Quote (Black XistenZ @ Jan 16 2020 07:56pm)

Hmm, well, he is playing up his racially progressive stances more this campaign (when compared to 2016). He's also noticably going out of his way to say "Trump is a racist" as often as possible. I guess he learned from the problems of his 2016 campaign.
And the AOC endorsement has probably been a game changer for his appeal to young, progressive poc.

But my point still stands that Biden continues to do a whole lot better than Bernie with nonwhites.

Quote (Skinned @ 17 Jan 2020 19:40)

AOC is a beast. She is taking on the Democratic establishment head in. A lot of people have AOC derangement syndrome but she is standing up for her beliefs more than many of our leaders are.
Case in point: she is a fundraising machine and there is a sizable minority on the Left that seek to at least challenge the every day Washington consensus...she is directing all of her donors to stop donating to the DNC and she didn't pay her 250k dues to the DNC because they will not associate with progressive organizations who do not endorse incumbent Democrats as their policy. This type of insurgency benefits all Americans because if we can't have term limits we can at least have some real democracy. Because of this I support AOC. To make the importance of this sink in, she is the #1 Dem fundraiser right now and she is flexing it. To be honest I don't like all of her policies and think she really needs to think some things out but she has conviction and is sincere. It is amazing someone that sincere makes it to Congress whenever it happens. Look at Amash.

Quote (Skinned @ 18 Jan 2020 01:40)

AOC is a beast. She is taking on the Democratic establishment head in. A lot of people have AOC derangement syndrome but she is standing up for her beliefs more than many of our leaders are.
Case in point: she is a fundraising machine and there is a sizable minority on the Left that seek to at least challenge the every day Washington consensus...she is directing all of her donors to stop donating to the DNC and she didn't pay her 250k dues to the DNC because they will not associate with progressive organizations who do not endorse incumbent Democrats as their policy. This type of insurgency benefits all Americans because if we can't have term limits we can at least have some real democracy. Because of this I support AOC. To make the importance of this sink in, she is the #1 Dem fundraiser right now and she is flexing it. To be honest I don't like all of her policies and think she really needs to think some things out but she has conviction and is sincere. It is amazing someone that sincere makes it to Congress whenever it happens. Look at Justin Amash...he is a real dude and I respect him quite a lot...but the forces are aligning against him.

Him and AOC are a rare breed in politics and I'm grateful for them.

Quote (Black XistenZ @ 17 Jan 2020 20:00)

When time came to lay her hands on the table during the Democratic leadership vote, AOC showed her true colors: she voted for Pelosi, while other members of the squad and several other young, insurgent Democrats voted against her.
What this episode tells me about AOC is that she's more savvy than she lets on, and is in for the long game. She definitely has higher political ambitions than just staying a firebrand congresswoman.

So I'm not sure about the 'sincere' part. At some point, AOC will have to choose between her beliefs and what's good for her political career. Thanks to her specific brand, she has to face this conflict less often than your typical career politician, because bucking the DNC consensus is her brand and therefore good for her career (to a certain extent) - but eventually, she also wont be able to escape this dliemma. Hence, you should really tone down your expectations about her sincerity and conviction. You're setting yourself up for big disappointment by putting her on such a high pedestal.

Also, we dont know yet how good she would be at actual governing/legislating. She's amazing at building a brand, at building a political career for herself. Her name recognition, online presence and knack for going viral is also the reason why she's the #1 fundraiser. But as I said, both the freshness and the purity/innocence will wear off. Perhaps she'll be Speaker or Vice President one day; perhaps she will fade away and be remembered as nothing but a temporary self-markteting sensation. We'll see. :)

Quote (Black XistenZ @ 17 Jan 2020 22:00)

When time came to lay her hands on the table during the Democratic leadership vote, AOC showed her true colors: she voted for Pelosi, while other members of the squad and several other young, insurgent Democrats voted against her.
What this episode tells me about AOC is that she's more savvy than she lets on, and is in for the long game. She definitely has higher political ambitions than just staying a firebrand congresswoman.

So I'm not sure about the 'sincere' part. At some point, AOC will have to choose between her beliefs and what's good for her political career. Thanks to her specific brand, she has to face this conflict less often than your typical career politician, because bucking the DNC consensus is her brand and therefore good for her career (to a certain extent) - but eventually, she also wont be able to escape this dliemma. Hence, you should really tone down your expectations about her sincerity and conviction. You're setting yourself up for big disappointment by putting her on such a high pedestal.

Also, we dont know yet how good she would be at actual governing/legislating. She's amazing at building a brand, at building a political career for herself. Her name recognition, online presence and knack for going viral is also the reason why she's the #1 fundraiser. But as I said, both the freshness and the purity/innocence will wear off. Perhaps she'll be Speaker or Vice President one day; perhaps she will fade away and be remembered as nothing but a temporary self-markteting sensation. We'll see. :)

Quote (excellence @ 18 Jan 2020 04:57)

because she is smart. the usual idiots on the right think she is dumb, but the pro-Trump side long ago figured out what she’s up to.

I actually quite like what she’s up to for what it’s worth. Not in line with her politics at all but her strategy is quite cerebral

Pelosi ever exits politics for whatever reason AOC gets to say “i always supported our leadership”

i dont necessarily go along with skinned’s take on her being principled but i def agree she knows what shes doing and she is dynamic enough to take some form of control sooner rather than later

Quote (Black XistenZ @ 17 Jan 2020 23:05)

Yup. She already wields a ton of influence imho. Without her endorsement at the most critical moment, Bernie imho would have faded away and gradually lost his supporters to Warren. Imagine if he becomes president - he'd be deeply indebted to AOC...


I have to admit though that I initially thought she was just some dumb bimbo who lucked into a fluke victory over a complacent incumbent but is totally out of her league in Washington. It took me longer than it should have to see how savvy and shrewd she actually is.

Quote (IceMage @ Jan 18 2020 06:15pm)

WaPo had an interesting story about the meeting where Trump called his generals dopes and babies because we haven't completely destroyed Afghanistan to win the war. That's where Tillerson called him a fucking moron afterwards. Then Trump had another meeting in the situation room where Tillerson spoke out against Trump's characterization that our soldiers should be paid like mercenaries for their presence in countries. Trump thinks South Korea should pay big bucks for our presence, and if they don't, we should leave that area.

But Warren made a mistake by taking a DNA test, so basically both sides are equally bad. Vote 3rd party everybody... any Democrat is the same as Trump.

Quote (Thor123422 @ Jan 18 2020 08:08pm)

Honestly one of the reasons I've stopped following politics closely since 2016 is because there's just no comparison in quality anymore. Republicans are a joke and have largely dropped even pretending to be honest. Democrats aren't perfect, but the difference in quality is so ridiculously apparent that there's hardly any room to actually discuss. We have a president looking to rent out our military and extorting foreign governments for political gain and his supporters can do nothing but grasp at any plausible deniability and play dumb.

I knew there was no going back when I saw Bogie shilling for Trump. At that point all honesty had pretty much disappeared.