By David Futrelle
Big day. Big big day. Lots of shit going on. Discuss.
Also: VOTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!1!
I mean, if you’re in the US. If you’re not in the US, I guess don’t vote, unless maybe you’re a citizen abroad but I don’t know how the mechanics of that work exactly.
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I was very cranky last night when I saw that Amy and Pete both endorsed Joe after dropping out. Not even the news that Chris Matthews retired* cheered me up much.
I mailed in my ballot a week and a half ago. For Warren. Because I think she can obliterate that orange gibbon in debates and I really want a woman president before I die.
*When I tuned in, I thought he’d suddenly died, the way Steve Kornacki was carrying on. (Yes, I know MSNBC is being dragged to the center right, but I still love Chris Hayes and Rachel Maddow.)
The Beaverton’s Take:
https://thebeaverton.com/2020/03/man-who-took-30-years-to-win-one-state-considered-electable/
For a satire site they just keep hitting the nail on the head.
I will be voting for Warren after work. Just reminding folks her big blunder was not in claiming Cherokee ancestry based only on a family story, but in taking a genetic test to prove native ancestry. Not only are those tests somewhat inaccurate for that purpose, but that’s not how tribal membership is determined. That being said, the Cherokee Nation accepted her apology, so I am not holding that further against her. (Full disclosure: I am about as much verified Cherokee as she was claiming to be.)
Mr. Parasol and I both voted for Elizabeth Warren. We’ve agreed to hold our noses and “vote blue no matter who” come November.
Interestingly enough, we actually got a paper trail on our ballot this time so we could confirm that our choices were printed on the paper. Anybody else see an improvement like this?
ETA: Also!
@Victorious Parasol
Ah, Randy Rainbow. I recall seeing his Desperate Cheeto parody video a few years ago. I also voted for Warren but will vote blue no matter who in November, because anyone is better than Trump.
Two or three weeks ago I was texting with my mother-in-law. She told me she liked Warren the best, but was going to vote for Bloomberg in the primary because he has a better chance of beating Trump because he’ll be able to get “swing voters” to vote for him.
Then later that exact same day, I was talking to my mom, and she brought up the election, and said she likes Warren the best, but she’s voting for Sanders in the primary, because he has a better chance of beating Trump because he has a “cult following.”
So thought it was pretty funny and ironic that they both liked Warren the best, but thought she’s “unelectable,” so they chose to vote for someone else, and then went in completely opposite directions on who that someone else was.
So I gave up on the whole idea of voting strategically and voted for Warren during early voting last week because I like her the best.
I’ll vote for whoever the Democrat is in the general election, though I live in Texas, so it’s not like that matters.
(And maybe I shouldn’t mention it, but I’m pretty sure that Trump is going to get “re-elected” no matter who the nominee is anyway. And I put that in quotes because he’ll probably lose the popular vote again and get more help from Russia. It’s not like any of that has changed from 2016. I REALLY hope I’m wrong, but I’m bracing myself for it.)
Can you do those ‘write in’ votes in the actual election? That thing where you write your preferred candidate on the ballot paper even if they’re not officially standing?
@Alan Robertshaw
In the US, you can, but some states require the write in to fill out paperwork in order for those votes to be counted.
@Axe, Oogly
I’m too late to warn y’all, but… yeaaaaah our anthem’s pretty shit. Most anthems tend to be. Like, unless you’re Burkina Faso. They have a good one, and whaddya know, it’s literally about kicking French ass.
@ naglfar
Ta
@ music fans
https://alternativetentacles.com/2020/02/28/jello-biafras-2020-presidential-endorsement/
You don’t know how good for my anxiety it is to hear others on here voted for Warren. I was giving myself an anxiety attack earlier over whether to vote for her or Sanders, but ultimately, I had to go with my honest opinion of which would be the better president regardless of current poll numbers, and I think it was for the best.
Still blue no matter who, but I am going to allow myself the pettiness of refusing to canvas for Bloomberg if he does somehow get the nomination. He’s got enough money to do it himself.
Sinkable John – Kurt Vonnegut once described the first stanza of the Star-Spangled Banner as ‘gibberish liberally sprinkled with question marks’.
Fun* fact:
Although often used as a generic term for the US flag, technically there’s only one specific star-spangled banner. It flew over a fort in some battle.
It was the fifteen stripe version.
(* for a certain value of fun)
The Cherokee wanted Warren to explicitly make amends by telling people that accepting family stories about native heritage is wrong, and that DNA tests are a form of race science and inherently racist. Warren did not.
An apology is nice but it does not repair the harm caused. Some Cherokee accepted the apology but 200 just wrote a letter once again asking for proper amends and Warren dismissed them.
Warren would be doing much better right now if she had gone after Biden instead of Sanders, but Warren has yet to attack Biden. It was also disappointing that she chose to use personal attacks to go after Bloomberg when there is so much actual substance there.
Warren was my second choice, but at this point she needs to drop out and it’s disappointing seeing people act like she has a chance at becoming president. *shrug* Honestly everyone except Bernie and Biden should drop out, they’re the only viable candidates and the only ones polls say even have a chance against Trump.
Sigh.
I don’t have time to dissect the whole post from Betrayer till after work and after I vote. But for I’ll just say
1. I agree that Warren needs to do more to make amends for the Cherokee ancestry thing.
2. I don’t see why (yes I do) she is being held to a higher standard than the 3 white men left. I don’t think I even need to say why Biden and Bloomberg are more problematic. But Sanders had issues with sexual harassment (not by him) in his 2016 campaign and no one ever even brings it up. Not to mention using Joe Rogan in an ad and bringing Marianne Williamson on as a surrogate.
