Bonen no Max'd
Banned
You were one of the best resources on downballot during the election, is there any rumors/news about who looks good to run in these places?
Man, I hope I'm working for the DFL in 2018.
PoliGAF 2016 |OT16| Unpresidented
- Thread starter ItWasMeantToBe19
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Man, I hope I'm working for the DFL in 2018.
Aaron Strife
Banned
Haven't been paying super close attention lately (can barely bring myself to look at any presidential state results), although word on the street is Klobuchar might jump into the governor's race in MN. That would essentially close off any competitive primary for that and give us a pretty easy hold (pending some massive anti-DFL wave, she has like 70% approval) but in turn that opens up her Senate seat and there would be a big fight over that.
I think we'd hold down the Senate seat fairly easily - Franken won by 10 in 2014, and while Hillary only won by 2 Trump only got 45%. I wouldn't be surprised if a huge bulk of the third party movement came from DFL leaners.
Ideal scenario for 2018 in MN - Paulsen vacates his seat to go for one of the statewide races, DFL holds Governor and Senate, flips the State House and wins MN-2 (Jason Lewis only won by 2) and the now open MN-3 (Paulsen's incumbency was the GOP's lifeline here, Hillary won the district by 9. If you put Paulsen in MN-2 and made MN-3 an open seat it probably would have flipped). Basically about as big of a Dem sweep as you could hope for in Minnesota with 7 of the 8 congressional districts. State Senate would still be R by one seat as it's not up again until 2020, unless Klobuchar made some calculated appointments and opened them up for special elections.
Big thing here is capitalizing on the swingier nature of the suburbs in recent years as well as fighting back in the rural districts where the GOP has trounced us badly. The DFL has essentially been running city vs. rural elections for the past couple years which is fine for statewide races but not enough to build a majority. Klobuchar is incredibly shrewd though and I think she realizes this - the tactics of a Klobuchar-led DFL would almost certainly go a different route than the current Dayton-led one.
In all honesty, I think Texas has a real shot becoming more blue in the midterms, specifically with Cruz's senate seat being up for reelection. Like, a 40% shot maybe. 35%. Probably more like 30%. I've lost any modicum of respect I had for him after the RNC when he came crawling back like a slug to the Trump campaign, so there's definitely a "don't let that yella-belly represent us" angle that is ther. Not much I can do in the red sea over here, but I'm looking into the local governments and democratic parties around here.
Bonen no Max'd
Banned
I can't remember which, but one of the Texas congressional districts was won pretty solidly by Hillary but didn't have a Democrat running for the seat. We should try to fix stuff like that.
Aaron Strife
Banned
If it's any consolation, Democrats cleaned up in Harris County this election. That should give Texas Democrats a decent bench going into 2018.
If Cruz manages to win a primary, his seat is competitive and we should absolutely compete there. Get one of the Castros to run, or even someone more local. We need to play offense wherever we can.
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
"Nate, sweetie, we need to talk about your hair."
Hyperactivity
Banned
I keep trying to think of ways to get midterm turnout up, but biannual just doesn't seem like a good way to discuss voting.
It feels like rather than explaining to people that they should vote every 2 years for legislatures, it would be better to explain that election day is an annual event, as annual events are more likely to become habits, and that the job of a citizen isn't to vote for president every 4 years or Congress every 2 but to make it a habit to go to voting stations every year and just look at the positions up for election on the ballot
Rather than ask people to follow congressional and state and local politics and thus know when seats or referendums or the like are up for vote, just let them go to voting booths, get handed a ballot, and deal with whatever positions are up for grabs. It could be up to president or the voting stations could have nothing but the local school board up for grabs, regardless, emphasizing that voters should annually go to the booths and see whats available to vote on might be a better approach
It feels like rather than explaining to people that they should vote every 2 years for legislatures, it would be better to explain that election day is an annual event, as annual events are more likely to become habits, and that the job of a citizen isn't to vote for president every 4 years or Congress every 2 but to make it a habit to go to voting stations every year and just look at the positions up for election on the ballot
Rather than ask people to follow congressional and state and local politics and thus know when seats or referendums or the like are up for vote, just let them go to voting booths, get handed a ballot, and deal with whatever positions are up for grabs. It could be up to president or the voting stations could have nothing but the local school board up for grabs, regardless, emphasizing that voters should annually go to the booths and see whats available to vote on might be a better approach
I remember I was looking up more info on Sessions this summer, back when he was on the VP list, and was shocked to discover that he was re-elected unopposed 2 years ago. Like, what? This isn't even a house seat, it's one of just 100 Senate seats in the country.
