If Music Could Talk

Kamala Harris drops out. Really surprised that she didn't catch on with corporate Democrats—she seemed that ideal focus group candidate that centrists love: person of colour, female, tough on crime resume that would (still never) appeal to conservatives, incrementalist in a way that appeals to the status quo.

Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑

03 Dec 2019, 3:04pm

Kamala Harris drops out. Really surprised that she didn't catch on with corporate Democrats—she seemed that ideal focus group candidate that centrists love: person of colour, female, tough on crime resume that would (still never) appeal to conservatives, incrementalist in a way that appeals to the status quo.

if i totally whiffed on calling one, it's that i was POSITIVE harris was gonna be a top 3 or 4 candidate.

with harris dropping out, and the billionaires hopping in, i've been thinking about my dem candidate personal power rankings. for me, they go something like:

1. Bernie Sanders (up from #2, his post-heart attack campaigning has been excellent - around that time he also, crucially, shook up his ground teams in some key states like Iowa and there has been some good positive movement in those states since. Helps address one of my main criticisms of his campaign which is that he didn't seem like he was doing the work to expand support beyond his base. Don't know if it'll all work out in the end, but I'm glad for the effort. Would like to cast a vote for a non-white male but the separation between Sanders and Warren is getting dramatic enough that I probably have to flip these rankings despite the preference. It would still be monumentally historic to have a the first Jewish president in our history. Age still a big concern to me, but what can ya do at this point?)

2. Elizabeth Warren (down from #1, she gets a bunch of disingenuous and hackish attacks from the Bernie left which I find endlessly tiresome (not to mention worrisome for the intellectual vigor of the movement), but there are some real substantive critiques as well - foreign policy, mostly, although as mentioned upthread she's bungled on health care as well - still worth keeping in mind she'd easily be the most left president this country has ever had. As I discussed with Wolter on Twitter some time ago, there's actually something appealing about a left president who doesn't actually have the activist left in its thrall, I think there's a positive dynamic to be had there where we hopefully avoid some cult of personality nonsense on the left that will come with a Bernie victory and won't excuse inevitable failures or recast them as successes. She also still seems to have a more obvious path to building a coalition of support to win the nomination than Bernie, despite a recent sag in polls, and actually being able to win has to be worth something. When it comes time to primary in my state, I'll still probably just end up supporting whichever of Sanders or Warren has the best shot of getting the most delegates out of Colorado at that point, but I'm following Bernie polls more closely than Warren polls at this moment)

3. Julian Castro (probably up from my last list? whatever. He's mired in the low single digits but he's run an impressively compassionate campaign and helped nudged the conversation on the debates he participated in. I just don't think there's the oxygen in the race for him to gain traction with anyone, but hopefully he gets a cabinet position or something out of this)

4. Cory Booker (we get to the centrist portion of the list now. Booker has seemed the best of the lot to me, generally providing coherent, rational answers in the debates and not taking any deliberately weird and off-putting positions or whatever and he seems charismatic enough. I dunno, these are all very "hold my nose and vote trump out" candidates but Booker doesn't seem extra off-putting)

5. Amy Klobuchar (actually probably the most centrist candidate on stage, but if you're going all in on "electability" it baffles me why she hasn't gotten more traction from that crowd. "Sensible" centrist policies, proven track record with "diner voters", etc. Just kidding, I know why. It's because she's a woman and the Democratic party is rife with misogynists, particularly from its centrist wings. She's not exactly a charisma machine from what I can tell, but she knows how to complete sentences, which is more than we can say for the current front-runner. She doesn't seem to have a path since the "sensible" centrists who aren't already in on biden have seemingly gone Full Pete)

6. Joe Biden (up from previous rankings, maybe? he's still horrible at campaigning but I've decided his age should be seen as a positive. unlike someone like mayor pete, whose ascendancy could mean a continuing corporatist stranglehold on the part for many decades, biden's capture of the party will necessarily be limited to the short time before he dies and so, at the very least, we get to do the whole "battle for the party" thing again pretty soon. and maybe he picks like Stacey Abrams for VP and she ends up being able to finish out his term when his brain explodes six months into his presidency)

7. Most of the other 0-5%ers

8. Mayor Pete (awful and horrifying for the reasons stated above. he's an empty suit who bends to corporate whims, he's smarmy and smug, and honestly I think his background as someone from a financially comfortable family who VOLUNTEERED to go fight our wars of imperialism in the middle east should be immediately disqualifying for anyone on the left. that he's admitted he did it with the idea of helping advance his political career should make anyone who considers themselves anti-war horrified and repulsed. i find his potential ascendancy deeply, deeply disturbing.)

9. Steyer, Patrick and Bloomberg (fuck these billionaire assholes)

10. Tulsi Gabbard (still The Worst)

Re. Warren's loss of support from the left: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/ ... eft-072693

Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑

08 Dec 2019, 5:31pm

Re. Warren's loss of support from the left: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/ ... eft-072693

This is some of what I alluded to above. I've toggled back to Sanders but I have absolutely massive amounts of loathing for the intellectual dishonesty being propogated by the likes of jacobin and current affairs (and Chapo Trap House, those wealthy upper class scumbags who have never had to face any actual adversity in their lives and just bilk Extremely Online lefties out of their hard earned dollars month after month to live their affluent, influence-peddling lifestyle). That meagan day, the most hackish and dishonest of the poltical vipers in the jacobin stable, is too cowardly to go on record with her record of distortions and lies in favor of Messiah Bernie speaks volumes to the house of cards these assholes have set up for themselves. I have no truck whatsoever with distorting reality for your own poltical benefit, regardless of how righteous the cause, and I want no part of this movement anymore, really.