Come on.
If it come to Bloomberg vs Trump, I guess the Orange One can rip off the motto of “Cthulu for President” which is “why choose the lesser evil ?”
Sure, Bloomberg is better than Trump, mostly because at that point, Hitler would be better than Trump (more consistent and more likely to care about the survival of at least part of its country). But soon, either the USA get a “socialist” that give its inhabitant basic rights, or there will be a revolution. Bloomberg won’t be the one giving right, so he will just increase the odds of an explosion.
(I do like the Marseillaise, but mostly because of the symbol : a country that decide to stop giving a fuck and trying to invade all the other european country at once. And some wonder why the french revolution ended that badly)
@WWTH
The Joe Rogan thing was bad for obvious reasons. But why the fuck did he bring a fatphobic asshole on as a surrogate? I don’t get why he did that, and it only makes him look worse in my eyes.
I voted for Warren.
In November, it’ll be blue no matter who, though I’m going to have to hold my nose pretty hard to vote for any of the others.
It seems to me that a person’s level of engagement in politics roughly correlates to their favored candidate. The list below is generalities only, as exceptions are obviously common, but it’s an impression that I get from comparing straw polls on political sites (where the people are much more politically engaged on the average) with general public polls.
High engagement – Warren
Medium engagement – Sanders
Low engagement – Biden
None beyond seeing TV ads – Bloomberg
I will stress, again, that this may not be accurate, correlation isn’t causation, it’s not necessarily wrong to not be much engaged in politics, and even if accurate this is only general tendencies – there appears, for example, quite a bit of Sanders supporters who are highly politically engaged, and even a small but significant number of Biden supporters.
…I’m still holding out hope for Warren, even if the odds don’t look too great at the moment.
For those people who think Warren’s recent actions reek of desperation or whatever… that’s sort of true. I mean, in the past few months the mainstream media has been largely ignoring that she even exists and have been acting like Klobuchar was the token female candidate. Warren really needed to stand out as much as possible in order to counteract that, but I’m not sure there was any good way to do that under the circumstances. Now that Klobs is out, maybe they’ll stop being stupid about that. Prediction: they won’t. That’s a bigger reason why the odds don’t favor her than her supposed recent “behavior” issues, the people who are complaining about that with mostly weren’t seriously considering voting for her anyway.
Of course Warren has issues but so does Sanders. In addition to those already noted he still seems to have issues around intersectionality and the idea that class isn’t the only thing that matters. I think it was only last year he was still complaining about ‘identity politics’.
Plus he has a history of supporting alternative healthcare and claiming that cancer is at least partially psychosomatic.
Supporting a candidate doesn’t mean pretending they are flawless or that you shouldn’t continue to push them do to better.
Using an antivaxxer as a surrogate is absolutely a mistake, and one Bernie should be questioned over. However the Rogan thing? People went after Berrnie for his Rogan ad far more than they are going after Warren for ignoring the Cherokee letter.
Look, if you think Warren would be the best president and vote for her to make a statement, I support that. It’s a reasonable conclusion and your vote.
But if you think Warren actually could become president, you have been misled and are making a mistake. There is no scenario where Warren is the nominee at this point, and people need to face that.
@Alan:
And people keep forgetting that ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ is commemorating a battle… but it’s from the War of 1812, not the American Revolution. And not exactly a glorious victory for the Americans, either.
(The usual joke about the War of 1812 goes:
– Ask a Canadian about the War of 1812, they’ll say ‘The Americans tried to take over, but we fought them back’.
– Ask an American about the War of 1812, they’ll say ‘The English tried to take away our freedoms, but we fought them back’.
– Ask an Englishman about the War of 1812, they’ll say ‘What war?’)
I’m Canadian, but sang the American anthem as part of a choir at one point. Even most of the Americans in the choir liked the Canadian anthem better, just musically.
@Snowberry
Of course, the focus on “behavior” issues is just another sexist double standard. If she were a man there is no way the media would be calling her out on that.
@Specialffrog
And many of his fans still are complaining. Of course not all Sanders fans are, but the “dirtbag left” is a real issue.
@Jenora Feuer
When I was in high school we had to make instrumental chamber ensembles for a recital. Mine played a medley I arranged that included part of O Canada. It was much better received by the audience than another group’s performance of the Star Spangled Banner.
Honestly, I’m glad that America didn’t take over Canada. If we had, Trump would have even more power and would be screwing over even more people now (assuming that the rest of history played out similarly to our timeline).
As a Sanders fan:
The fact that Warren ignored the letter from the Cherokee does not diminish nor erase the fact that Sanders (1) accepted an endorsement from Rogan and (2) used footage of him in an add.
Whilst I get that it makes strategical sense to market common sense ideas and general welfare to try to bring in disgruntled Trump fans, who have felt betrayed by his policies; it still needs to be said out loud that it is plain wrong to validate or give a platform to people who have dedicated their lives to using such platforms to spread bigotry.
Joe Rogan has made disgusting racist and transphobic statements in the past, and even made a following allowing dangerous reactionaries and Neo-Nazis to parade through his show, with little to no push back. He is one of the last people I would want endorsing him, and if Warren was really up to sinking Bernie, she would attack him day and night on this little nuggest of info alone.
That being said I prefer Sanders because his policies seem more inclusive and ambitious, as well as because he doesn’t openly call himself a capitalist.