SUPERTHREAD: 2020 United States Elections

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SUPERTHREAD: 2020 United States Elections

Post by Dalton »

This thread is to discuss developments in the upcoming 2020 Elections in the United States. This thread is appropriate for all elections, including Federal, State, and Local. Trolling and flamewars will be kept to a minimum, or I will become very cross indeed.
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Re: SUPERTHREAD: 2020 United States Elections

Post by FaxModem1 »

To get the ball rolling:

NPR
Initial Democratic Primary Debates Will Accommodate Up To 20 Candidates
February 14, 20194:03 PM ET
Asma Khalid - 2016 - square
ASMA KHALID

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With a large field of candidates expected, the Democratic National Committee is laying out how it will accommodate candidates for presidential debates.
Andrew Burton/Getty Images
Given the historically large number of Democrats expected to run for president in 2020, the Democratic National Committee is preparing to host the first two primary debates, with each debate split into two consecutive nights to accommodate up to a maximum of 20 candidates.

The DNC announced details Thursday for the first two primary debates of the season.

Democrats To Hold First Presidential Debate In June, Just 6 Months From Now
POLITICS
Democrats To Hold First Presidential Debate In June, Just 6 Months From Now
The first debate, scheduled for this June, will be broadcast on NBC, MSNBC and Telemundo. The second debate, slated for July, will be broadcast on CNN.

Both debates will be carried on back-to-back nights if needed to accommodate the large field. And they"ll also both be available to stream online for free.

All "qualified" candidates are eligible to participate. A DNC official said a candidate could qualify by meeting one of two criteria:

Garner at least 1 percent support in three separate polls
Meet the grassroots fundraising threshold, which requires obtaining 65,000 unique donors and a minimum of 200 donors per state in at least 20 states

If more than 20 candidates meet one of these benchmarks, the top 20 candidates will be selected using a methodology that prioritizes those who met both. After that, candidates will be selected mostly determined by polling.

There will not be a first-tier and second-tier debate stage. The candidate lineups for each night will be selected through a random lottery process.

All of these changes are intended to increase trust and transparency, following criticism the DNC received in 2016 for seeming to favor Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders.

The DNC had previously announced that it would hold a total of 12 primary debates during the 2020 cycle, about one a month beginning in June of this year.

Debates are scheduled for June, July, September, October, November and December of 2019, and January, February, March and April in 2020.
Already, there's been a change in the Democratic party primary to seem more egalitarian, and prevent seeming favoritism from the party for one candidate in who is considered for the debate, as opposed to a 'kiddie table' style debate.
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Re: SUPERTHREAD: 2020 United States Elections

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That's all for the best, though I worry that we're not going to have time for much more than an introduction per candidate with that many.

Still, if one lesson should be taken from 2016, its that there cannot be any appearance (real or not) that the scales are being weighted if we can possibly avoid it.
"I know its easy to be defeatist here because nothing has seemingly reigned Trump in so far. But I will say this: every asshole succeeds until finally, they don't. Again, 18 months before he resigned, Nixon had a sky-high approval rating of 67%. Harvey Weinstein was winning Oscars until one day, he definitely wasn't."-John Oliver

"The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan."-General Von Clauswitz, describing my opinion of Bernie or Busters and third partiers in a nutshell.

I SUPPORT A NATIONAL GENERAL STRIKE TO REMOVE TRUMP FROM OFFICE.
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Re: SUPERTHREAD: 2020 United States Elections

Post by GrosseAdmiralFox »

The Romulan Republic wrote: 2019-02-22 09:50pm That's all for the best, though I worry that we're not going to have time for much more than an introduction per candidate with that many.

Still, if one lesson should be taken from 2016, its that there cannot be any appearance (real or not) that the scales are being weighted if we can possibly avoid it.
The thing is that Bernie lost legitimately in the Primaries, and by a good margin too. Problem was the fact that 2016 is most likely illegitimate given what has been uncovered and released/leaked from the Trump-Russia investigation... which is it's own can of worms...
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Re: SUPERTHREAD: 2020 United States Elections

Post by The Romulan Republic »

GrosseAdmiralFox wrote: 2019-02-23 09:14pm
The Romulan Republic wrote: 2019-02-22 09:50pm That's all for the best, though I worry that we're not going to have time for much more than an introduction per candidate with that many.

