10 hours ago, Dam8610 said:

Let me know when Democrats actually do these things, rather than just saying they're for them. I'm guessing I'll be waiting a long time, since implementing policies like this would take a backbone to stand up to the GOP that I've yet to see out of the Democrats in my lifetime.

How, pray tell, were they supposed to do them with a GOP majority for the last 8 years?

3 minutes ago, Reddy said:

She's not wrong. Had all those external things not happened AND the campaign had still made the mistakes it did, she'd have won. If her campaign hadn't made the mistakes, and all the external things still happened, she also would've won.

Taking responsibility does not mean lying about the fact that there were things that affected something that were outside of your control. That's called hubris and narcissism.

This is the equal of calling "I am sorry you are offended" an apology.

7 minutes ago, Reddy said:

How, pray tell, were they supposed to do them with a GOP majority for the last 8 years?

They could've done a lot better than the Affordable Care Act with a supermajority in the Senate, as an example.

4 hours ago, Dam8610 said:

They could've done a lot better than the Affordable Care Act with a supermajority in the Senate, as an example.

They couldn't, but that's thanks to garbage centrist and center right Democrats!

Massachusetts became the sixth state in the country to enact automatic voter registration today.

57 minutes ago, StrangeSox said:

They couldn't, but that's thanks to garbage centrist and center right Democrats!

God forbid there be anything but extremists.

11 minutes ago, ptatc said:

God forbid there be anything but extremists.

Progressiveism isn't extreme. The problem is that the GOP has dragged the country's political discourse so far to the right that anything left of center seems extreme. We're just normal leftists. The whackjobs are on the right. 

Edited August 11, 20187 yr by Jack Parkman

5 minutes ago, Jack Parkman said:

Progressiveism isn't extreme. The problem is that the GOP has dragged the country's political discourse so far to the right that anything left of center seems extreme. We're just normal leftists. The whackjobs are on the right. 

I didn't say anything about wackjobs or any other qualifying terms other than extremists, which by definition is to one end of the spectrum. By referring to yourself as a leftists, that is an extreme to one side and I'm sure people would refer to you as a whackjob from the other extreme

He was declaring the problem was center leftists implying that if they were more extreme to the left they could have something better than ACA.

9 minutes ago, ptatc said:

I didn't say anything about wackjobs or any other qualifying terms other than extremists, which by definition is to one end of the spectrum. By referring to yourself as a leftists, that is an extreme to one side and I'm sure people would refer to you as a whackjob from the other extreme

He was declaring the problem was center leftists implying that if they were more extreme to the left they could have something better than ACA.

The majority of the Democratic party is center-right, but people don't know it. Bernie Sanders isn't an extremist, he's just a normal leftist. The fact that people think that his ideas are extreme or crazy is a problem, and exactly what I was talking about. It wasn't the center-left wing of the Democratic party that prevented something better than the ACA, it was the center-right wing. I can count the number of Franklin D. Roosevelt Dems on one hand. Everyone else is to the right of him. A lot of what FDR fought for, is a lot of what Bernie is fighting for. FDR just didn't live to get it all done. If FDR was running today, a lot of people would probably deem him "unelectable" which is scary. I consider myself an FDR/New Deal type Democrat(without the racism obviously) The fact that most people consider that an extremist view is scary. FDR was the only president that got elected more than twice for a reason. Too many people forget how popular he was. In 2008 we needed an FDR, not a centrist. 

Edited August 11, 20187 yr by Jack Parkman

Don't even click the play button, just read it. I don't know how anyone can argue against what FDR wanted here. Tell me again how this is any different than Sen. Sanders' platform? 

Edited August 11, 20187 yr by Jack Parkman

2 hours ago, Jack Parkman said:

The majority of the Democratic party is center-right, but people don't know it. Bernie Sanders isn't an extremist, he's just a normal leftist. The fact that people think that his ideas are extreme or crazy is a problem, and exactly what I was talking about. It wasn't the center-left wing of the Democratic party that prevented something better than the ACA, it was the center-right wing. I can count the number of Franklin D. Roosevelt Dems on one hand. Everyone else is to the right of him. A lot of what FDR fought for, is a lot of what Bernie is fighting for. FDR just didn't live to get it all done. If FDR was running today, a lot of people would probably deem him "unelectable" which is scary. I consider myself an FDR/New Deal type Democrat(without the racism obviously) The fact that most people consider that an extremist view is scary. FDR was the only president that got elected more than twice for a reason. Too many people forget how popular he was. In 2008 we needed an FDR, not a centrist. 

