2020 Democratic Challengers Vi: The Undiscovered Country

[Slap Shot]

Re: 2020 Democratic Challengers Vi: The Undiscovered Country

Tulsi Gabbard is clearly planning to run for president — but not as a Democrat

Situating herself as an outsider among seasoned Washington insiders, Gabbard has started to construct a narrative that could be fatal to the 2020 election. A few weeks ago, she announced her intention to boycott the Democratic primary debate, which was held on Tuesday, October 15. Calling the Democratic Party “rigged” as she did so, Gabbard nevertheless eventually came around. She took the platform, but she used it to accuse the mainstream media of bias against her.

Like another outsider, Jill Stein, who grabbed more votes in states like Michigan than the margin between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, Representative Gabbard has committed to a storyline about the Democratic Party that suits her needs — but no one else’s. Gabbard’s abysmal polling is proof positive that she won’t be the elected nominee to represent the Democratic Party in the 2020 general election. But her systematic criticism of the Party indicates that she could well spoil the 2020 election for the Democrats as a third-party candidate.

Many have argued — and will continue to argue — that the presence of a third-party candidate has no true bearing on the results of a major election, and that the problem lies in a lack of strong candidates. Secretary Clinton, however, won the second-most votes in the history of any American election, surpassing Donald Trump (as well as her historically popular husband, Bill Clinton). People did show up to vote for Secretary Clinton, regardless of the fact that she was deemed “corrupt,” a “warmonger,” and, to hear some tell it, extremely unlikeable. She received an astounding 65,853,514 votes — 2,868,686 more than her opponent, who would go on to become President of the United States.

Secretary Clinton’s supposed personality problem — or the fact that she was not a “strong candidate” — did not scupper her chances in 2016; a third-party contender did. In the Rust Belt and Midwest, where electoral votes were decided based on a razor-thin margin between the two major party candidates, the presence of a third candidate — Jill Stein — made an election-tipping difference.

Like Tulsi Gabbard, that candidate also ran on a platform of disenfranchisement and outsiderdom. Establishing herself as an anti-Washington populist who represented the ideologies of leftists who fell outside of the mainstream, Jill Stein convinced voters who otherwise would have voted for a Democrat to vote for her.

The pattern of rhetoric emerging from Tulsi Gabbard’s current campaign plays to the same political hand. Her views, as it happens, are not particularly liberal. She has allied herself with dictators like Bashar al-Assad, whom she once said was “not an enemy of the United States.” She has attacked the media, calling CNN “totally despicable” and accusing the New York Times of smearing her reputation. In the past, in a position on which she has allegedly evolved, Representative Gabbard has come out against both same-sex marriage and same-sex civil unions. These are conservative positions, more closely aligned with the current administration than with the Democratic Party’s platform. And yet, Tulsi Gabbard continues to generate support from potential voters who have an axe to grind with the country’s established two-party system.

Valid concerns or too early to evaluate since we don't even know who the Dem nominee will be?

 

[Kepler]

Re: 2020 Democratic Challengers Vi: The Undiscovered Country

Valid concerns or too early to evaluate since we don't even know who the Dem nominee will be?

Well it's not too early since it works as a plan no matter who our nominee is. I have no doubt both Putin and the Nazis want Tulski to run third party / independent and would put up the money for it. The only question is would it work? Could she fool enough people purely on identity (non-white woman) to make a difference in the key states.

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: 2020 Democratic Challengers Vi: The Undiscovered Country

Another egomaniac. Just like Jill Stein and Ralph Nader.

Go away, Tulsi.

 

[Kepler]

Re: 2020 Democratic Challengers Vi: The Undiscovered Country

The result of Nader was very unfortunate but he was legit; he had campaigned for consumer safety and other good causes for decades.

Stein was an idiot. Tulski is an asset.

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: 2020 Democratic Challengers Vi: The Undiscovered Country

The result of Nader was very unfortunate but he was legit; he had campaigned for consumer safety and other good causes for decades.

Stein was an idiot. Tulski is an asset.

Nader did more to destroy the Democratic Party than anyone else I can think of in the past 3 decades.

 

[Deutsche Gopher Fan]

The only people who care about the Pocahontas thing are right-leaning centrists like my dad, who weenied out on Hillary and went for Johnson in 2016 "because of the email thing". When Warren is the nominee, I expect he'll have no problem voting Loonitarian again.

You forgot about the “centrists” who have daily nightmares over becoming like Sweden or Norway and having healthcare and paid time off

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: 2020 Democratic Challengers Vi: The Undiscovered Country

You forgot about the “centrists” who have daily nightmares over becoming like Sweden or Norway and having healthcare and paid time off

The horror. How will anyone ever pay for this free ****?

