US Politics Megathread

[Amsel_]

Bernie talks about the "working class" a lot, but he seems to care more about millennials with student loans than, say, coal miners.

There are about 50,000 coal miners in the US. (https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CEU1021210001#0)

Way more people have student debt.

Inconsequential to the point I was making about the relationship between progressives and blue collar workers.

[RefluxSemantic]

I think they plan to win by speaking to independents, younger voters and minorities that usually dont vote, democrats who will vote blue no matter what and working class people that care about working class things.

It's potentially a very broad coalition. And look at how well Sanders is polling in Texas for example. In theory it can work, especially against Trump.

I don't think a radical is going to be better at convincing independents not to vote for an incumbent (which they have a bias to do) than a moderate.

Think harder then. So far Bernie is polling miles ahead of any other candidate amongst indepedents.

In theory, Sanders could build a completely dominating, New Deal-style coalition by getting the democrats on board, boosting turnout of key demographics, and winning over new blocs. It's also possible that he doesn't win any new blocs over, that certain demographics still suffer from low turnout, and not even the democrats get fully behind his campaign.

yes. Life is not about certainties. Good thinking here.

[gibson]

Bernie talks about the "working class" a lot, but he seems to care more about millennials with student loans than, say, coal miners.

There are about 50,000 coal miners in the US. (https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CEU1021210001#0)

Way more people have student debt.

Inconsequential to the point I was making about the relationship between progressives and blue collar workers.

So you think that people with student loans arent "working class"? Hint: they usually are. Why do you think its bad that he focuses on a group which has 10s of millions of people more than he focuses on a group of 50k people?

[lejend]

So far Bernie is polling miles ahead of any other candidate amongst indepedents.

I don't know about that. All the recent polls show Biden outperforming Sanders among independents.

NPR/PBS/Marist: Trump leads Biden by 2 points, leads Sanders by 4

http://maristpoll.marist.edu/wp-content ... 171446.pdf

Quinnipiac: Biden leads Trump by 7 points, Sanders leads by 5

https://poll.qu.edu/national/release-de ... aseID=3655

[Amsel_]

Show hidden quotes

Bernie talks about the "working class" a lot, but he seems to care more about millennials with student loans than, say, coal miners.

There are about 50,000 coal miners in the US. (https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CEU1021210001#0)

Way more people have student debt.

Inconsequential to the point I was making about the relationship between progressives and blue collar workers.

So you think that people with student loans arent "working class"? Hint: they usually are. Why do you think its bad that he focuses on a group which has 10s of millions of people more than he focuses on a group of 50k people?

I already addressed the ambiguity of the term "working class" in the post fightinfrenchman responded to. The actual constitution of the "working class" does not concern me, as I am against class warfare, and proletarianism. I do not see value in being considered "working class" over any other class. However, my point was that - in spite of frequently talking about the "working class" in speeches - he seems to be speaking to a specific demographic: millenials who struggle with student loans and healthcare, and that it's hard to imagine him connecting with blue collar workers. It would be dangerous to consider both a blue collar worker and an indebted college grad as "working class" and then to appeal to the indebted college grad, and use this person's "working class" support as evidence that the blue collar worker will support you.

I didn't even say it was a bad thing to appeal to the tens of millions of people with student debt. Politically speaking, that's a good move. My concern rests entirely in the fact that I do not believe Sanders can come across as a friend to blue collar workers the way Trump and some moderate democrats can; that the "working class" support of people with student debt does not guarantee the working class support of people who do manual labor.

[n0el]

Why do you think he doesn’t connect with “blue collar workers”? Out of curiousity

[fightinfrenchman]

There's only one 2020 candidate who is pro "corrupt Democratic politician" and it's not any of the "establishment" Democrats.

[lejend]

[fightinfrenchman]

One big problem I have with the left is that they don't seem to really care about Trump's abuses of power, which leads me to believe that if they actually gained power they would abuse it in the same way.

[lejend]

The far left and the far right are two peas in a pod

[n0el]

One big problem I have with the left is that they don't seem to really care about Trump's abuses of power, which leads me to believe that if they actually gained power they would abuse it in the same way.

Do you think that tweet is not sarcastic?

[fightinfrenchman]

@n0el Any evidence it is?

[n0el]

If you followed Ryan Grim you’d know it was

[RefluxSemantic]

I am the ear and I pretend to be involved with politics but I dont care about any ideologies or policies unless it directly affects me and I base my entire opinion on how the supporters of candidates I dont like behave.

[fightinfrenchman]

I am the ear and I pretend to be involved with politics but I dont care about any ideologies or policies unless it directly affects me and I base my entire opinion on how the supporters of candidates I dont like behave.

What are you talking about? The issues I care about the most don't really affect my life directly at all.

[gibson]

I am the ear and I pretend to be involved with politics but I dont care about any ideologies or policies unless it directly affects me and I base my entire opinion on how the supporters of candidates I dont like behave.

Funny you calling him out for that when people like yourself noel trevor etc talk about how youd rather have Trump then bloomberg

[Cometk]

@gibson what

[Cometk]

if bloomberg were the democratic nominee, and i had to vote for trump over bloomdberg and trump won the 2020 presidential election, and trump then enacted a policy that directly harmed my demographic, i would think that's rad as fuck. more fuel for the revolution

[n0el]

I am the ear and I pretend to be involved with politics but I dont care about any ideologies or policies unless it directly affects me and I base my entire opinion on how the supporters of candidates I dont like behave.

Funny you calling him out for that when people like yourself noel trevor etc talk about how youd rather have Trump then bloomberg

For the record I never said that

[fightinfrenchman]

I also never said that I base my opinion on a candidate based on the behavior of their supporters.

[iNcog]

-- deleted post --

[occamslightsaber]

I also never said that I base my opinion on a candidate based on the behavior of their supporters.

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree though...

[gibson]

I am the ear and I pretend to be involved with politics but I dont care about any ideologies or policies unless it directly affects me and I base my entire opinion on how the supporters of candidates I dont like behave.

Funny you calling him out for that when people like yourself noel trevor etc talk about how youd rather have Trump then bloomberg

For the record I never said that

Yea you just said how they’d be the same, which is obviously untrue

[fightinfrenchman]

I also never said that I base my opinion on a candidate based on the behavior of their supporters.

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree though...

My concern is more with people who are elevated to staff on a campaign who behave like shit heads.

[gibson]

I am the ear and I pretend to be involved with politics but I dont care about any ideologies or policies unless it directly affects me and I base my entire opinion on how the supporters of candidates I dont like behave.

Funny you calling him out for that when people like yourself noel trevor etc talk about how youd rather have Trump then bloomberg

I mean it's pretty alarming that billionaires keep entering the election for fun

Agreed but that’s not relevant to anything I said.