Win the day with hard work and brooking no concessions, sure, but doing so on the back of a framework of lies and distortions is no way to build and self-sustaining, healthy, political project imho. I'm grateful that, when all is said and done, that Bernie's campaign is genuinely separate from these people and that the left movement still exists outside of these wealthy, self-involved influence peddlers.

I'm angry because the pats lost, really

Flex wrote: ↑

08 Dec 2019, 8:46pm

Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑

08 Dec 2019, 5:31pm

Re. Warren's loss of support from the left: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/ ... eft-072693

This is some of what I alluded to above. I've toggled back to Sanders but I have absolutely massive amounts of loathing for the intellectual dishonesty being propogated by the likes of jacobin and current affairs (and Chapo Trap House, those wealthy upper class scumbags who have never had to face any actual adversity in their lives and just bilk Extremely Online lefties out of their hard earned dollars month after month to live their affluent, influence-peddling lifestyle). That meagan day, the most hackish and dishonest of the poltical vipers in the jacobin stable, is too cowardly to go on record with her record of distortions and lies in favor of Messiah Bernie speaks volumes to the house of cards these assholes have set up for themselves. I have no truck whatsoever with distorting reality for your own poltical benefit, regardless of how righteous the cause, and I want no part of this movement anymore, really.

Win the day with hard work and brooking no concessions, sure, but doing so on the back of a framework of lies and distortions is no way to build and self-sustaining, healthy, political project imho. I'm grateful that, when all is said and done, that Bernie's campaign is genuinely separate from these people and that the left movement still exists outside of these wealthy, self-involved influence peddlers.

It's suggestive of a common crisis-politics approach from both left and right, where any means can be justified because the opponent is so vile. The same bitterness towards neoliberalism that fueled Trump has been playing out on the left since at least Occupy. Maybe this kind con artistry is part of the social media effect—life in the echo chamber, magnifying emotion and extremism—or maybe this is what it's like when a consensus breaks down. Or both.

Flex wrote: ↑

08 Dec 2019, 8:46pm

Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑

08 Dec 2019, 5:31pm

Re. Warren's loss of support from the left: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/ ... eft-072693

This is some of what I alluded to above. I've toggled back to Sanders but I have absolutely massive amounts of loathing for the intellectual dishonesty being propogated by the likes of jacobin and current affairs (and Chapo Trap House, those wealthy upper class scumbags who have never had to face any actual adversity in their lives and just bilk Extremely Online lefties out of their hard earned dollars month after month to live their affluent, influence-peddling lifestyle). That meagan day, the most hackish and dishonest of the poltical vipers in the jacobin stable, is too cowardly to go on record with her record of distortions and lies in favor of Messiah Bernie speaks volumes to the house of cards these assholes have set up for themselves. I have no truck whatsoever with distorting reality for your own poltical benefit, regardless of how righteous the cause, and I want no part of this movement anymore, really.

Win the day with hard work and brooking no concessions, sure, but doing so on the back of a framework of lies and distortions is no way to build and self-sustaining, healthy, political project imho. I'm grateful that, when all is said and done, that Bernie's campaign is genuinely separate from these people and that the left movement still exists outside of these wealthy, self-involved influence peddlers.

Me too.

Absolutely do NOT want a Jewish president. Nope, nope nope.

JennyB wrote: ↑

09 Dec 2019, 12:31pm

Absolutely do NOT want a Jewish president. Nope, nope nope.

Just curious but do you mean ever or Sanders specifically? I remember you positing that a jewish president would incite a wave of anti-Semitism, which is a horrible but definitely plausible seeming result of Sanders winning, sadly. is that something you think can ever be overcome?

Flex wrote: ↑

09 Dec 2019, 1:27pm

JennyB wrote: ↑

09 Dec 2019, 12:31pm

Absolutely do NOT want a Jewish president. Nope, nope nope.

Just curious but do you mean ever or Sanders specifically? I remember you positing that a jewish president would incite a wave of anti-Semitism, which is a horrible but definitely plausible seeming result of Sanders winning, sadly. is that something you think can ever be overcome?

Ever. I like most of Bernie's policies, but with the recent wave of antisemitism, I really fear having a Jewish president. Whomever it would be. That's why I'm voting for Warren. And I really would like to see a woman in office.

I honeslty don't know if it can ever be overcome, sadly.

The easiest prediction to make about the next few days is that the pundits and DLC types will point to the UK election as why Sanders or Warren would be a disaster and that a centrist is the way to go, even tho Corbyn's personal popularity problem made him more like Clinton. But the "see, socialist candidates lead to Trump" op-eds will be in full force now.

I was more positive about Warren in the beginning. She has gotten worse as she’s gone on. Regardless, if she got the nom I would be much happier to vote for her than I was to vote for Clinton. She seems to be even worse than Bernie on foreign policy, which is pretty gross.

Would like to see someone around to take up the socialist cause in the US because Bernie is getting old.

Flex wrote: ↑

06 Dec 2019, 2:39pm

8. Mayor Pete (awful and horrifying for the reasons stated above. he's an empty suit who bends to corporate whims, he's smarmy and smug, and honestly I think his background as someone from a financially comfortable family who VOLUNTEERED to go fight our wars of imperialism in the middle east should be immediately disqualifying for anyone on the left. that he's admitted he did it with the idea of helping advance his political career should make anyone who considers themselves anti-war horrified and repulsed. i find his potential ascendancy deeply, deeply disturbing.)

It's weird that that is seen as a positive because he can earn cred from the right who have a boner for military people. But seriously, who the fuck willingly went to Iraq in fucking 2007? I mean, as you state, someone who had a lot of other opportunities.