Circus circa 2020: Page 40 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Circus circa 2020

Claudius

The current results should suggest to these people that in 2016 Bernie was buoyed by Democrat antipathy towards Clinton. She should remain in the shadows.

Burnwinter

I wouldn't credit the email particularly, and have no idea what that organisation does. With Biden the presumptive nominee now there's gotta be some chance of a fix going in, either just because, or because his gaffes get worse than losing his temper or failing to finish one or two sentences per public appearance.

Claudius

You have to respect Bernie’s style. He’s the most consistent politician I’ve ever seen and is going to die with his boots on. Just did a press conference and gave Biden the key talking points for Sunday’s debate, challenging Biden by asking why he is opposed to

Medicare for all
Free university and student debt relief
Ending mass incarceration and reducing racism in justice system
Transforming the energy economy in the next 7 years to save the world
Ending billionaire involvement in elections and just ending billionaires in general
Addressing high poverty

Many of these are just common sense issues. You just need to be transparent to about the cost and the financing mechanism (typically raising corporate, income and consumption taxes) so that society accepts that they need to make trade offs in order to have a more just environment.

I think the billionaire point is a distracting red herring but everything else is spot on. Over to Biden.

QuincyAbeyie

Obviously from a biased subreddit, but it's not at all acceptable that this is what you have to do to vote. People claim to have stood for hours waiting.

Asterix

How does voting work in other countries?

In Australia it's always on a Saturday. Polling booths are set up in primary schools - where the P&C sets up a BBQ / cake stall to raise funds at the same time.

Voting is still done on a piece of paper and the vote slips stuffed into a big box for counting. In my experience it takes between 1 and 15 minutes standing in a queue before you get to vote.

We only vote for local, State and Federal government elections, but voting in all 3 is compulsory. At least, it's compulsory to turn up and have your name marked off and to collect your ballot.

Gazza M

i know it's not compulsory in the US, and they hold the general election and most of the primaries on weekedays. as an aussie i was scratching my head at US pundits fawning over states that held saturday voting like 'huh, why's that not done everywhere?'

Klaus

Voting is not mandatory here, but people are automatically registered to vote if they're citizens and get their voting card sent home per mail in advance, and then they just bring it to the designated polling place where voting takes place. We vote on paper ballots that are counted both manually and by machine. It's done on weekends here too. I've never waited for more than 5 minutes. You can vote by mail in advance too free of charge.

We usually have an 85-87% turnout in the elections. I always thought that was low for some reason.

Asterix

Ah that's smart to register people automatically. We have to register ourselves. But then we get fined if we don't turn up at the polling place, or mail in our vote ahead of time. So the onus is on individuals to register.

Qwiss

Klaus wrote:
Voting is not mandatory here, but people are automatically registered to vote if they're citizens and get their voting card sent home per mail in advance, and then they just bring it to the designated polling place where voting takes place. We vote on paper ballots that are counted both manually and by machine. It's done on weekends here too. I've never waited for more than 5 minutes. You can vote by mail in advance too free of charge.

We usually have an 85-87% turnout in the elections. I always thought that was low for some reason.

We'd around 63% turn out in our election this year. It was the first time it was held on a Saturday and the turnout was down 2 or 3% over all from the last general election. There were storms in the west though that probably effected the turnout there.

Burnwinter

Fairly decent bounce for Sanders in the latest national polling, he's gained about 8 points on Biden.

Claudius

He also got drubbed in big contests last night, losing by 12 to 40%. It’s over unfortunately.
Actually listened to a good discussion with a senior Policy Fellow at UC Berkeley’s Labor Center saying that Sander’s campaign knew how to mobilize but not organize voters. The last part required lots of repeated Face ho face interactions to drive maybes into definitelys. Good discussion.

Qwiss

Americans are insane. In the face of a pandemic they reject a move to medicare for all. And these are supposed to be the more left leaning Americans.

Klaus

Liberals deserve four more years of Trump if they think the answer to a single issue in American politics is Joe Biden.

Mirth

Was the turnout low?

Claudius

Seemed fine in high mail-in and early voting states. Lower in states that emphasized in person voting.
That said, it might not be fully clear how much of that is corona versus this contest being a walkover.

For the Medicare for all issue, Biden rightly pointed out that Italy and other European states are devastated. So having state care won’t prevent a virus.
I think the important thing now for Bernie is to see if he can turn his fan club into a permanent movement. I’ve been critical of how his most fanatic supporters vilify anyone who is slightly opposed to him or runs against him. He’s made a great start. But now his ideas need to penetrate the base. That means building a coalition with lots of left leaning leaders, and focusing on drumming this mediate home everyday. And then working towards the policies. Bernie still lives in a fairytale land where this shit magically materializes. He needs to build the policy that shows Flobaba will go from paying 40% tax to 44% tax, but the will be increased benefits from removing waste from profiteering and superfluous private healthcare operators. I think this is the job of the next generation of left leaning leaders, and he needs to build that infrastructure quickly. Otherwise this movement will have been for naught.

jones

Claudius wrote:
Seemed fine in high mail-in and early voting states. Lower in states that emphasized in person voting.
That said, it might not be fully clear how much of that is corona versus this contest being a walkover.

For the Medicare for all issue, Biden rightly pointed out that Italy and other European states are devastated. So having state care won’t prevent a virus.

Not having state care will? How is it right to point out something out that nobody ever claimed?

Claudius

State insurance

Qwiss

Claudius wrote:
For the Medicare for all issue, Biden rightly pointed out that Italy and other European states are devastated. So having state care won’t prevent a virus.

What a moronic thing to say. How can anyone take that sort of thing seriously? All the people who'd agree with him on that now would be calling it idiotic if Trump said it.

Gazza M

Having centralised state care cuts alot of red tape from the private sector. I don't see how the impact of the coronavirus can be used as a case against universal health care, but I'm sure biden and his ilk will spin it that way

Burnwinter

The timing of this virus has been a month behind what Sanders would have needed to make an impact.

But this is Trump's year to preside over, anyway. The rate of case growth in the US, even with inadequate testing, looks higher than in most countries at the same stage. It's a huge human catastrophe in the making.

« Previous Page Next Page »