Still, if one lesson should be taken from 2016, its that there cannot be any appearance (real or not) that the scales are being weighted if we can possibly avoid it.
The thing is that Bernie lost legitimately in the Primaries, and by a good margin too. Problem was the fact that 2016 is most likely illegitimate given what has been uncovered and released/leaked from the Trump-Russia investigation... which is it's own can of worms...
Oh, no denying Bernie lost... but there's also no denying that there was a widespread perception of unfairness and favouritism toward Clinton (some valid, some likely not), and the DNC very wisely wants to avoid a repetition of that.
"I know its easy to be defeatist here because nothing has seemingly reigned Trump in so far. But I will say this: every asshole succeeds until finally, they don't. Again, 18 months before he resigned, Nixon had a sky-high approval rating of 67%. Harvey Weinstein was winning Oscars until one day, he definitely wasn't."-John Oliver

"The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan."-General Von Clauswitz, describing my opinion of Bernie or Busters and third partiers in a nutshell.

I SUPPORT A NATIONAL GENERAL STRIKE TO REMOVE TRUMP FROM OFFICE.
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Re: SUPERTHREAD: 2020 United States Elections

Post by GrosseAdmiralFox »

The Romulan Republic wrote: 2019-02-23 11:07pm Oh, no denying Bernie lost... but there's also no denying that there was a widespread perception of unfairness and favouritism toward Clinton (some valid, some likely not), and the DNC very wisely wants to avoid a repetition of that.
The problem is that most of Bernie's groupies went with Clinton during the general, it is the 'BernieBros' that were the problem.
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Re: SUPERTHREAD: 2020 United States Elections

Post by The Romulan Republic »

GrosseAdmiralFox wrote: 2019-02-23 11:51pm
The Romulan Republic wrote: 2019-02-23 11:07pm Oh, no denying Bernie lost... but there's also no denying that there was a widespread perception of unfairness and favouritism toward Clinton (some valid, some likely not), and the DNC very wisely wants to avoid a repetition of that.
The problem is that most of Bernie's groupies went with Clinton during the general, it is the 'BernieBros' that were the problem.
The Bernie or Bust assholes, yeah. And its true, they're a small minority who are, by and large, too crazy to waste time pandering to. But it doesn't hurt to make the effort to appear as fair as possible- it cuts off another avenue of attack that people can try to use to depress voter turnout by feeding voter cynicism and apathy.
"I know its easy to be defeatist here because nothing has seemingly reigned Trump in so far. But I will say this: every asshole succeeds until finally, they don't. Again, 18 months before he resigned, Nixon had a sky-high approval rating of 67%. Harvey Weinstein was winning Oscars until one day, he definitely wasn't."-John Oliver

"The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan."-General Von Clauswitz, describing my opinion of Bernie or Busters and third partiers in a nutshell.

I SUPPORT A NATIONAL GENERAL STRIKE TO REMOVE TRUMP FROM OFFICE.
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Re: SUPERTHREAD: 2020 United States Elections

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The Romulan Republic wrote: 2019-02-24 12:02am The Bernie or Bust assholes, yeah. And its true, they're a small minority who are, by and large, too crazy to waste time pandering to. But it doesn't hurt to make the effort to appear as fair as possible- it cuts off another avenue of attack that people can try to use to depress voter turnout by feeding voter cynicism and apathy.
The problem with that is that the voter turn out was odd from what I remember and then there was the fact that only a short time before the elections voter rolls were hacked, registry databases getting hacked, that sort of thing... and given what we've been hearing out of the Trump-Russia investigation...

... well, as I said somewhere else, this paints a very scary picture.

