Kamala Harris' first-day donations, and over 225k donations. I wonder how much of that is set to recur monthly.

Sanders campaign says it has raised $6 million in its first day

Thankfully, donations alone are not a reliable predictor of how the candidate will fare in the primaries. It only really means he has some rich donors.

 

[Brian]

I'm quite surprised he's only viewed unfavorably by 69% of Republicans - with the continued cries of "socialism!", I'd've thought the Fox Faithful would see him as worse than Stalin.

As long as he is only a candidate, GOP faithful will do everything in their power to help him be our nominee for very good reasons.
They ALL see him as Stalin and know very well they can crucify him in any GE because of how easily they can push that. Try talking to Republicans in real life instead of what they feed polls about Dem candidates. I'm guessing you've never done this.

Might need a Burn the Bern thread just to make sure we do things right. He really is seen as no different than Trump to many of the marginalized.
In response to his announcement, the first warnings should be a clear indicator of what's to come.
One Last Grift

 

[Ryanna Enfield]

Shocking that in America today, people feel most comfortable donating to another old white dude. People supporting Bernie in this area were mostly white dudes. The libertarians among them was a real wtf moment. I voted for Bernie in the Primary because I felt his progressive platform best represented the kind of America I wanted to live in, but backed Hillary 100 percent when she won the nomination. It was the supporters that completely turned me off to Bernie. I'm proud of my vote for Hillary, she would have made a great President, instead we got The Dotard-in-Chief. Screw all those Bernie Bros who voted for Trump because their guy didn't win, and they were never going to vote for a woman anyway. They won't be voting for a woman in 2020 either.

 

[Cristalle]

Shocking that in America today, people feel most comfortable donating to another old white dude. People supporting Bernie in this area were mostly white dudes. The libertarians among them was a real wtf moment. I voted for Bernie in the Primary because I felt his progressive platform best represented the kind of America I wanted to live in, but backed Hillary 100 percent when she won the nomination. It was the supporters that completely turned me off to Bernie. I'm proud of my vote for Hillary, she would have made a great President, instead we got The Dotard-in-Chief. Screw all those Bernie Bros who voted for Trump because their guy didn't win, and they were never going to vote for a woman anyway. They won't be voting for a woman in 2020 either.

I'm a woman of color and I am fine with the "old white dude" because of his policies and because he is committed to his policies, he's not trying to bait and switch on us. He's been pushing the same equitable policies for decades. It's not about his identity. I don't care about the identity, the identity is a bonus. Policy first. I would love to have a younger person of color that lines up (for real) most of the way with my preferred policies, but most of the ones that are running, I don't trust.

 

[Jolene Benoir]

I keep seeing here and elsewhere bragging about how much he was able to get in donations in one day. And? The man was a Presidential candidate last time. Of course that was going to happen. Of course it IS also going to dwarf the money that ANY female candidate gets. The person he hurts most, I think, is Warren, because they have similar platforms, followed by Harris because she previously had the lead.

Either way, I have some resentment because we were having fresh blood entering the race. It was just getting good with candidates that I could support, with the exception of the Republican-lite guy. I don't want a 79 year old President. It's time people my age or younger have their shot. I have had my fill of old white men. Bernie is far better than most in that regard, but he still has some pretty severe shortcomings when it comes to seeing things through the eyes of others. There is a reason he appeals to some women-hating, racists and he is going to give cover to them to again *claim* that they are voting the way they do because of economic hardship.

Reddit is absolutely enthralled...again. Not that Reddit is an overall indicator, but we all know how that went last time. I expect to see a torrent of pro-Bernie, anti-all the women candidate threads heading up the politics section and eventually all of Reddit, spilling over into other sites like FB. Not right away, but when we get closer it will happen. Some of these will be genuine supporters, some will be Bernie-Bros and yup, some will be Russian bots. Why change their formula when it worked?

 

[Soen Eber]

I have a sense that personally, Sanders just isn't a nice guy; I don't know if that's just a gut thing or if there's something I've read but forgotten. Not in the trump way, but in the "That isn't a priority with me" sort of way.

 

[Veritable Quandry]

So looking at policies, is it helpful to consider effectiveness? How successful has Sanders been at enacting or shaping legislation? Has his conscious decision to remain outside of the Democratic Party helped or hurt his ability to enact policy? Especially given our current political climate and the likelihood of divided government (even if one party nominally holds both chambers), can he build a coalition to get a significant piece of legislation passed? Consider the effort to get us even the ACA, which cost the Democratic Party heavily. I would vote for Sanders if he got the nomination, but in the current field he will not get my vote in the primary. There are more effective people running that have not just high ideals, but the experience and connections to move towards them.

