Well, to begin with, Bernie has not always been in favor of same sex marriage. He voted against DOMA because he said marriage was a state's issue. In 2006, he was for civil unions and agreed with Vermont's law creating them. When he was major, he said that gay rights weren't a priority for him, and that he probably wouldn't support a bill protecting gays from discrimination. He evolved on the issue just like everyone else. If you're a member of a minority group, I think you often support people based on their current positions. If I was pissed at everyone who, at some point, didn't support gay marriage, I'd be a bitter old queen. Well, more of a bitter queen than I am now.
A Time's Article about it posted today.
Fair point. I guess the only thing I'd say is Hillary's earlier stance was probably influenced by her religious beliefs, when our constitution is supposed to keep our government strictly secular... Of course, in practice, that's not quite how things work, especially on the Republican side (small government, my ass)... Thankfully, I really think, among Democrats, there is no issue here and Bernie's faith appears to be an entirely personal affair, as it should be.
As far as campaign finances, while I certainly do not like Citizens United, I'm not a single issue voter. Hillary has said a litmus test for her nominee for Supreme Court would be if they would want to overturn it. She's been consistent on this, and I believe her.
Agreed.
This call, that Americans will just magically wake up, throw away decades of beliefs, and embrace the great liberal savior Bernie Sanders is just, in my opinion, the epitome of wishful thinking. He can't even get a majority within the liberal party of this country, but he's going to magically fix everything. These are the same things that have been promised by far left candidates before. They never, ever achieve them.
I went to a local Bernie volunteering event yesterday, and one quite enthusiastic lady (60ish) supporter, wearing her smart Bernie 2016 tee, commented that Bernie's was the first campaign, in some years, that had gotten her interested in polltics again, and isn't this new found enthusiasm also reflected in the record smashing crowds Bernie has been getting? I also note that Bernie appears to have absolutely no trouble attracting female supporters, of all ages.
As to what Bernie could
actually achieve, in his first term; in his first two years, he could carefully lay out the groundwork for puting his proposals into action, in anticipation of comprehensively retaking the House, in combination with a huge mid-term votes drive.
For those that scoff at the idea that you could get unheard of numbers of voters out for the mid-terms, and point to Obama's failure in this area, you're missing a huge component of this; with Obama and his super majority, we didn't see the results we were "hoping for", where as now, we know Bernie's is a two part plan, and so we know we must also come through in the mid-terms, for his hands to be untied. Also, I'm sure it will be made abundantly clear to incoming Representatives, that they must largely agree with Bernie's proposals and would therefore vote accordingly.
I do believe, very firmly, that Sanders could lose to some of the GOP wack jobs, yes. This is the country that voted for Shrub twice. Sanders' campaign has showed that they are, at best, inept and at worse completely tone deaf and incompetent. I do not trust them to lead a General election campaign. The moment someone doesn't bow down and worship him, he gets entirely off message and seems to have no clue how to proceed.
If Bernie makes it to the General, the grassroots support he will attract will be truly phenomenal and will be of an entirely different character to a GOP candidates. Ultimately, I just don't think Trump / Carson supporters will have anywhere near the enthusiasm of Bernie supporters; "Yay, more income inequality - that's something I can really get behind!".
Now, the Kocks could pump in close to a billion dollars, but in this day and age, how effective are TV adds, when people are cutting the cord and aren't bothering to watch news programs. Sure, Fox News viewers will lap them up, where the average age is approaching 70, but they are mostly beyond persuasion anyway, although, I'm sure I've seen a couple posts on GAF where they've said they know someone who wouldn't vote for Hillary but they would vote for Bernie.
As I mentioned, I think the American people would come through handsomely, to provide the essential funds he would need to fund a general election campaign. Also, he could use a SuperPAC, as long as the donors publicly state they expect absolutely nothing in return and the donors are not clearly out of line with Bernie's proposals, so a donation from the NRA would obviously not fly. All Bernie would need to do is clearly and widely explain his shift in tactics. How easy is that, talking to the american people, which Bernie can do with consumate ease?
With regards to how well his campaign is being managed, we will just have to disagree on this, because, taken as a whole, I just don't recognise your characterisation. You might perhaps include his handling of BLM, but that is ancient history. Just on his supposed lack of support from the African American community, he might struggle to get his message across, but if he does, everything in his campaign is a positive for that community.
Why I support Clinton over Bernie boils down to a few things:
1) Sanders is entirely wrong on guns. While I'm not a single issue voter, his positions are not acceptable to me.
Sorry, I don't follow; his and Hillary's positions on gun legislation are currently in large agreement.
2) I do not trust Sanders when it comes to anything other than his economic populism. I do not trust him on foreign policy. I fundamentally disagree that every single one of life's ills results from income inequality. It's part of the problem, but it's far deeper than that.
What specifically don't you trust about his foreign policy? Only using force as a very last resort and seeking international cooperation, for such force, seems eminently reasonable. Also, it is long overdue that reasonable, and yet firm pressure is brought to bare on Israel, to agree to an amicable solution for Israel and a Palestinian state. Sure, no one can wave a magic wand here, but this conflict has gone for long enough and the region
finally, deserves some peace.
On income inequality, it just so happens that if you redress the chronic inbalance in the tax system, primary by taxing Capital Gains at the same progressive rates as for work and getting corporations to pay their fare share, this will yield the trillions needed to tackle our failing infrastructure and provide millions a good paying jobs, among other benefits. Would this dampen economic activity? Hasn't it has been shown that it would not.
3) I do not believe in protectionism.
If reverse protectionisn is what's highlighted in Michael Moore's movie, The Big One, where profitable factories are closed down in America, with the loss of many thousands of good paying American jobs, just so corporations can maximise profits for shareholders, well I and the Middle Class in America thinks that blows, along with the trade policies that facilitated the change.
4) I also don't agree with him on the way in which he wants to enact certain policies. They are based on the idea that you need not compromise with anyone, and that you can create a system (be it educational or health care) from scratch, ignoring what we have in place here already.
On health, the thing is, how is anything other than radical change going to fix our hugely expensive and disfunctional health care sector. This should indeed be handled with care, perhaps by initially just expanding the public option, which could act as some true competition for the private sector, driving costs down.
On education, he's not starting anything from scratch, just merely changing the way
public college education is funded (sorry, Donald, no free education for your future offspring).
5) On a personal level, I like Hillary Clinton better than I like Bernie Sanders. I'll be honest, the longer this campaign goes, the less I like him. I still think he's a good person. He's principled. He and I agree on a lot of the issues, but I can't say I personally care for him.
Given that Bernie is a very polite, good natured person, is it primarily just that you
really don't like his "for the people" policies and this colors your feelings towards him? Man, I grew to hate Conservatives in the UK (pre-Blair era) and I see pro-fracking Cameron is carrying on the tradition...
6) Hillary Clinton is actually a Democrat. Sanders has never stumped for a candidate outside of his state. He is not a member of the party. He owes the party nothing. He's never had a leadership position within it, yet now he wants to be the standard bearer? No. That's not how this works. You don't get to be an Independent when it suits you, then decide you want to be a Democrat when you decide you want to do something else.
Couldn't you have said much the same about Obama in 08?