Given how crazy reality has been going, I'm half expecting our descendants to literally go back in time and 'put things right'... by force of arms.
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Re: SUPERTHREAD: 2020 United States Elections

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On a related note, Sanders urges supporters to behave respectfully towards Democratic Primary opponents:

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/p ... rt-799468/
"As we engage with our opponents in the Democratic primary, we will forcefully present our views and defend ourselves against misrepresentations," Sanders wrote. "But, let us do our very best to engage respectfully with our Democratic opponents-talking about the issues we are fighting for, not about personalities or past grievances. I want to be clear that I condemn bullying and harassment of any kind in any space."
"I know its easy to be defeatist here because nothing has seemingly reigned Trump in so far. But I will say this: every asshole succeeds until finally, they don't. Again, 18 months before he resigned, Nixon had a sky-high approval rating of 67%. Harvey Weinstein was winning Oscars until one day, he definitely wasn't."-John Oliver

"The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan."-General Von Clauswitz, describing my opinion of Bernie or Busters and third partiers in a nutshell.

I SUPPORT A NATIONAL GENERAL STRIKE TO REMOVE TRUMP FROM OFFICE.
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Re: SUPERTHREAD: 2020 United States Elections

Post by The Romulan Republic »

Sanders town hall is on on CNN.
"I know its easy to be defeatist here because nothing has seemingly reigned Trump in so far. But I will say this: every asshole succeeds until finally, they don't. Again, 18 months before he resigned, Nixon had a sky-high approval rating of 67%. Harvey Weinstein was winning Oscars until one day, he definitely wasn't."-John Oliver

"The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan."-General Von Clauswitz, describing my opinion of Bernie or Busters and third partiers in a nutshell.

I SUPPORT A NATIONAL GENERAL STRIKE TO REMOVE TRUMP FROM OFFICE.
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Re: SUPERTHREAD: 2020 United States Elections

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A brief run-down:

On the plus side, Sanders seems committed to addressing the concerns about him being a spoiler, about a divisive race, and about sexual harassment in his campaign. He pledged to support whoever the Democratic nominee is, said he believed he would be treated as fairly as any other candidate in the primary and that he would try to run a positive campaign focussed on the issues rather than personal attacks, and acknowledge the issues with insufficient diversity and sexual harassment in his campaign, promising to create a diverse cabinet and saying that everyone on his campaign would receive extensive training on sexual harassment and that there would be a party independent of the campaign people could report issues to.

Policy-wise, it was mostly vintage Sanders: raise taxes on billionaires, a Wall Street speculation tax, fund Medicare for all, tuition-free public college, and better access to preschool and drugs, plus a 15 dollar an hour minimum wage. Some talk about addressing climate change as well. Nothing really new from Bernie, but good socialist policy for the most part.

On the downside, I felt he was rather evasive on some important issues including when he will fulfill his promise to release ten years of tax returns, whether people could keep their private health insurer under his plan (though its pretty clear the answer is "no"), and on why he won't call Maduro a dictator. He also needs to be more specific and emphatic on how he will respond to Russian interference. He deflected to talking points or changed the topic, and seemed less prepared on some points than he ought to have been at this point. He also seemed testier than I remember him being. This was probably most damagingly and painfully apparent in how he handled the questions from two black audience members on the lack of trust in him from much of the black community, and on whether he supported reparations for slavery. He seemed downright hostile in tone at points, and very evasive. He said that he supported investing in disadvantaged communities (I'm paraphrasing here) but refused to say whether he supported reparations, demanding to know what was meant by the word "reparations". I don't think being opposed to reparations for slavery in and of itself makes you a racist, as there is more than one valid way to address systemic inequality. But the way he handled this question was clumsy and insensitive at best, needlessly abrasive and transparently evasive.

He did acknowledge that there was extensive racial inequality on top of regular economic inequality, and that he had perhaps not said enough about that topic in the past. I get the sense that he's trying, to be more inclusive (or at least appear so) and to broaden his horizons, but he still is noticeably awkward at times in addressing racial issues (not to throw stones in glass houses, these are very hard issues to address, but he's going to be under extra scrutiny on this point, fairly or not).