Like I get that it's considered beyond safe R, and probably no one wants to put money into the fight I guess, I dunno...but it seems crazy to me that there isn't a Democrat in the whole state of Alabama who can jump in and go for that realistically possible 35% of the vote (and obviously work to improve it!). Sessions won 97.25% with the rest going to write-ins. Writing off an entire state as "lol fuck this" just seems....not smart to me. At least keep the lights on. And hey look, that seat may be vacant next year (yuck), woulda been nice to have a couple Dems with name recognition.
Still depressed... It still hits me sometimes that it could've been so amazing to have Hillary for President. Even if she'd not been able to get anything done because of the Senate. And still my heart goes out to Hillary that she bet so much campaigning time and money on the US not being at least indifferent to racism and sexual assault, and lost.
It has kicked me into being actually politically, but that's also an annoyance. Before, I paid attention to politics, but didn't do anything. Now I want to do something, but I'm a British Citizen living (currently) in Jordan. Which means US political activism is... difficult, shall we say?
Best-case? Obama and Hillary manage to guide Trump a little bit, and he doesn't pull out of the Paris Agreement, and puts forward a centre/centre-right SCOTUS nominee.
Worst-case? Pulls out of Paris Agreement, puts forward a conservative SCOTUS nominee. I see this being more likely than the best-case, sadly.
But even the worst-case isn't awful. I think it will really motivate the Dem base if all the toys that they're used to having - Roe, a willingness to deal with climate change, gay marriage, generally easy access to voting nationally, equality - get thrown-out by Trump. It may actually get Dems to realise that their nominee doesn't have to be perfect to make the world a better place.
I really like this idea.
Perhaps entrusting a single person with making decisions about nukes was never a good idea in the first place.
One of the causes of WW1 was an unclear system of alliances. Perhaps a better nuclear war policy would be a very clear and very public set of rules that will be followed in response to various events. Stuff like, "If Russian forces capture a Baltic capital, we will nuke Kalingrad.". It would also serve to make nuclear capabilities more resilient in a way as now local commanders would be able to apply the rules on their own without trying to maintain communication with the White House.
Also it's hard to imagine that there aren't already tactical nuclear weapons in the US Military that can be deployed without Presidential authorization. And those might be made safer as now every level of soldier will know the "Rules" and be able to apply them themselves, now able to much more confidently deny the order of a superior who's gone a bit mad or to make use of the weapons if need be.
One of the causes of WW1 was an unclear system of alliances. Perhaps a better nuclear war policy would be a very clear and very public set of rules that will be followed in response to various events. Stuff like, "If Russian forces capture a Baltic capital, we will nuke Kalingrad.". It would also serve to make nuclear capabilities more resilient in a way as now local commanders would be able to apply the rules on their own without trying to maintain communication with the White House.
Also it's hard to imagine that there aren't already tactical nuclear weapons in the US Military that can be deployed without Presidential authorization. And those might be made safer as now every level of soldier will know the "Rules" and be able to apply them themselves, now able to much more confidently deny the order of a superior who's gone a bit mad or to make use of the weapons if need be.
Dominican Power
Member
Jesus Christ @ the deputy national security adviser. WTF
Is Vahagn perma or temp banned? Their private Facebook group is a good idea, and I'd like to be kept in the loop about it.
https://twitter.com/fawfulfan/status/797829085888126977
Here's the graph from that tweet:
The tweet thread is an interesting read. Basically goes to town on a journalist who says it wasn't mainstream media's fault that Hillary lost. Obviously it's not entirely their fault, but his argument is much the same as Gaf's was during the campaign - the media wanted a horse-race for clicks and revenue, and "both-sides'd" it by pushing the negatives of Hillary at every chance.
The Chosen One
Member
I was hoping after the first week of the election, the weight of the Presidential office was starting to weigh heavily on Trump, especially how he was starting to slightly moderate on a lot of positions after meeting with Obama.
