Even if we grant the premise on the Democratic side, in what fantasy universe are we pretending that there exists Republicans who would suddenly become more bi-partisan and willing to pass Democratic policy priorities just because Kasich was on the ticket. This is the group that held up a Supreme Court seat for a year. I just don’t see it.
I dunno if it would have done any better against Obama, but I believe that the ploy of picking Palin to try and engage the idiot base failed. Anyone who went to the polls because they liked Palin would have voted for anyone over Obama.
The idea that the Republicans would have abandoned their ticket out of outrage over having a moderate Democrat as VP is silly. They wouldn’t have.
However, such a pick would absolutely have been better viewed by moderates who got scared off by Palin’s poor performance and incompetence.
You don’t need to court the fringe of your own party. They will vote for you no matter what.
In this case, such an unorthodox move isn’t necessary, since Trump will presumably be a far weaker candidate in 2020 anyway.
I just thought that, given the chief attack against whomever the Democrats put up is going to be “this guy is a communist Satanist” or whatever, that Kasich would totally eliminate that attack.
But i had forgotten how folks here view him as a super extremist… Which is funny given that the GOP views him as a democratic traitor.
You’re right. Picking Kasich would make FOX News lavish praise upon the candidate and all that negativity would just melt away.
On opposite day.
Most of the members of the GOP would view their left foot as a democratic traitor if it didn’t do something violent against anyone who disagrees with them.
It would also do nothing to help the Democrats except piss off the far left to sort of left middlish group.
I’m under no illusion that you could somehow get the fringe of the Republicans. They will vote for Trump no matter what.
But there are moderates in the middle, who may be scared off by a candidate who is too progressive. But you could run someone really progressive, without scaring them off, with Kasich.
Regardless, it’s been discussed enough. It was just a weird idea i had while thinking about the McCain Lieberman idea. Folks on the right had about the same reaction to that at the time.
I didn’t see it as trolling at all. Just misguided.
Oh, well that’s the compelling argument right there. Sign me up.
Yes, but the McCain / Lieberman idea was stupid. It doesn’t attract voters on one side to the other; it makes those voters hate the candidate from their own side. Rightists reject McCain because he picks Lieberman. Leftists decide Lieberman really is the shit they thought he was, and run screaming from the ticket.
Narrator: He was.
I’m not sure why you guys can’t seem to understand this… I mean, i know the lunatic fringes keep trying to hide this fact, but still.
“Rightists” would have voted for McCain no matter what. The idea that they needed to be won over with Palin was moronic.
As I recall, 10% of registered or declared Republicans voted for Obama.
Lol, and you think they were the “rightists”? That is nonsensical.
They were the moderate Republicans. Lots of them specifically because they were scared off by Palin being dumb.
I don’t agree with that != Nonsensical.
Dude, the idea that the Republicans who voted for Obama were “rightists” is absolutely nonsensical.
It would be interesting in that it would heavily disrupt the tribal nature of our system.
It will never happen, but it would be interesting to see how the tribes reacted to it.
Yea, those rightists hated McCain/Palin so much they voted for the liberal black man. Sure.
Except, you know, Republicans are people on the right, and some Republicans voted for Obama. So some people on the right voted for Obama. It happened.
You are so bad at this.
Thank you.
He’s not a (so far as a I know) a Nazi. I’ll give him that. But he’s standard Republican circa 2008. Why the hell would I want that on the Democratic ticket? And this isn’t about tribaIism; I don’t like his policies. The whole point of being a Democrat is that I don’t have to vote for Republican ideas.
The Republican party does not get to attempt to destroy this country - and I don’t mean just Trump, I mean decades of bad-faith acts going back to at least Gingrich - and then, when things go badly, turn around and demand slots on the Democratic ticket in the name of “unity” and “bipartisanship.” You don’t get a prize for pissing on the picnic. Nor do you get a prize if you were “just” cheering the pissers on.
Screw that. Let the Republican party reap what it has sown. And if any of the Republican politicians want to try to wash off the stink of what they’ve been rolling around in, let them either adopt the policies of the Democratic party and become Democrats or form a new party, enunciate their own ideas, and stand on their own without leeching off the Dems. Personal responsibility, dontchaknow.
Just to explain my thoughts here, i wouldn’t really see Kasich as resulting in Republican policy. The actual President would be a, under this scenario, progressive Democrat.
The idea of a split ticket would be more about giving that progressive Democrat, perhaps, a mechanism by which to negotiate more effectively with Republicans once in office.
Further, it may provide an electoral advantage. The plurality of American voters don’t like partisanship. That’s why they choose to identify as Independents. Most candidates say that they will work across the aisle to get their stuff done. A ticket which is actually bipartisan may appeal to those voters who are sick of the partisanship. At least, that was the thinking.
Again, part of why I misjudged the amount of animosity this idea would incur, is that I wasn’t intending that a split ticket would mean a split platform… The idea was that someone like Kasich would give a progressive platform a figleaf to attract more moderate voters. The vice president doesn’t actually have any real power, although perhaps having them close together in the Whitehouse might breed some bipartisanship that would help get stuff done.