I also think he is greatly overestimating his chances of winning over large numbers of Trumpers.
"I know its easy to be defeatist here because nothing has seemingly reigned Trump in so far. But I will say this: every asshole succeeds until finally, they don't. Again, 18 months before he resigned, Nixon had a sky-high approval rating of 67%. Harvey Weinstein was winning Oscars until one day, he definitely wasn't."-John Oliver

"The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan."-General Von Clauswitz, describing my opinion of Bernie or Busters and third partiers in a nutshell.

I SUPPORT A NATIONAL GENERAL STRIKE TO REMOVE TRUMP FROM OFFICE.
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Re: SUPERTHREAD: 2020 United States Elections

Post by The Romulan Republic »

I've also noticed that Bernie is very complimentary of Warren in particular. IIRC, a little while back he was asked about who he would pick for his VP, and though he named no name, the description he gave pretty much fit Warren. So I have a sneaking suspicion that he's trying to not alienate Warren or her supporters in particular, and that there's a good chance he is already thinking of offering Warren the VP slot if he beats her to the nomination.
"I know its easy to be defeatist here because nothing has seemingly reigned Trump in so far. But I will say this: every asshole succeeds until finally, they don't. Again, 18 months before he resigned, Nixon had a sky-high approval rating of 67%. Harvey Weinstein was winning Oscars until one day, he definitely wasn't."-John Oliver

"The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan."-General Von Clauswitz, describing my opinion of Bernie or Busters and third partiers in a nutshell.

I SUPPORT A NATIONAL GENERAL STRIKE TO REMOVE TRUMP FROM OFFICE.
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Re: SUPERTHREAD: 2020 United States Elections

Post by FaxModem1 »

A kinder, softer Democratic primary focused on issues and not on personal attacks. Its naive of me to hope, but I want this to be the tone until the general election if possible.
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Re: SUPERTHREAD: 2020 United States Elections

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FaxModem1 wrote: 2019-02-25 10:35pm A kinder, softer Democratic primary focused on issues and not on personal attacks. Its naive of me to hope, but I want this to be the tone until the general election if possible.
Anyone who goes all-out trashing other Democrats or progressives is doing Trump and Russia's work for them. Hopefully enough of us realize that.
"I know its easy to be defeatist here because nothing has seemingly reigned Trump in so far. But I will say this: every asshole succeeds until finally, they don't. Again, 18 months before he resigned, Nixon had a sky-high approval rating of 67%. Harvey Weinstein was winning Oscars until one day, he definitely wasn't."-John Oliver

"The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan."-General Von Clauswitz, describing my opinion of Bernie or Busters and third partiers in a nutshell.

I SUPPORT A NATIONAL GENERAL STRIKE TO REMOVE TRUMP FROM OFFICE.
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Re: SUPERTHREAD: 2020 United States Elections

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Eric Holder will not run for President, but former Colorado Governor Hickenlooper has thrown his hat into the ring:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... 834ffa4f69

Hickenlooper is known to me as my former governor, but he doesn't much interest me beyond that. He's a little known centrist candidate in a crowded field. I doubt he'll have much effect, though of course you never can say for sure. Maybe he's angling for a slot as someone's VP, or building name-recognition for a future bid.

I'm rather glad Holder's out. The field is crowded enough now, frankly, even leaving aside that Biden may yet join in.
"I know its easy to be defeatist here because nothing has seemingly reigned Trump in so far. But I will say this: every asshole succeeds until finally, they don't. Again, 18 months before he resigned, Nixon had a sky-high approval rating of 67%. Harvey Weinstein was winning Oscars until one day, he definitely wasn't."-John Oliver

"The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan."-General Von Clauswitz, describing my opinion of Bernie or Busters and third partiers in a nutshell.