 

[Kepler]

Re: 2020 Democratic Challengers Vi: The Undiscovered Country

You forgot about the “centrists” who have daily nightmares over becoming like Sweden or Norway and having healthcare and paid time off

Not to mention a UBI. What would happen to our world if people weren't forced to work in terrible conditions for terrible wages? Don't you understand it's only the fear of enslavement and starvation that causes people to try to make a better world for their kids or to prepare for a fulfilling life's work?!

 

[Kepler]

Re: 2020 Democratic Challengers Vi: The Undiscovered Country

The horror. How will anyone ever pay for this free ****?

Well, we can't increase taxes on the wealthy. That wouldn't be "fair."

 

[Handyman]

Re: 2020 Democratic Challengers Vi: The Undiscovered Country

So wait...Tulsi might run third party? Gee who does that benefit? I am sure it is just a coincidence though that it helps Putin's cause and the Russian Bots have been pimping her since the first debate.

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: 2020 Democratic Challengers Vi: The Undiscovered Country

Well, we can't increase taxes on the wealthy. That wouldn't be "fair."

They already pay all the taxes. Let's say you make 100,000 a year and you pay in payroll and income taxes about 27,000. That poor guy making a million has to pay 150,000 in taxes. It's NOT ****ING FAIR. That's 123,000 more in taxes. The outrage.

 

[Kepler]

Re: 2020 Democratic Challengers Vi: The Undiscovered Country

Nader did more to destroy the Democratic Party than anyone else I can think of in the past 3 decades.

Nader was good process bad result. It was a good idea to try to drag the Clinton Corporate Con party back towards the Greens. In the event things went horribly wrong but it was the right instinct. Nader was Warren without an entry into the party.

Stein and, obviously, Tulski, have no such instinct. Stein is the idiocy of an insular worldview of gross dirty hippies. Tulski is a garden variety grifter.

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: 2020 Democratic Challengers Vi: The Undiscovered Country

Nader was good process bad result. It was a good idea to try to drag the Clinton Corporate Con party back towards the Greens. In the event things went horribly wrong but it was the right instinct.

Stein and, obviously, Tulski, have no such instinct. Stein is the idiocy of an insular worldview. Tulski is a grifter.

No, Nader was evil. Bernie did it right. I give him a lot of credit. He could have gone Nader on the bit and he didn't.

 

[Deutsche Gopher Fan]

So wait...Tulsi might run third party? Gee who does that benefit? I am sure it is just a coincidence though that it helps Putin's cause and the Russian Bots have been pimping her since the first debate.

Yeah it was convenient for tulsi that it was Hilary who said this out loud and now she can scream and rage at Hilary when it looks like Hilary just uttered the truth

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: 2020 Democratic Challengers Vi: The Undiscovered Country

Yeah it was convenient for tulsi that it was Hilary who said this out loud and now she can scream and rage at Hilary when it looks like Hilary just uttered the truth

That's all Hillary ever did. That's why conservatives hate her so ****ing much.

 

[Kepler]

Re: 2020 Democratic Challengers Vi: The Undiscovered Country

No, Nader was evil. Bernie did it right. I give him a lot of credit. He could have gone Nader on the bit and he didn't.

This is nonsense, Scooby. Bernie could have done it right by joining the Dems, but he had to stick it out as Comrade Independent. That was a big mistake and it cost us -- had he been a little less purist and a little more forward-thinking he could have saved us the Hillary nomination and the Dump presidency.

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: 2020 Democratic Challengers Vi: The Undiscovered Country

This is nonsense, Scooby. Bernie could have done it right by joining the Dems, but he had to stick it out as Comrade Independent. That was a big mistake and it cost us -- had he been a little less purist and a little more forward-thinking he could have saved us the Hillary nomination and the Dump presidency.

Bernie didn't lose the Presidency, Hillary did. Nader ****ed Gore right up the ***.

 

[rufus]

Re: 2020 Democratic Challengers Vi: The Undiscovered Country

Yeah it was convenient for tulsi that it was Hilary who said this out loud and now she can scream and rage at Hilary when it looks like Hilary just uttered the truth

Not the first time Hillary's outed a Russian puppet, and people didn't listen, or care.

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: 2020 Democratic Challengers Vi: The Undiscovered Country

Not the first time Hillary's outed a Russian puppet, and people didn't listen, or care.

And they will not listen this time either.

 

[Rover]

Re: 2020 Democratic Challengers Vi: The Undiscovered Country

The result of Nader was very unfortunate but he was legit; he had campaigned for consumer safety and other good causes for decades.

Stein was an idiot. Tulski is an asset.

Ralph Nader is a fraud and a fuking idiot. Anybody who went around, as he did, saying there was no difference between the Dems and the GOP in the Gore vs Bush contest needs to be beaten senseless. How much better off would this country be had Gore won, just because he had no reason to do the absolute worst acts of the Bush Presidency (Iraq War, Tax Cuts for billionaires, torture, etc). Yeah yeah yeah 50 years ago I'm sure he was a solid consumer advocate, but he used up that currency and then some a looooong time ago.