 

[Ryanna Enfield]

There is a bigger progressive playing field this time around, and Bernie has always been way too soft on guns for my liking. Still, If he wins the nomination, he has my vote.

 

[Lianne Marten]

Hooray.

Bernie is running again.

Wonderful.

Looking forward to the caucus being a miserable experience again in 2020.

To specify, this is because the bernie bros were fucking awful and didn't understand any of the process, delayed everything to get what they wanted while they were winning in the vote (my district went for bernie 2:1), and were in general acting like shitty garbage babies. We got kicked out of the venue because it took so long, and then a group of them gathered outside and started giving speeches. We were literally only there to represent how the people in our smaller districts voted, there was no reason for it to be complicated or take forever, they were just whining about being ignored and tramped over (again, while clearly winning the district based on votes). At one point they voted down a thing to stop debate and move on to the final vote, then we went 20 minutes talking in circles because we had nothing to debate about, then that thing came up again to stop debate and move to a vote and they voted for it this time and cheered when it passed. You assholes were the reason it failed in the first place all we did was waste 20 minutes.

It was one of the worst experiences engaging with the political process in my entire life.

Also there was a fellow wearing a "the muslim guy voting for the jewish guy" tshirt who said that if Bernie didn't win the nomination he would vote for Donald because "[he] would rather get stabbed in the front than stabbed in the back".

So yes i'm really looking forward to all of this happening again now that the stakes are even higher.

 

[Cristalle]

So looking at policies, is it helpful to consider effectiveness? How successful has Sanders been at enacting or shaping legislation? Has his conscious decision to remain outside of the Democratic Party helped or hurt his ability to enact policy? Especially given our current political climate and the likelihood of divided government (even if one party nominally holds both chambers), can he build a coalition to get a significant piece of legislation passed? Consider the effort to get us even the ACA, which cost the Democratic Party heavily. I would vote for Sanders if he got the nomination, but in the current field he will not get my vote in the primary. There are more effective people running that have not just high ideals, but the experience and connections to move towards them.

I'd say he's been pretty effective lately since they are all trying ape his policies. He changed the conversation, and that's pretty powerful in and of itself.

Sanders successfully got the first Senate War Powers resolution passed, the first step to getting us out of Yemen. His Medicare for All bill now has over a dozen co-sponsors and they're all trying to follow his lead. He's got a number of co-sponsors for his bill to lift the cap on Social Security. His pressure on Disney and Amazon got thousands of people pay raises.

What has Kamala Harris or Cory Booker done that is of any influence in the Senate? They voted to make lynching a federal hate crime. Okay, but we already have a scheme of hate crimes. Booker voted against cheaper drugs being imported from Canada. Amy Klobuchar has a longer record, she's done some good work with human trafficking. She however is working to prop up the ACA, which is helpful in some ways but still pretty much useless to many people because of high deductibles. It's mostly useless to me. I'm glad it's there for the people with pre-existing conditions but from my own personal vantage point, I want more. Warren got us the CFPB, although it's toothless right now, it's a feather in her cap if we can ever get a non-corrupt administration to run it.

 

[Brian]

I'd say he's been pretty effective lately since they are all trying ape his policies. He changed the conversation, and that's pretty powerful in and of itself.

Sanders successfully got the first Senate War Powers resolution passed, the first step to getting us out of Yemen. His Medicare for All bill now has over a dozen co-sponsors and they're all trying to follow his lead. He's got a number of co-sponsors for his bill to lift the cap on Social Security. His pressure on Disney and Amazon got thousands of people pay raises.

What has Kamala Harris or Cory Booker done that is of any influence in the Senate? They voted to make lynching a federal hate crime. Okay, but we already have a scheme of hate crimes. Booker voted against cheaper drugs being imported from Canada. Amy Klobuchar has a longer record, she's done some good work with human trafficking. She however is working to prop up the ACA, which is helpful in some ways but still pretty much useless to many people because of high deductibles. It's mostly useless to me. I'm glad it's there for the people with pre-existing conditions but from my own personal vantage point, I want more. Warren got us the CFPB, although it's toothless right now, it's a feather in her cap if we can ever get a non-corrupt administration to run it.

Medicare For All originated in the House, by John Conyers. It is not Bernie's invention.
He blew hot air in the news about Amazon and Disney, but that's it. He had nothing to do with either of their decisions. To have put pressure on Disney would have been illegal from the start (either, actually). Disney had a union they were forced to negotiate with, and that union did it ALL.

Bernie has been in the Senate for 30 years. You mentioned a couple of bills that still have no ending. There's no comparing him to a senator who isn't even half way through her first term.

He already had a very large donor list. All of the others have only just begun and have growth potential that his does not.

He's banned. Any anyone supporting ratfucking round 2 gets nothing.