I SUPPORT A NATIONAL GENERAL STRIKE TO REMOVE TRUMP FROM OFFICE.
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Re: SUPERTHREAD: 2020 United States Elections

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The Russians appear to be coming out for Bernie again. A few weeks ago I discovered a young reddit account (u/KolbinSavage) that was doing a copypasta spam for Bernie and attacks on then-presumptive front runners including Kamala Harris and Beto O’Rourke. This particular account nuked history twice and changed identities to an anti-Bernie Bro than an alt Reich libertarian before deleting his account after I went out of my way to get him banned from every respectable subreddit I could.

Since Bernie is in, young accounts with bizarre kinds pro-Bernie messaging (often active in r/WayOfTheBern, which is a known TheDonald troll sub) including race wedging and sowing seeds of conspiracy against the mainstream party (while paying lip service to towing the line in the general) are popping up. They all seem to have an ability to generate extreme amounts of karma in short periods of time and copypasta talking points.

I think that this represents the same sort of strategy as in 2016. They don’t think that Bernie can win but hope to weaponize his base. They’re slippery in the nuking/purging of accounts after they’re burned, so it’ll be like whackamole to stop them and it’s not a fulltime job for me. To say nothing of my tactics being likely to get me banned from subs eventually. I’m hoping Bernie flames out hard and of his own volition before they can build up a critical mass of conspiracy bullshit around him, though I’m feeling confident that the lack of a Clinton in the race makes their job harder this time.
I had a Bill Maher quote here. But fuck him for his white privelegy "joke".

All the rest? Too long.
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Re: SUPERTHREAD: 2020 United States Elections

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And now I’m seeing the same thing from anti-Bernie accounts. They seem to be engaging the pro-Bernie accounts with each accusing the others of being shills. This is going to be a shitshow...
I had a Bill Maher quote here. But fuck him for his white privelegy "joke".

All the rest? Too long.
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Re: SUPERTHREAD: 2020 United States Elections

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FireNexus wrote: 2019-03-05 02:37pm And now I’m seeing the same thing from anti-Bernie accounts. They seem to be engaging the pro-Bernie accounts with each accusing the others of being shills. This is going to be a shitshow...
Yup. Of course Russia will pretend to back both sides. Their goal, after all, is not to elect Bernie Sanders. Its to sow division, fuel cynicism about the political process, and undermine the credibility of American democracy. If they could instigate an outright civil war, I have no doubt they would.

I think at this point we should pretty much assume that any shit-flinging over 2016, Bernie vs. anti-Bernie, etc. from random people on line is Trumpist or Russia bots/trolls. They're playing divide and conquer, and Democrats need to be smart enough not to fall for it. Correct the record if they tell a demonstrable falsehood, but otherwise just don't engage. I'm going to try to remember that in the coming months.
"I know its easy to be defeatist here because nothing has seemingly reigned Trump in so far. But I will say this: every asshole succeeds until finally, they don't. Again, 18 months before he resigned, Nixon had a sky-high approval rating of 67%. Harvey Weinstein was winning Oscars until one day, he definitely wasn't."-John Oliver

"The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan."-General Von Clauswitz, describing my opinion of Bernie or Busters and third partiers in a nutshell.

I SUPPORT A NATIONAL GENERAL STRIKE TO REMOVE TRUMP FROM OFFICE.
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Re: SUPERTHREAD: 2020 United States Elections

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"I know its easy to be defeatist here because nothing has seemingly reigned Trump in so far. But I will say this: every asshole succeeds until finally, they don't. Again, 18 months before he resigned, Nixon had a sky-high approval rating of 67%. Harvey Weinstein was winning Oscars until one day, he definitely wasn't."-John Oliver

"The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan."-General Von Clauswitz, describing my opinion of Bernie or Busters and third partiers in a nutshell.

