US Election 2020

Sanders would be a terrible choice. If there’s any doubt, consider that Sanders is the candidate Trump wants to win (see his tweets).

Why? Because he’s incredibly easy to attack. America is a conservative country, essentially veering beftween right and far right. Sanders is if not left, at least considerably left of right, enough so that it’s a problem for him.

Why is it a problem? Remember Corbyn in the most recent election. He pledged to spend money on the country, and people either didn’t believe him (where’s he getting the money from? He’s making promises he can’t afford!) or didn’t want him ‘stealing’ their money (outrageous, I don’t want my taxes going towards that!)

Sanders problem is much worse in this regard. Corbyn was trying to get the country back to a place it used to be wrt/public spending. Sanders is trying to break new ground. His Medicare for All plan will end him. People will vote against him because of that. Right wing news media will attack him relentlessly, and enough people will believe the lies about Medicare for All that they will vote against him (or not vote) for that reason.

Hell, there don’t even have to be lies involved - Sanders’ plan would kill off the private healthcare industry, so no-one working in that is going to vote for him.

Biden is the only clear option. He’s not perfect, but he’s better than Sanders. He’ll have a stronger appeal to the centre ground, and won’t alientate as many voters as Sanders would. Plus, Trump is scared of him.

The Democrats aim should be to get back in power first. As simple as that. Then they can try revolutionising healthcare, etc. In that respect, Sanders would be putting the cart before the horse.

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Agreed. Let’s not forget that the entire impeachment came about because Trump used his position to try and blackmail Ukraine to get dirt on the Bidens.

You don’t go that far unless you consider someone a threat.

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I get the feeling this is what the democrat nomination will turn into…

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I disagree only because if you look at the voting data, voter suppression, gerrymandering, etc you would see that this country is actually more left leaning than right.

Sanders has views that largely align with a large portion of Americans. As recent as 2007, Biden did not agree with same-sex marriage. He also favored cuts to entitlements which is largely a GOP view.

I can agree that Sanders is polarizing as far as the Democrats go, because a good portion of elected officials are more right leaning. Its a consequence of Dems having to be the “Big Tent” party.

I seriously worry about the corrupt Department of Justice launching phony investigations and hammering him about his son (RE: 2016 Hilary’s Emails") hurting his efforts.

Best bet for us at this point is to reclaim the Senate and hold the house.

These stats are compelling.

Those stats are misleading considering many Americans are not democrat party members

Biden is only going to get worse. Nobody seriously thinks Trump will lose to him do they? https://twitter.com/DanScavino/status/1236461268594294785

Well, in 2016 no-one thought Clinton would lose to Trump :man_shrugging:

All the modeling showed he would lose. Hilary got cocky and didnt campaign in states like Michigan. I also think that people thought that there was no chance in hell that Trump would win, so why bother to vote?

He is declining faster than Trump. I think its safe to assume that both have some early signs of dementia. Both struggle to form coherent speech.

Bernie is old, but at least he can still form a sentence.

I did and won a decent amount from Ladbrokes. So did my a level politics teacher.

Tweet gone. Can you repost?

Why? Even though we have an ample evidence base to show that regressive policies are neither just not effective?

How is having strong border controls regressive?

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… How is it not?

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Surprised this thread isn’t more active. We’re really getting to crunch time now.

RGBs untimely passing looks to have given Trump a big lift, as he gets to stoke up his Evangelical base and take the spotlight off his bumbling of COVID 19.

He also never misses a chances to talk about election fraud. Is anyone surprised that he wouldn’t concede with dignity in the event of a loss?

Well the NYT publishing his tax returns should heat things up.

Trump is definitely gearing up to reject the election result. That could get really bad, especially with the senate and the Supreme Court behind him.

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#FakeNews :rofl:

It should do, but alas it likely won’t make much difference

At this stage a lot of Trump supporters have so realigned their world view to align with his that they will either not care or actively applaud him for some supposed ingenuity

Each year I spend intently following American politics becomes more grim

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I am somewhere between totally drained by the whole thing, displaying some gallows humour, and thinking that they are getting what they voted for, for better or worse

I’ve exhaustively followed every US election since the Nineties, but this one will be really hard going

This really feels like a tipping point

You heard it here first! :rofl:

#FakeNews