But seeing how he's treating the Sec. of State like an episode of Apprentice and with his latest Tweets pushing fringe conspiracies, it's clear the man ain't changing and his temperament is definitely going to be an issue while in office. And personally, I've gotten concerned with all the fresh reporting of the conflicts of interests around the world while Trump claims the President can't have conflict of interests. That's not going to end well.
It's hard for me to think of a worse case scenario because I'm trying to cling on to a shred of optimism. But I do have concerns that Trump will shatter through all the "Norms", basically destroying the Presidential office as we know it. We actually don't have a lot of strict rules in place for the President and instead we rely on "norms" to keep him in relative check. For example, we don't have strict conflict of interest laws for the President because we expect that the President would actually care about the appearance of conflict of interest and would essentially self-relegate himself. But Trump operates in a world of no shame, so if there's nothing legally stopping him then he'll just proceed doing whatever he pleases. And because Republicans control all branches of government, he's going to get a lot of leeway from Congress before they try to reign him in.
On the upside, it seems the media has decided to not become extinct just yet. For the time being, the media has decided they won't be a mouth piece for Trump's lies and misinformation. This past weekend when Trump claimed 3 million people voted illegally, a good majority of news outlets actually had "falsely claimed" or something similar in their headlines. So at least for now, the media is done "retweeting" whatever he says without some editorial discretion. It was also encouraging to see the AP issue some editorial guidelines for the writers when writing about the "Alt-Right" instead of falling for PR propaganda of White Nationalist.
I also think Trump may not realize how important it is for him to maintain the support of his base. People assume that Trump supporters will stay with him no matter what he does because they stuck around even after the Access Hollywood tape. But if Trump picks Romney for Sec. of State and moderates his positions on everything from Obamacare to immigration, and appears to be just "another politician" then his support could crater and he'll have zero political capital to get away with his antics and the GOP controlled Congress could even turn on him. Bannon will probably keep reminding Trump to cater/pander to his base, but if there are more establishment voices in his admin then Trump might start going in a different direction. It's pretty clear Trump has no core set of values or ideology, so he can change his positions at a moment's notice and that might be his undoing or his saving grace, depending on which way the wind blows.
Plinko
Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
Yeah that's worked out terribly for republicans today, am I right?
Tal Shiar Agent
Banned
Wow, this Trump guy on CNN.
nature boy
Member
So Manchild PEOTUS moving on from voter fraud and on to jailing/revoking citizenship of those who burn flags.
This is going to be a LONNNGGGGGG 4 years
This is going to be a LONNNGGGGGG 4 years
lyrick
Member
minutes after attacking a media outlet...
and hours after making a personal attack on a private citizen.
Augh. I have a good friend on Facebook railinng against city council in my town because they aren't dropping everything immediately to build some side walks.
She keeps making sure to mention they are Democrats.
I swear.
Some people need to learn how politics works.
I assume he only means the American flags and not every other kind, which is just as disgusting.
She keeps making sure to mention they are Democrats.
I swear.
Some people need to learn how politics works.
I assume he only means the American flags and not every other kind, which is just as disgusting.
Plinko
Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
This is also a very, very ignored piece of information about Tom Price:
This would be an outright disaster for our country's health care. Complete and utter disaster.
A Serious Man
Member
Is anyone else curious about the inauguration? There is a very real chance we have protesters and Klansmen attending the same event. I'm expecting it to be a total circus.
I'm expecting there to be violence... Actually, quite a lot of violence. As you say, Klansmen and protesters (most likely a good number of African Americans and minorities), and something is gonna kick off, I think.
Man-is-Obsolete
Member
Ugh just found out this morning the attacker on OSU was Somali born Muslim. Welp, looks like we are on our way to a Muslim ban. Was watching CNN and a R representative was already going off about how we let that person into our country and put citizens at risk. I imagine this will be politicized a lot in the coming months.
It's a shame one person can perform an act that in turn demonizes an entire community that had nothing to do with the act.
It's a shame one person can perform an act that in turn demonizes an entire community that had nothing to do with the act.
No need to warn them now. The election is over and the damage is done.