I SUPPORT A NATIONAL GENERAL STRIKE TO REMOVE TRUMP FROM OFFICE.
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Re: SUPERTHREAD: 2020 United States Elections

Post by The Romulan Republic »

Hillary has also confirmed she won't run again, thank God:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/pol ... 063819002/
"I know its easy to be defeatist here because nothing has seemingly reigned Trump in so far. But I will say this: every asshole succeeds until finally, they don't. Again, 18 months before he resigned, Nixon had a sky-high approval rating of 67%. Harvey Weinstein was winning Oscars until one day, he definitely wasn't."-John Oliver

"The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan."-General Von Clauswitz, describing my opinion of Bernie or Busters and third partiers in a nutshell.

I SUPPORT A NATIONAL GENERAL STRIKE TO REMOVE TRUMP FROM OFFICE.
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Re: SUPERTHREAD: 2020 United States Elections

Post by FaxModem1 »

This bill doesn't have a chance of passing in the Senate, but it would make elections in the US much better:

Politico
The U.S. Capitol Building
House Democrats are expected to slice off parts of the “For the People Act” and put them up for future votes as separate legislation, in an effort to get more narrowly-tailored reforms through, though even that will be difficult. | Zach Gibson/Getty Images

CONGRESS

House passes sweeping election reform bill
Democrats had made the proposal a key part of their campaign to win back the House.

By ZACH MONTELLARO 03/08/2019 11:23 AM EST Updated 03/08/2019 11:59 AM EST
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The House on Thursday passed a massive voting rights, campaign-finance and ethics reform package — a centerpiece of the new Democratic majority’s agenda.

The bill, known as H.R. 1 and dubbed the For the People Act by Democrats, was approved on a party-line 234-193 vote.

The measure makes far-reaching changes to the country’s electoral and campaign-finance system, along with ethic reforms that target President Donald Trump and his administration.

“H.R. 1 restores the people’s faith that government works for the public interest, the people’s interests, not the special interests,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said at a news conference before the vote.

The legislation includes a national expansion of early voting, redistricting reform, making Election Day a federal holiday, automatic voter registration and stricter disclosure rules for a bevy of political activities. One particular ethics provision would mandate presidential and vice presidential candidates to publicly disclose 10 years of tax returns — a measure taken after Trump has refused to do so despite decades of precedent.

The bill has little chance of becoming law in the face of stiff opposition from the GOP-controlled Senate. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said this week that it would get no floor time “because I get to decide what we vote on.” Trump has also threatened to veto the bill, in the unlikely event it will make it to the president’s desk.

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The measure’s passage also comes after a rocky week for the Democratic Caucus, which struggled with how to address the controversy surrounding freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who was accused of making anti-Semitic remarks.

Still, the bill’s passage fulfills a major campaign promise for many House Democrats, who embraced a theme of cleaning up Washington during the midterm elections.

“It is no coincidence that the largest freshman class since Watergate is also the class that is leading and pushing on this critical reform measure,” freshman Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) said at a Thursday news conference. “We are the class born of voters’ frustrations with a broken system.”

Crow was among the 47 freshmen Democrats who had signed an October 2018 letter organized by the group End Citizens United that called for campaign finance and ethics reform to be the first item Democrats take up in the 116th Congress.

Each faction of the Democratic Caucus is able to claim victory with the bill.

Liberal members of the party touting campaign-finance reforms found themselves going viral, with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-.N.Y.) video from an H.R. 1 hearing approaching nearly 40 million views on Twitter.

Rep. John Lewis of Georgia offered his support for the bill with a fiery floor speech tying its passage to his lifelong battle for civil rights. “This vote is an opportunity to be on the right side of history,” the civil rights icon said. “If not us, then who? If not now, then when? The time has arrived to tear down the barrier to the ballot box.”

Moderate and conservative Blue Dog Democrats got their own bite at the apple, working with Democratic leadership to change a public financing program so that it was funded not from tax revenue but through fees generated by fines for corporate malfeasance.

“Our freshmen members flagged for us that this would be an issue that's difficult for them in their districts, and would be difficult for many of the Blue Dog districts, to be seen to use taxpayer dollars to fund campaigns,” Rep. Stephanie Murphy of Florida, co-chair of the coalition, said in an interview. “We held off cosponsoring the bill [until a change was made] and that shows a level of unity that the Blue Dogs are willing to use in the Congress to improve legislation.”

