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Mounting pressure inside party / large donors for Biden to step aside
Remember that the GQP court opened the floodgates with Citizens United. The other team can't play high and mighty and go into the game the right-wingers initiated with their hands tied behind their backs.
Citizens United. Money = speech. Silly. ...Typo. You meant GOP. "Grand Old Party?" Nope. Not any more. No soul. No ethics. Grand Whore Party. Under the circumstances, yes, the Dems must play ball.
That pre-convention roll call? Wasn't that supposed to head-off the snafu about not getting the name on the Ohio ballot before their State cut-off date? But the Ohio Gov. extended the date. So, what's with this pre-convention vote, now? Reminds me of so many past stupid meetings where everything was decided before we ever started.
I blame the primary system for a lot of our problems, including the polarization to the right or left of the respective parties, I realize the idea behind it was greater democracy, but it’s dubious whether that has been the case. Had you wanted to inject more money and vitriol into our political process, dragging out the candidate selections to nearly 4 years with up to a dozen “potential” presidential candidates raising money is the way to do it. The media love it. Great show - bitter and divisive though it be. One glaring issue is you may end up with candidates like aging Biden and / or Trump who were mentally and physically fit when the primary campaigns kicked off two or three years earlier but who suffer decline in the interim leading to the actual election. It may not be as “democratic” to allow the delegates to exercise real power and vote their choice at each party convention, but you’d end up for the most part I think with better candidates. That’s how I remember it as a teen. Both parties knew that whomever they nominated at the convention needed to win the confidence of the voters and so you might make a reasonable argument you wound up with more centrist and appealing candidates than now.
The Republicans protest now that we Dems were “deprived” of our primary votes! How undemocratic! I say to them: “S*** happens.” There’s no way a party should be locked in to a candidate who has experienced health issues in the interim that would impede their ability to campaign and potentially cost him or her the election or ability to serve in office. Could happen to any one of either party. Personally I wasn’t deprived one bit. Michigan appears to have gone to a closed primary system. I was required to state my party affiliation at the polls (first time ever) in order to vote. I announced that I was a Republican and voted for Niki Haley whom I judged to be the lesser of evils.
I voted in MA for many years. Open primary. Advocates of a closed Primary can point to a single, diabolical prospect to defend the closed system: anyone from the other Party could ask for the opposing Party's ballot and deliberately vote for an opposing candidate who is sure to LOSE against their own favored candidate in November.
That's a REALLY big stretch. Does not hold water.
In every HI primary, I must declare a Party. This time, I chose Green. Only Green candidates are eligible to receive my vote. There was ONE: a woman running for the Senate, whom I know nothing about. But I pretty well know the Green platform, anyhow. My own ballot got sent back to be recorded, blank.
Some democracy, eh? I've learned that the Parties are responsible for covering the expense and conducting their own Primary elections. In Hawaii, it's all done by mail now. No polling stations to go to. The ballots get sent out from a county-wide government agency. In that case, what do the Parties really have to DO?
And in 2024, the Electoral College has long ago ceased to serve any purpose except to be used as a pretext so that the minority can hold sway over the majority. I've mention the Interstate Election Compact here before. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Popular_Vote_Interstate_Compact
77% of the necessary 270 Electoral Votes are already "in the bag." Nevada, Michigan, NC and VA are "pending." I've not done the arithmetic; would that put us over the 270 threshhold?
My dream. Political elections are limited to 6 months. This 2-4 years before the election is BS IMHO. Everything is done in 6 months, no campaigning for years and years raising money, causing disruptions and all the other crap that goes along with extended election cycles. You can say I'm a dreamer but I'm not the only one...
You're right, you are not the only one. I was thinking 3-mo max but I'll take just about anything drastically shorter than it is now. And get rid of Pac's, super pac's and Citizens United like yesterday.
My dream. Political elections are limited to 6 months. This 2-4 years before the election is BS IMHO. Everything is done in 6 months, no campaigning for years and years raising money, causing disruptions and all the other crap that goes along with extended election cycles. You can say I'm a dreamer but I'm not the only one...
While we’re griping, I’d like a law / rule that the flag of the United States not be allowed to be used as wallpaper in the background as candidates speak. A single normal sized Stars & Stripes standing with dignity atop a pole off to one side conveys more solemn respect for that for which it stands than 6, 8, 10 or 15 oversized banners flung wall to wall. Do 10 flags make the candidate 10 X more patriotic than a single flag might? Methinks not. Obscene ISTM.
Why does the dog wag its tail? Because a dog is smarter than its tail. If the tail were smarter, it would wag the dog.
Content has ceased to matter. Just wow them with your presentation. They'll swallow anything. Hell, they'll buy anything. Razors with FIVE blades? How smart ARE the voters? Answer: NOT VERY SMART.
Comments
BTW - Did you know that Trump twice donated $$ to Harris’s campaigns in California?
The Republicans protest now that we Dems were “deprived” of our primary votes! How undemocratic! I say to them: “S*** happens.” There’s no way a party should be locked in to a candidate who has experienced health issues in the interim that would impede their ability to campaign and potentially cost him or her the election or ability to serve in office. Could happen to any one of either party. Personally I wasn’t deprived one bit. Michigan appears to have gone to a closed primary system. I was required to state my party affiliation at the polls (first time ever) in order to vote. I announced that I was a Republican and voted for Niki Haley whom I judged to be the lesser of evils.
That's a REALLY big stretch. Does not hold water.
In every HI primary, I must declare a Party. This time, I chose Green. Only Green candidates are eligible to receive my vote. There was ONE: a woman running for the Senate, whom I know nothing about. But I pretty well know the Green platform, anyhow. My own ballot got sent back to be recorded, blank.
Some democracy, eh? I've learned that the Parties are responsible for covering the expense and conducting their own Primary elections. In Hawaii, it's all done by mail now. No polling stations to go to. The ballots get sent out from a county-wide government agency. In that case, what do the Parties really have to DO?
And in 2024, the Electoral College has long ago ceased to serve any purpose except to be used as a pretext so that the minority can hold sway over the majority. I've mention the Interstate Election Compact here before.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Popular_Vote_Interstate_Compact
77% of the necessary 270 Electoral Votes are already "in the bag." Nevada, Michigan, NC and VA are "pending." I've not done the arithmetic; would that put us over the 270 threshhold?
BTW - ABC news reports that the first polling has Harris over Trump by 2 percentage points in the popular vote.
Because a dog is smarter than its tail.
If the tail were smarter, it would wag the dog.
Content has ceased to matter. Just wow them with your presentation. They'll swallow anything. Hell, they'll buy anything. Razors with FIVE blades? How smart ARE the voters? Answer: NOT VERY SMART.