Trying to play the game like Republicans is a losing strategy. For one, while I'm all about pragmatism, if you can't convince people to vote for you without misinformation and dirty tricks I'm not interested in voting for you. Secondly, the Republicans aren't trying for the same people. In the identity politics thread identifying it as one of the reasons Dems lost, people kept on bringing up the Republicans. And yeah, the Republicans can blatantly play identity politics far worse than the Dems, because they only have to pander to a much more homogenous mostly-white, mostly-male demographic. If you're a conservative you're invested in your conservative viewpoint being validated, and that's a lot easier to do with fake news and the like than actually changing people's minds. In short the Republican playbook works for Republicans. It's not going to work for Democrats.
Sounds like it's more complicated than that.
Ohio State attacker said he was 'scared' to pray in public
Paranoid/mentally unbalanced individual together with rise in hate speech/crime?
Plinko
Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
I think you drastically overestimate the average American's ability to seek out answers on their own. Some of those tactics would absolutely work.
Well, Millennials fresh out of college aren't moving into Appalachia, no, but I think we're seeing some version of this now. It's part of the reason why NC and Texas: liberals finding life in NYC, California, etc. too costly and begin moving to Asheville or something for cheaper lifestyles that are still city-like. It's one silver lining to the rising cost of living in the typical liberal hub cities: it pushes a lot of those people into other places around the country.
Not until Dems retake Congress. Republicans are not about to grant Democrats an extra four Senate seats.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
This shit is scary man, really scary.
This is fucking terrifying
balladofwindfishes
Member
DC would be the bluest state in the country, wouldn't it?
The Republican establishment think this is nuts.
Puerto Ricans should mobilise in the style of the US, considering they have to pay federal taxes.
Puerto Ricans should mobilise in the style of the US, considering they have to pay federal taxes.
Dubbedinenglish
Banned
Probably. I think we can convince Trump to do it though if we sell him on arranging the 51 stars as a T
nature boy
Member
KISS.THE.RING
Joe Shlabotnik
Banned
This shit is scary man, really scary.
Flag burning was a big dumb controversy / wedge issue.. in 1989.
Like I said in the other thread, I am increasingly convinced Trump has retained no new information since 1990. His entire worldview, political knowledge, references, even his "celebrity pals" (Don King, etc.) are from the '80s.
The Chosen One
Member
That explains why both Joe and Mika have been heavily cheerleading for Trump the last couple of weeks.
Joe pretty much ignored Trump's "3 million voted illegally" tweet yesterday and he astonishingly even defended Trump's flag burning tweet this morning. I had been assuming that Joe was angling for greater access and for Romney to get the Secy. of State job. But who knows maybe something more is going on.
Everything comes back to politics for me. I just can't snap out of my depression:
I'm a huge Nintendo fan, and I can't get excited for this because I'll never be able to visit, and neither will millions of others as the middle class continues to completely disappear.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1320549
I'm a huge Nintendo fan, and I can't get excited for this because I'll never be able to visit, and neither will millions of others as the middle class continues to completely disappear.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1320549
nature boy
Member
Urghh
Joe Shlabotnik
Banned
Just remember that the place he wants to love him the most, fucking hates him.
New York?
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
Man remember when we were all like "Trump has no idea the media scrutiny that actually comes with being the president, its nothing like on the campaign trail, he's going to get roasted and its going to drive him off the wall"
Haha the naïveté of youth
Haha the naïveté of youth
balladofwindfishes
Member
He hasn't done anything yet. When he actually starts passing stuff and the country starts falling apart, the media will report it.
They love scandals and bad news.
Yes.
A Serious Man
Member
What the fuck?
Chances that he apologizes for 8 years of Obama?
Oh lord. I am going to need to start using other languages to express how fucked we are.
Doc Holliday
SPOILER: Columbus finds America
Holy shit, morning joe reached a new low. They really tried to justify Trumps comments about flag burning.
Mika went as far as comparing it to a hate crime. Jesus Christ Wtf???
Mika went as far as comparing it to a hate crime. Jesus Christ Wtf???
NYCmetsfan
Banned
yup, we hate him more than anyone. At least the city, especially manhattan. He got the least number of votes of any nominee since like the 1800s from manhattan
NYCmetsfan
Banned
boomers and their vietnam-protest hang over.
What the fuck is happening?
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