Politics 2025

[Buster's Uncle]

Democrats are all -famously so- circular firing squads, all the time.

[Trenacker]

Dunno, I blame Nancy Pelosi for a LOT of wrong moves; Cheney Bund collaboration back in the day, through to the outrageous stupidity last year.

If they know for a fact -that didn't actually go public to my knowledge- that Joe's really gone stupid, it was too late to push him out like that that late in the cycle.  The smart play would have been to roll the dice on him campaigning and push hard for a strong chief of staff and general good staffing/handlers, to probably way outdo the Reagan administration, which suffered horribly for six years from no one really being in charge after he went senile.  But we pulled through that one, albeit painfully, and could have this.  Instead, we got the worst of all worlds.

-A lot of that's what I thought at the time, not just hindsight.

One of the following two options must be true. Either Joe Biden wasn't as badly incapacitated as we now suspect, or he and his inner circle thought so little of Kamala Harris's leadership abilities that they preferred a caretaker government. That's ironic given how well I think Harris did with the little time available to her, her underwhelming and even disappointing role in the administration theretofore, and in light of her manifest failings in the previous election cycle.

I actually really liked Biden as president, even though I expected very little of him.

While I don't think it excuses his great misjudgement in deciding to run for a second term given his obvious mental infirmities, I am also doubtful Republicans would have treated a managed transition as legitimate in this age of hyper-partisanship. I think that rather than scream from the rooftops about Biden's mental collapse, they'd have instead seized on each of his good moments to accuse Harris of organizing a palace coup. It puts Biden is a position not very dissimilar from the position I think John Roberts feels he is in, although, again, I think both men made the wrong decisions. When push comes to shove, Biden should have stepped back to let Harris govern, while Roberts destroyed his reputation by issuing mealthy-mouthed decisions that fooled nobody.

To move on to the circular firing squad problem, Republican set up the perfect trap. They demonized queer communities until the Democratic leadership felt compelled to defend them in the strongest terms, which Republicans were then able to use as evidence that the Democrats were ignoring "bread and butter" issues more relevant to most voters. This was possible because Republican media penetration had reached unprecedented levels by 2024. Fox News is simply ubiquitous. It frames the shared public narrative even if you're a liberal. (Conservative media domination is even more complete now, as once-centrist or left-leaning media organizations have moved right in pursuit of viewership.)

[Buster's Uncle]

Degree in broadcasting here, and you got that last right.

The Democrats have ALWAYS had that circular firing squad problem, at least in my lifetime.  Mr. Murdock, powerful trash that he is, need not apply.  Don't tell the nazis one of us admitted it, but I think that one has its roots in actual communism - like, those self-criticism meeting that the commies have w/o much of the self in the mix?  Welll, unions have deep original roots in the workers philosophy of Mr. Marx, and I think it trickled up to the rest of the left from there...

[Elok]

Quick question: what the median age of viewership for the major networks?  I did a quick google before work and got answers for MSNBC, CNN, and Fox that all hovered around 70, but I didn't have time to dig for sources and some of that may be AI-generated slop.  I'm just one person and this may be a "nobody I know voted for Nixon" thing, but I think of CNN as that thing that gives my dad half his opinions and Fox as that thing that's always playing in old people's rooms when I go to give them albuterol.  Now, it's true that the elderly take their voting seriously, but I'd think the elderly would also be much more crystalized in their opinions than the young.

[Buster's Uncle]

"nobody I know voted for Nixon" is a new one by me.

1972 is the first year I have memories of that I knew the year - and I actually remember of myself in person that pretty much everyone voted for Nixon, not that anyone was bragging about it two years later.  The morning after the election, as I walked into home room at school, a girl was chanting

"Nixon, Nixon - He's our man!/McGovern's in - the garbage-can!"

[Buster's Uncle]

SOMEbody who knows what to google do answer Elok's question, but -

I wanna throw it out there that I tentatively like Mayor Pete for President next time.  That there underqualified 'mo got in the habit of going on FOX as Secretary of Transportation and giving as good as he got, or better.  I wish he had a round in the national legislature under his belt, and I DO NOT relish the prospect of the intensity of the hatred he WILL draw for his personal life/leanings, but I sense the Democratic Leadership, who -openly- never wanted cousin 'Mala to begin with, will never forgive her for failing last year and she's, for sure, in for a sandbagging like she's ten Bernie Sanders IF they don't talk -threaten- her into not showing up.

Don't blame me; I voted for Dr. Warren.

I wish we could do better than Pete Buttigieg, I wish there was time for him to qualify up a level first, but I just don't see a soul out there who looks to have any shot, or any 'prettier' to my cynical eye, and not too old.

[Buster's Uncle]

...In before a wiseacre says AOC because I said pretty.  Same qualification problem, only HE's at least qualified in the Executive Branch...

I think she could be a future contender, but this stupid country doesn't seem ready for a woman, and she's not ready for the Presidency yet.  I also have my eye on Jeff Jackson, if he keeps running the table, but that's also years/cycles from now.

[Metaliturtle]

I'm over here as a registered libertarian, it's fun getting the hate from both sides.  I'd vote for a main party candidate if I saw one I could actually believe in... until then it's 'I didn't vote for them' anytime someone complains about el presidente.

[Buster's Uncle]

I'm not sure the Pig isn't the Antichrist.

[Elok]

I'm over here as a registered libertarian, it's fun getting the hate from both sides.  I'd vote for a main party candidate if I saw one I could actually believe in... until then it's 'I didn't vote for them' anytime someone complains about el presidente.

Yeah I'm a registered libertarian and I'm just staring at the debt and wondering if I'll be a secure homeowner before the fatal inflection point hits.  I don't think they notice us enough to hate us anymore.

[Metaliturtle]

I'm not sure the Pig isn't the Antichrist.

Power-hungry narcissism, I see it ending either with him pardoning himself/buddies for all past crimes and leaving to a retirement of grifting, or him starting some kind of coup that splits the country.  I hate to say he has a weaker VP than Mike Pence now because I can see Vance not having the guts to advance the peaceful transition of power in '28. 

I don't see him as the antichrist though, the USA is too small for the antichrist.

[Lorizael]

I'm over here as a registered libertarian, it's fun getting the hate from both sides.  I'd vote for a main party candidate if I saw one I could actually believe in... until then it's 'I didn't vote for them' anytime someone complains about el presidente.

You probably pay taxes, though, so you're still morally unclean.

[Metaliturtle]

I'm over here as a registered libertarian, it's fun getting the hate from both sides.  I'd vote for a main party candidate if I saw one I could actually believe in... until then it's 'I didn't vote for them' anytime someone complains about el presidente.

Yeah I'm a registered libertarian and I'm just staring at the debt and wondering if I'll be a secure homeowner before the fatal inflection point hits.  I don't think they notice us enough to hate us anymore.

Post in my banking thread if you want.  We can talk about how to get you into a home.

[Metaliturtle]

I'm over here as a registered libertarian, it's fun getting the hate from both sides.  I'd vote for a main party candidate if I saw one I could actually believe in... until then it's 'I didn't vote for them' anytime someone complains about el presidente.

You probably pay taxes, though, so you're still morally unclean.

 

Taxation is theft, which is why I own a business, to reduce the tax liability as much as I can.  Eventually I'll be to a point where I'm living off borrowed money instead of earned income and will be effectively not paying taxes.

[Lorizael]

At which point you'll just be benefitting from the environment created by immoral taxation.