Is the Overton Window Wide Enough for the Insane Clown Posse to Deliver Us Unto Bernie?
And they say only Sarah can toss word salad? Au contraire mes freres! Et Souers! Et comarades!
Six months ago only morons believed the ‘morans’ would put this country in a position where there was even a tiny crack for a ‘democratic socialist’ or even a full out ‘social democrat’ to squeeze through a window of acceptable discourse into the White House. Maybe YOU “Felt the Bern!” but if you had a glimmer of political awareness at all you put that alongside your Dean 2004 “Sleepless Summer Tour” (and I was wearing mine just yesterday) and sighed “Well not this year, unless the Contradictions Heighten Themselves”.
Then this happened. Trump at 41%. Challenged FROM THE RIGHT! With Cruz at 20% or so. You don’t know what to say. It is like Jeremy Corbyn woke up some morning and found that the Conservatives had been taken over by the Official Monster Raving Loony Party being challenged by UKIP
Surely the 1% would not let this happen. Or their paymasters the 0.1%. Even a libtard like me had to put aside the warm glow and mild comfort of the Bernie Bern. Because THAT wasn’t going to happen! You could ask Joke Line or any other Village Idiot Pundit in good standing, the R Establishment would not and could not allow the choice to be between Trump and Cruz. After all memories of the Other Barry in 1964 hadn’t died.
Unless they did. I would still bet big money on Hillary pulling out both the nomination and the election. But it is no longer crazy to think a head on head contest between Trump and Sanders. And what might be the totally unpredictable results of that. All I can say is that if you had a bet on this with British bookie Ladbrokes then God Bless.
And if like most of the world are asking “What the bleedin’ hell was THAT about!?” Treat this as an Open Thread for all things political and not.
I’m thinking the 1% and the 0.1% at this point and even earlier want Hillary. Sure, they are thinking Trump/Cruz will hurt the long term prospects of the party, but at the same time they are thinking Sanders is a not to be concerned about run. Thus, Trump/Cruz serves them getting what they want: Hillary.
Hillary, I believe assures a consistence of what they have come to love about President Obama. That magical blend of keeping the social thinking crowd (and the sub group of labor) appeased while getting the conservative money implementation and even some good old imperial action over seas.
You know: the Bermuda triangulation approach.
And is that not what conservatism is after: consistence, little to know change and a touch of hierarchy?
I think all hopes of it being a head to head contest in November went out the window several weeks ago when the Republican “braintrust” started work-shopping what would happen if no one had more than 50% of the delegates at the convention, and Trump heard about it and basically announced that he would run as an independent if he went into the convention with a lot of support and didn’t walk out the nominee.
Now they’re working the other side of the coin (Trump has more than 50% of the delegates, and their hands are tied so they can’t even smoky room him out of the Republican slot on the ballot), and Bloomberg is gearing up for an “independent” run.
No way we get to November without three “viable” candidates at this point, which is probably the best case scenario for a Bernie win, if he can get the nomination.
Hell, conceptually he could still run, being a Democrat is a new thing for Bernie.
Thankfully, Sanders is too smart to consider this third party insanity.
Yes, he probably is.
Which leaves me in the uncomfortable position of starting to think if Clinton is the nominee, I might end up voting for Bloomberg instead of leaving the box blank.
I’ve never had his name on my ballot before, I’d have to read the campaign whitepapers, if they ever got published.
I agree with Webb. In the end HRC will be the Dem nominee and she will beat any of the Rep loons. But I am no longer confident of that outcome.
I’m amazed at the Trump result. And equally amazed at Bernie’s support.
The fact is HRC is not well liked. And Bern has a huge fan base. I don’t see the Bern/HRC fight being resolved by March. This could mean that Bloomberg comes into the race. It could also mean that Bern tries to run as an Independent.
4 folks on the ballot? 3? Not easy to predict what happens if Bloomberg gets involved. He will get votes from both the left and the right.
This could be a circus that ends up in the House!
Bernie will not run as an independent. As E Michael notes.
Bloomberg? I don’t think he has much to offer other than not being Hillary. I can’t see the masses going for him even though I’m sure the money crowd think of him as a savior of some type.
What would be interesting is the effect of a 3 person presidential race would have on the congress.
I am for Sanders. He reminds me of RFK. Suit coat off and his “why the ask why, I say why not?” attitude.