Rep. Dean Phillips and Rep. Ilhan Omar are pictured.
THE FRIDAY COVER

The Democrats’ Dilemma
By TIM ALBERTA
Even the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus took home their own prize: the first amendment considered, and passed, under the House’s new “20/20 rule,” which gives special preference to amendments sponsored by 20 members from each party.

“It is a good amendment,” Rep. Tom Suozzi of New York, caucus co-chair, said of his amendment to require an FEC audit after every federal election to determine if foreign money was spent. “It’s not going to change the world. But it’s a solid single with bipartisan support, and we need to get more of those singles in the future.”

Democrats also largely stuck together and defeated a motion to recommit, a procedural move that offers the minority a chance to offer a final amendment and has embarrassed the caucus on other recent bills.

Republicans were similarly united, though in opposition.

“A vote for this bill is nothing more than a vote to put millions of dollars into campaigns for every person who serves in this institution,” Rep. Rodney Davis, one of the chief critics of the bill, said Thursday of the small dollar public matching program. The Illinois lawmaker introduced a steady parade of House Republicans to rail against the bill on the House floor over several days of debate.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy rolled out a video arguing the bill would allow “the government to interfere in our free and fair elections.” McCarthy took to the floor Friday to give a speech condemning the bill for not addressing ballot harvesting.

McConnell was perhaps the most vocal critic of the bill. He wrote an op-ed decrying the measure as the “Democrat Politician Protection Act” and devoted several floor speeches to what he called a “power grab,” helping galvanize House Republicans in opposition of the bill.

“Not enough can be said about the Senate majority leader and his involvement,” a senior House Republican aide said. “Most people were going to vote against it regardless, but I think his involvement in raising the profile of the issue inspired a lot of our folks to be more involved.”

Democrats chafed at McConnell’s comments. “One senator said this is a power grab,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, who shepherded the bill from her perch as chair of the House Administration Committee. “Yes it is. It is a power grab for the American people.”

The bill drew opposition from many GOP-leaning outside groups, like the Chamber of Commerce. But the ACLU also voiced its concern about certain provisions in the bill, saying they are “unconstitutionally burdening political speech.”

House Democrats are expected to slice off parts of the bill and put them up for future votes as separate legislation in an effort to get more narrowly tailored reforms through, though even that will be difficult.

Sen. Ron Johnson
NATIONAL EMERGENCY

Fearing mass GOP defections, Trump leans in to emergency fight
By BURGESS EVERETT and ELIANA JOHNSON
“People aren’t taking this seriously because it won’t get through the Senate,” Adam Brandon, president of the libertarian-leaning FreedomWorks and an opponent of the bill, said in an interview. “I’m not worried about it this year, next year. I’m worried about this in the next five or six years.”

The fight over campaign-finance reform and voting rights is also sure to land on the campaign trail in 2020, with both parties believing they can win the coming messaging battle.

Republicans argued that giving federal workers a day off or pushing public financing of elections will be a negative for Democrats. “This will be a political issue for people who are running in competitive districts, I guarantee it,” Davis said of the public-financing provision. “Who wants more money in politics?”

But even moderate Democrats are skeptical the attacks will stick.

“They’re gonna beat us up for trying to fix campaign finance? They’re going to beat us up for righting the wrongs of voter suppression?” Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) said. “I hope they do that. That will be fun to have them do that.”

Democrats see their success in the midterms as proof that their government-reform message will win the day, just as Trump’s 2016 victory suggested voters are desperate for change in Washington.