Just because FDR fought for it doesn't mean it wasn't extreme. Especially because you are referring to "not a centrist." By definition this is a left view not a central view thus to one side of the spectrum only and an extreme view of the topic.

And yes you are correct that he would be unelectable.  He may have been popular then. He wouldn't be now.

4 hours ago, ptatc said:

Just because FDR fought for it doesn't mean it wasn't extreme. Especially because you are referring to "not a centrist." By definition this is a left view not a central view thus to one side of the spectrum only and an extreme view of the topic.

And yes you are correct that he would be unelectable.  He may have been popular then. He wouldn't be now.

Which just proves my point, that the modern GOP has done a hell of a job dragging the US political discourse way right. Those aren't crazy in most developed countries. They are here. Social democratic policies work just fine in every other developed country, why they supposedly can't work here is baffling to me. No, having a large population is just excuse making. 

8 hours ago, ptatc said:

God forbid there be anything but extremists.

We can actually blame one specific senator, Joe Lieberman, for tanking an expanded Medicare buy-in from the ACA. That's not an extremist policy.

8 hours ago, StrangeSox said:

We can actually blame one specific senator, Joe Lieberman, for tanking an expanded Medicare buy-in from the ACA. That's not an extremist policy.

My memory of this is somewhat different. Lieberman's goal was to make sure that no one actually was able to improve their health care coverage, so he thought that saying "We'll make medicare open to everyone who is 55 years old" was a great way to sabotage passing a health care bill.

The rest of the Democrats immediately said "OMG YES ABSOLUTELY WE WILL DROP EVERYTHING WE HAVE BEEN WORKING ON AND DO THIS RIGHT NOW".

The second Joe Lieberman realized he had suggested something Democrats would like, he quietly let it fade away.

On 8/10/2018 at 9:22 PM, StrangeSox said:

They couldn't, but that's thanks to garbage centrist and center right Democrats!

You were a big fan of those garbage Democrats back then. Or am I missing the green?

I was never a big fan of Lieberman, Nelson etc.

I'll always appreciate pelosi for actually getting a public option through the House.

53 minutes ago, StrangeSox said:

I was never a big fan of Lieberman, Nelson etc.

I'll always appreciate pelosi for actually getting a public option through the House.

No one was. 

Ellison won his race for MN State AG quite handily.

Evers was a bit of a surprise in Wisconsin to take on Walker.

OR Muslim-American female candidate Ilhan Omar handily wins in race to replace Ellison.

Yes, now anything to the right or left of center is extremism. Do you want to know my definition of extremism? Libertarians, Nazis, and socialism where the government nationalizes most industries.

I don't want the government making cars, and most consumer products. There is a place in politics for fiscal responsibility. In a democracy, government should do what is best for the majority of its citizens. Otherwise, it isn't a democracy anymore. 

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2018-midterm-election-forecast/house/?ex_cid=irpromo  

God I love polls.

30 minutes ago, Reddy said:

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2018-midterm-election-forecast/house/?ex_cid=irpromo  

God I love polls.

Luckily Nate Silver is never wrong and Democrats know how to win when they are supposed to.......

Silver's polls are more right than wrong. Of course people need to show up to actually vote plus he doesn't take into account the Electoral College. Just popular voting

There is just so much overconfidence.  They could easily not take the house back and lose seats in the senate.

1-4 chance for R's to keep the house is pretty far from zero imo. That's one out of four coinflips. Their other two models have Dems at 2/3 chance.

 

Gonna be fun when the final vote is something like D+8 but republicans still keep the house

24 minutes ago, GoSox05 said:

There is just so much overconfidence.  They could easily not take the house back and lose seats in the senate.

Which is exactly what these polls, and Nate, suggest. Statistics are really simple. There's still a 25% chance Dems don't take the House according to these metrics. That's pretty dang high. In '16 that 25% is the thing that came to fruition and it could again.