I do not like Clinton’s war mongering and lies on Iran. If she is nominee, I will support no democrat.
Bruce:
I was sitting in a Holiday In Express this morning having a faux breakfast, reading USA Today, and listening to faux news on the TV. Two bearded scruffies walk in and occupy a table behind me. The out loud dialogue starts:
– Those immigrants should go back to their counties where they belong. If they die they die; but, they should not bring their problems here.
– We need closed borders.
– Obama ruined this country with his policies and letting all the immigrants stay (any chance we can swap some of the immigrants to replace the scruffies?).
– Look at those people (Germany), they will not accept the food offered to them. Who cares if they have to wear red bands.
– Blah, blah, blah and it goes on and on.
It is in this frame work billionaire Trump is politicking and he knows how to speak their language. He attracts them with his dialogue and they come like flies around manure. If one side dries out, he just rolls out a new take, and more come.
You can not approach him on an intellectual level as most will not understand it. To beat him, you have to become as base as he is. Out man and macho him.
–
“I am for Sanders. He reminds me of RFK”
Christ Ilsm, don’t go there. We were in the middle of rehearsing our 6th grade chorale in 1968 where we had a nice mix of schmaltz. pop and funny but had to cut the funny Lizzie Borden “40 whacks” song but keep the “Johnny Come Marching In” one because RFK got shot in the kitchen that week. We had people crying.
People today have simply no idea how tragic the world historic year of 1968 was. And yet oddly how hopeful. it started with MLK being shot down and ended with people singing Age of Aquarius. Some of us foolishly thought this was the bottom and we could soar to the top, in part driven by the Dream.
48 years later? Not so much. We got Trump vs Hillary and an Overton Window that has Nixon, Reagan and FDR grouped with fricking Mao Tse Tung.
All of which has me recalling the best verse of the whole Bible, and the shortest, and the one that speaks most to me:
John 11:35 “Jesus wept”.
” I might end up voting for Bloomberg instead of leaving the box blank.”
yeah. Why NOT vote for Nader? What harm could that do??
Said nodead Iraqi or Syrian or GI over the last 12 years since ever.
Hope for Bernie, Vote for Hillary.
It’s like the infamous election in Louisiana between Edwards and Duke: “Vote for the Crook. It’s Important”
Hillary is not better than Trump or anyone else the Republicans are putting up. She is just slightly better so far at keeping her homophobia and anti-immigrant feelings to herself than Trump who seems to have no super-ego. If you feel like giving your vote to Hillary just because she has a D by her name when all three of the potential candidates listed have been registered Rs and Ds in their lifetimes, I guess that’s your prerogative.
Horseshit. You can make the argument that Hillary is a neo-liberal stooge of Wall Street but accusing her of homophobia and nativism is just mindless and groundless hate speaking. Where is the evidence of ANY of that? You don’t just get to start with ‘Hitlery’ and work backwards. Unless you post at Breitbart. Here at AB I am going to call bullshit.
I’m not that keen on Hillary, but I think she’s much, much better than any of the GOP candidates, so I’ll vote for her. Besides, the GOP is in control of the House and Senate, so if they retain those plus win the presidency, they could do a lot of damage. I think gridlock is about the most we can hope for these days, and we’re a lot more likely to have that if the Democrat wins the presidency.
Mike:
Lets say Bernie wins? Would Congress change and move with the president? The same exists with either Hillary or Bernie. People have a preference and who wins from the DEM side will not make a difference either with a Repub Congress.
How many vetoes has Obama actually had to issue since Republicans took over Congress? Like five or six?
The idea that Presidents can’t implement agendas if Congress is controlled by the other side need to ask the ghosts of Ike, Dutch, and Dick, none of whom had same party control over Congress for more than a fraction of their time in office. To say nothing of Harry Truman who ran rough shod across the Do Nothing Congress. It is not like desegregating the military against the opposition of most of both parties was a nullity.
I don’t fault Obama because of the things he didn’t accomplish. Because he mostly did accomplish what he wanted to. It was the stuff he never really tried to accomplish that burn or if you will Bern my butt. No President is hapless or helpless. Not even Jerry Ford.
Bruce:
No doubt, one could try rather than try to appease or negotiate. From day one, the Repubs had installed their resistance in secret cessions.
