With first past the pole, you’ll never have more than two viable parties. That said, parties do blow up every now and again. Look at the Whigs and the Know Nothings for example.
I think an internal implosion, and takeover, is more likely though.
Nesrie
5663
No I wouldn’t, and I wouldn’t vote for Clinton if I thought she would remotely even consider that.
I dislike Kasich as much as anyone here, but given the f***ed up choice between the possibility of him being President and the certainty of Trump, I would vote for Clinton/Kasich.
That is like saying would you vote for trump or Hillary/Hitler. The obvious answer is Hillary and a democrat. You don’t have to compare bad with worse sometimes.
IMHO, the hatred of Hillary goes deeper that that towards Obama (whether you’d consider it rational or irrational, I leave to others, including you ;)).
RichVR
5667
An interesting read on Bernie Saunders, i had no idea the Clintons were carrying around anti-black baggage with them, is that true (that the article talks about)? If so i’m surprised all the Obama supporters are not flocking to his banner?
‘Black thinkers like Bernie Sanders. They’ve studied the Clintons’ true cost’:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/feb/24/black-thinkers-bernie-sanders-studied-clintons-true-cost
Spike Lee is the latest black public intellectual to endorse Bernie Sanders and to question the sanity of black voters and politicians pledging their allegiance to the Clintons, who have done as much harm to black America as any living political couple. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I am mystified by robust black support for Bill and Hillary Clinton.
Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing helped me wake up about race in America when I first watched it as a teenager. That’s why I was delighted to read that Spike Lee encouraged South Carolina democrats to “wake up” in a radio ad on Tuesday and to vote for “Brother Bernie”.
Bill Clinton governed through playing to white fears by hurting, locking up or even executing black Americans. He left the campaign trail in 1992 to oversee the execution of Ricky Ray Rector, a black man so mentally incapacitated, he reportedly did not eat the dessert from his final meal because he was “saving it for later”. When in office, Bill Clinton ended welfare for poor children and destroyed countless black families through a crime bill even he now admits made mass incarceration worse, while Hillary Clinton would go out and whip up support for this accelerated disenfranchisement and marginalization of black America, even when it meant referring to children as “superpredators”.
The case against Clintonian neoliberalism is compelling. I am glad to see black thinkers making a case for Sanders’ democratic socialism and its potential to address structural racism as an alternative. If anyone is smart enough to effectively make Sanders’ case to black America, it would be the intellectual leaders who have endorsed him thus far.
Not being Catholic some of this was lost on me, but Trump announcement of his candidacy for Pope is pretty funny.
I don’t have to do this, when you think about it. I really don’t. I’m rich. I’m really, really, rich. I built a great company; a tremendous company. I employ thousands and thousands of people. So my friends, they ask me, they say Donald, you have everything you can dream of. You’re rich, you have an amazing wife, an amazing family, you’re very successful, why run for Pope? And I say, you know what? I have to run. My Church needs me. The Catholics need me. I have to make the Catholic Church great again. I have to.
(Cheers, applause)
You know, it’s a sad thing to say, but the Church is in such bad shape; terrible shape under Francis. The Catholic Church doesn’t win anymore. We just don’t. When is the last time Catholics won anything? Lepanto? When was that, the 1500’s? We don’t win anymore. But, let me just say, Under a Trump papacy, we are going to win again. We are going to win so much. We are going to win so much you are all going to be sick of winning, ok? But right now, it’s terrible. Just the other day, I see the Pope is praising Martin Luther. Martin Luther! Can you believe it?
(Boos)
Our Pope is over there praising Martin Luther; meanwhile millions of Hispanics are converting to Protestantism in Latin America. It’s true. We are losing millions and millions of people to the Protestants and our Pope does nothing. He does nothing. And I have nothing against the Protestants. Many of them are good people. I employ thousands of Protestants. I used to be a Protestant. But their leaders are just too smart for our leaders. We have people in power in the Church today who have no idea what they are doing. They are incompetent. All our leaders do is “dialogue.” We don’t convert anymore, we “dialogue.” What the hell is dialogue? Excuse me, but shouldn’t we be converting these people? If we have the Truth, why aren’t we converting them? But we don’t convert, we “dialogue”, and we lose millions and millions of these people to Protestantism. They are saying if the head of the Catholic Church thinks it’s ok to be Protestant, why convert? Why do we need to convert? Let him convert. Let the Pope convert. That’s what they’re saying. They’re laughing at us. There is no respect there. No respect. When I’m Pope, they are going to respect us again, let me tell you.
Timex
5670
Oh yeah? So you would vote for trump? Or the Republicans even if they put up someone else?
Or you would abstain, increasing the chances of the Republicans winning, out of fear that a Republican VP could potentially become president?
So in protest of a Republican VP, you would vote for a Republican president?
Come on, that makes no sense.
The gutting of welfare under the guise of “welfare reform” in the '90s certainly didn’t help the black community, no.
Hal9000
5672
I had no clue that Stuart’s mom was voting for Trump.
This is another debate… but are entitlements really good for the black community? Are they lifting people out poverty?
Suffice it to say that I find the argument that welfare in fact keeps people down…well, ridiculous, to put it plainly. But that’s probably for a different thread, and doesn’t really have anything to do with race.
magnet
5675
I have no idea what Nesrie would do. But a lot of people, particularly Sanders supporters, would vote third party before Clinton/Kaisich.
Should they be designed to lift or prevent abject poverty and starvation? I lean toward the latter, with other approaches used to help with the lift.
Given the dramatic drop in black unemployment and the corresponding drop in black poverty rates in 96-2000, I am curious what proof you have that this is true?
Edit probably best in another thread.
Timex
5678
That seems irrational to me.
I mean, as a republicans, i am 100% set to vote for the democrats, NO MATTER WHO THEY NOMINATE, over trump.
Nesrie’s a half black woman. I cannot possibly imagine that she is somehow LESS Offended by and afraid of the prospect of a trump candidacy.
And ultimately, a vote which encourages a Republican president out of fear of a Republican vice president just doesn’t seem to make sense.
Nesrie
5679
Under your logic, Hilary Clinton / (Anybody) would be ideal. What about Ted Cruz, Carson, who else can we put there that you think means as long as the first person is okay the second doesn’t matter? Should I put Zombie Hitler in that spot and you’d be okay with it?
Timex
5680
All of those combinations would be preferable to trump, yes.
Note, this does not mean ideal.
It’s simply the best of what you are offered in that scenario.
Tim_N
5681
I think his point isn’t that it doesn’t matter, just that so long as the second name is less horrible to you than the first name of the competing ticket, you’ll vote for Hillary as the lesser of two evils even with a republican VP. Personally I am not sure that is true in a democracy where voting is not compulsory and turnout is well below 100%. There are alot of people on the margins between voting or not who will only bother if there is a candidate they really like. Seeing Kasich on the ticket will be a great excuse not to bother on election day. The scare of a Trump presidency may be a separate factor that boosts Democratic turnout, but the question is rather the marginal change between say Hillary / Random centre-left D and Hillary / Kasich.
