US Election 2020

[Joe]

Well, as someone once said, "We're a republic, not a democracy," and it's very true that our Founders were aristocrats of a sort with a deep distrust of the mob.

Dude, it's not something someone said. It's the fucking Constitution governing us.

Really, that exact quote? Do show me where.

The Constitution says in Article IV, Section 4, "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government" and nothing about democracy, but I do look forward to your next Con Law lecture.

BTW, the someone I referenced was Seth on another forum, but he's expressed the sentiment here as well.

[Seabass]

I'll have to echo Scot here. Your system, for multiple reasons, especially "It's not hard to imagine how a single 'faithless elector,' voting differently than his or her state did, could swing a close presidential election" is nowhere near being a democracy. Add to that the gerrymandering connived at by your political parties, and the vast influence of wealth and power on the whole process, it doesn't need the cherry on the cake of foreign meddling to make you a basket case for truly representative democracy. Oz, with it's British model also has its faults, I'll not deny, but the USA might as well become a corporate oligarchy and stop pretending...

Entirely agree Jim. Until the EC is replaced and the Senate revamped there is no hope of any semblance of anything even approaching a democratic vote.

Don't forget about the voter suppression.

[Joe]

I'll have to echo Scot here. Your system, for multiple reasons, especially "It's not hard to imagine how a single 'faithless elector,' voting differently than his or her state did, could swing a close presidential election" is nowhere near being a democracy. Add to that the gerrymandering connived at by your political parties, and the vast influence of wealth and power on the whole process, it doesn't need the cherry on the cake of foreign meddling to make you a basket case for truly representative democracy. Oz, with it's British model also has its faults, I'll not deny, but the USA might as well become a corporate oligarchy and stop pretending...

Entirely agree Jim. Until the EC is replaced and the Senate revamped there is no hope of any semblance of anything even approaching a democratic vote.

Don't forget about the voter suppression.

And that our courts consider money protected speech.

[pErvinalia]

It's a real mess.

[Seabass]

I'll have to echo Scot here. Your system, for multiple reasons, especially "It's not hard to imagine how a single 'faithless elector,' voting differently than his or her state did, could swing a close presidential election" is nowhere near being a democracy. Add to that the gerrymandering connived at by your political parties, and the vast influence of wealth and power on the whole process, it doesn't need the cherry on the cake of foreign meddling to make you a basket case for truly representative democracy. Oz, with it's British model also has its faults, I'll not deny, but the USA might as well become a corporate oligarchy and stop pretending...

Entirely agree Jim. Until the EC is replaced and the Senate revamped there is no hope of any semblance of anything even approaching a democratic vote.

Don't forget about the voter suppression.

And that our courts consider money protected speech.

And of course Republicans have now set the precedent that it is acceptable for presidents to invite foreign governments to help them cheat our elections. Forget about "fake news", the Republicans have turned the US into a fake democracy...

[L'Emmerdeur]

What the hell, her campaign for the nomination is going nowhere, but here's a way for Gabbard to keep her name in the news for a bit longer.

'Tulsi Gabbard is suing Hillary Clinton in defamation lawsuit, claiming "Russian asset" comments caused $50 million in damages'

Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, said in a lawsuit filed Wednesday that 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton caused her $50 million in damages by saying in October that Gabbard was a "Russian asset" and a "favorite of the Russians."

Gabbard alleges in the suit that Clinton defamed her, causing her "significant actual damages, personally and professionally" that exceed $50 million.

Clinton said in an October interview that the Russians were "grooming" someone in the Democratic primary who is a "favorite of the Russians" and a "Russian asset," which was widely seen as a reference to Gabbard.

The suit, filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, refers to Clinton as having "long coveted" but "not been able to attain" the presidency that Gabbard is seeking. It said that with the suit Gabbard is seeking to "hold Clinton and the political elites who enable her" accountable.

[Tero]

Oh yeah, without Clinton joke, Tulsi would have made president.

[Tero]

My predictions for 2020 plus
1 Biden wins...another 1term president
2 GOP loses hold on senate
3 four years go by, very little change except on immigrants
4 Trumpists lose interest....Romney runs

[laklak]

Here's Anna Paulina Luna, GOP candidate for Florida Congressional District 13, which is basically PInellas County (St. Petersburg, and Clearwater are the biggest cities). Just across the Skyway Bridge from us. It's currently filled by Democrat Charlie Crist. I'm not sure if the dog is running also but I bet he's a goo' boy. You can probably tell she's conservative. NIce hair and good trigger discipline, you don't need much more in a woman and I'll bet she makes tamales. Should be interesting, this will pit the mostly Democratic black voters of south Pinellas against the mostly conservative white voters in the north, with the growing (and mostly conservative) Hispanic population deciding the election.

I know me. I'd hit that like a Predator drone hits a Yemeni wedding.

[Tero]

Abother conservative Florida hero
https://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/2019 ... l-security
She stole her mom's social security and left 200 000 nursing home bills for the mom unpaid. Nursing home is suing the estate.

[laklak]

I remember that one. The term "bimbo" springs to mind, but I probably shouldn't judge.

[Sean Hayden]

It's a misdemeanor to steal your mom's social security checks? wtf

[Tero]

Maine ranks as bluest state with a republican senator..running in 2020
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/de ... s-in-2020/

If Maine continues to go blue in 2020, Collins is likely to be in real danger. While the state is not overwhelmingly Democratic, it has consistently voted for the party’s presidential candidate in every race going back to 1992. And nowadays, states usually back the same party for president and Senate.

Collins is also a more polarizing figure now than she once was, especially after her vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court last year.

[Tero]

Sanders and Biden running even
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign-p ... d-national
if no Biden scandal takes him down by Supertuesday, Biden is it, for better or worse. At least the black voters will show up.

[Tero]

2020 politicians looking like more of the same. Especially the GOP.

Of course, GOP sees only the Democrats as partisan deep state operators:
The Hill

We don't have leaders. We have manipulators manipulating the levers of government for selfish political advantage, for self-interested gain, for personal power. How have so many been elected?

Maybe it's because political campaigns have become soul-crushing endeavors that expose one and one's family to ugly social media humiliations, that have become so expensive as to require boot-lick pandering to monied puppeteers, and that demand degrading moral compromise in order to patronize the growing landscape of narrow, fringe interest groups.

Now we are being mugged with the misuse of the Constitution's primary sanction, impeachment, by one political party, solely and exclusively, against a rival party president. It reeks of partisanship, not statesmanship. It is hard to pinpoint another time in our nation's history when raw party politics has interfered so deeply with the noble goals of representative government and the will of the people.

These professional politicians like to lecture us on what the founding fathers truly intended when crafting the tools of governance 250 years ago. Here's something the founders would surely say to today's career seat-squatters: "Go away!"

Kevin R. Brock, former assistant director of intelligence for the FBI, was an FBI special agent for 24 years and principal deputy director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC). He is a founder and principal of NewStreet Global, which consults with private companies and public-safety agencies on strategic mission technologies.