In 2009 I put up a huge series of posts on what became PP/ACA. In July 4 of the 5 Committees with jurisdiction passed out legislation through Regular Order. That is testimony and markups and votes in sub-committees and the committee. The three House Committees passed the Tri-Commmitee Bill. Senate HELP passed Kennedy-Dodd which was close enough to House Tri-Committee that a Conference would have been easy. This just left Senate Finance to write up the pieces under its direct jurisdiction which was taxes and Medicare. But Baucus decided “Fuck that, I will scrap every piece of work done by the other four Committees, sideline my own Chair of the FiCom Health Sub-Committee and go to final negotiations with Republicans on my panel via the Gang of Seven turned Six that ORIGINALLY HAD A REPUBLICAN MAJORITY. It was 4 Rs to 3 Ds which included two Conservadems and a moderate.
Baucus said “Fuck you” to Reid and Obama. And they took it. They could have told him to stick to Regular Order and to stick to the issues that were actually under the jurisdiction of his Committee but instead decided he was the ideal person to negotiate the final deal with Olympia fucking Snowe. During which time Kennedy died and with him the Democratic Super Majority that could have passed a much better bill based on Kennedy-Dodd and the Dingell Tri-Commmitee Bills while (you know) Kennedy and Dingell were still ALIVE. But NOOOOOOOOOOO!! We have to sell out to Republicans on Senate FiCom even BEFORE putting leverage on Nelson and Lieberman.
None of that had to happen. Obama was still hostage to Grand Barganism that had him selling out not just the Public Option but also Chained CPI for Soc Sec. I like Obama but he screwed the pooch thoughout 2009 because he didn’t think McConnell was serious about one term-ist non compromise. And we all suffered the consequencese.
Bruce:
You are touching on history I have forgotten in the particulars in how the PPACA came to be. I do remember it. Things could have bee different if a little shove had been made and how much further we could have been.
Hillary or blank box? Mike B makes a good point about who will hold Congress, and how much damage they can do, unopposed.
And then, there’s the little matter of the next Supreme Court nominee……………..
Madame Secretary will not get me to the ballot box. Not in rural TX.
I will vote Bernie or Green. If the race in TX is close enough that she’s competitive then it won’t matter; FL et. al. will be In The Bag.
run75441:
I don’t think Bernie would be able to accomplish a lot with a GOP Congress, either, although I agree with Bruce that a president can do some important things with an opposition Congress. But my main point is that the GOP could do a lot if they controlled Congress and the presidency, all of it bad. Avoiding that is the most important thing, so I’ll support whoever the Democrats nominate.
Yes.
Hillary is just another thing that I don’t agree with Noam Chomsky on. I’ve made peace with that.
Whoever wins in November will still pay homage to low taxes, foreign wars and free trade. The systematic destruction of the working class overseen by the GOP and Clinton Democrats will continue. But, don’t worry, women with penises will be able to change in the “Girls” locker room. We get the government we deserve.
Is Liz Warren feeling the Bern ?
“…. Warren’s speech, which commemorated the sixth anniversary of a key Supreme Court decision that loosened campaign spending regulations, proposed a constitutional amendment to outlaw excessive spending for candidates.
“The first votes will be cast in Iowa in just 11 days. Anyone who shrugs and claims it is too hard has crawled into bed with the billionaires who want to run this country like some private club,” she said. “We are headed into another presidential election, and I speak out today because I’m genuinely alarmed for our democracy.”
Some analysts believe her remarks Tuesday indicate that Warren will not be endorsing Hillary Clinton, who has received substantial financial backing for her present bid as well as her 2008 run….”
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2016/01/26/Still-yet-to-endorse-Democratic-candidate-Sen-Warren-signals-possible-preference-for-Sanders/8631453851442/
also:
http://www.salon.com/2016/01/26/elizabeth_warren_could_be_a_game_changer_most_endorsements_dont_matter_much_but_hers_would_be_a_giant_boost_for_bernie/
Bruce and run: re ACA: how quickly everyone forgets Joe Lieberman.
Not by me. Baucus and Lieberman could have been given the Johnson Treatment by Obama. As perfectly illustrated in the photo attached to this AB post from 2009.
http://angrybearblog.strategydemo.com/2009/09/gang-of-six-regular-order-johnson.html
Hard to stare down a man whose political and personal future you have absolutely no control over.