“In a sense, [voters] wanted to clean this place up and they found the most drastic solution you can think of,” Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.), the original sponsor of the bill, said in an interview. “And then they discovered he wasn’t interested in it. Their anger still hasn’t been solved.”
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The Romulan Republic
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Re: SUPERTHREAD: 2020 United States Elections

Post by The Romulan Republic »

It may not make it through the Senate, but it will provide an issue to rally Democrats around, and can be pushed through in two years if we retake the Senate and Presidency.
"I know its easy to be defeatist here because nothing has seemingly reigned Trump in so far. But I will say this: every asshole succeeds until finally, they don't. Again, 18 months before he resigned, Nixon had a sky-high approval rating of 67%. Harvey Weinstein was winning Oscars until one day, he definitely wasn't."-John Oliver

"The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan."-General Von Clauswitz, describing my opinion of Bernie or Busters and third partiers in a nutshell.

I SUPPORT A NATIONAL GENERAL STRIKE TO REMOVE TRUMP FROM OFFICE.
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The Romulan Republic
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Re: SUPERTHREAD: 2020 United States Elections

Post by The Romulan Republic »

CNN hires Republican operative and former Sessions spokesperson with no journalistic experience to coordinate its 2020 coverage- then backpeddles and shifts her to a more junior position after an entirely justified backlash from liberals, Democratic Presidential candidates, and some of its own journalists:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/08/busi ... alyst.html

Just... who in the fucking hell thought that this was a good idea? Is CNN angling for Fox's audience? Did they not realize the price of giving Trump favorable coverage after 2016 and the subsequent two years of the Presidency virtually waging war on the press? Did this woman have blackmail material on a network executive or something, because I don't see how anyone could have thought that this was a good idea.
"I know its easy to be defeatist here because nothing has seemingly reigned Trump in so far. But I will say this: every asshole succeeds until finally, they don't. Again, 18 months before he resigned, Nixon had a sky-high approval rating of 67%. Harvey Weinstein was winning Oscars until one day, he definitely wasn't."-John Oliver

"The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan."-General Von Clauswitz, describing my opinion of Bernie or Busters and third partiers in a nutshell.

I SUPPORT A NATIONAL GENERAL STRIKE TO REMOVE TRUMP FROM OFFICE.
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FireNexus
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Re: SUPERTHREAD: 2020 United States Elections

Post by FireNexus »

The Romulan Republic wrote: 2019-03-10 12:09am CNN hires Republican operative and former Sessions spokesperson with no journalistic experience to coordinate its 2020 coverage- then backpeddles and shifts her to a more junior position after an entirely justified backlash from liberals, Democratic Presidential candidates, and some of its own journalists:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/08/busi ... alyst.html

Just... who in the fucking hell thought that this was a good idea? Is CNN angling for Fox's audience? Did they not realize the price of giving Trump favorable coverage after 2016 and the subsequent two years of the Presidency virtually waging war on the press? Did this woman have blackmail material on a network executive or something, because I don't see how anyone could have thought that this was a good idea.
They just took the Trump criticism seriously. Gaslighting American media into doing stupid shit by saying they’re too liberal is a time honored tradition and it still works even when the gaslighter is completely beyond the realm of reasonable.

If you’ve ever been in a relationship where you were gaslit before, it’s not hard to see.
I had a Bill Maher quote here. But fuck him for his white privelegy "joke".

All the rest? Too long.
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The Romulan Republic
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Re: SUPERTHREAD: 2020 United States Elections

Post by The Romulan Republic »

Ah yes, the old Reich-wing tactic of accusing the media of "liberal bias" and their political opponents of being "socialists", gradually pushing the "center" further and further Right. Pretty much how we got here in the first place.

Still, its downright depressing that people still fall for this shit.
"I know its easy to be defeatist here because nothing has seemingly reigned Trump in so far. But I will say this: every asshole succeeds until finally, they don't. Again, 18 months before he resigned, Nixon had a sky-high approval rating of 67%. Harvey Weinstein was winning Oscars until one day, he definitely wasn't."-John Oliver

"The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan."-General Von Clauswitz, describing my opinion of Bernie or Busters and third partiers in a nutshell.

I SUPPORT A NATIONAL GENERAL STRIKE TO REMOVE TRUMP FROM OFFICE.
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