The Democratic primaries are gonna be such a sh*tshow

[Blair]

I reckon it will be like 2004; They'll be a progressive who everyone loves who then collapses, some sort of novelty outsider candidate like Wesley Clark, people trying to pad their resume for 2024 and then some John Kerry type (Chris Murphy, Kamala Harris, etc) will win both Iowa and New Hampshire and the race will be over. The biggest similarity is that much like '04 there won't be a many people running who've been serious candidates before

The only thing that would stop this would be Warren running, and consolidating the field. If not we're going to be seeing 9-10 people who've never ran national races, never had to compete etc

 

[Blair]

I reckon it will be like 2004; They'll be a progressive who everyone loves who then collapses, some sort of novelty outsider candidate like Wesley Clark, people trying to pad their resume for 2024 and then some John Kerry type (Chris Murphy, Kamala Harris, etc) will win both Iowa and New Hampshire and the race will be over. The biggest similarity is that much like '04 there won't be a many people running who've been serious candidates before

The only thing that would stop this would be Warren running, and consolidating the field. If not we're going to be seeing 9-10 people who've never ran national races, never had to compete etc

 

It will be like 2004 in one regard, some fairly economically conservative Democratic like Dean will be regarded as the "progressive" candidate.

I mean sure Kunich and other no-hopers were more progressive; but it's hardly controversial to suggest that Dean was from the Progressive wing of the party

Also, you guys are overestimating how many Progressives are willing to defect for a third party; 2016 proved that number is rather low. The bigger worry for Democrats should be turnout. Low turnout has always been associated with poorer Democratic performance. Based on how things are shaping up so far, I don't expect to vote in the 2020 GE.

Ah, must be nice to be a white straight man who isn't affected by the sh**t storm that is trump.  Must be nice to be so selfish and sad that you can't get everything you want so you just sit out.  Must be real nice to sit on your ass rather than do the bare minimum.

Goes for all those who rather see Trump elected than vote dem come 2018 and 2020. 

Nice try, Hillary Clinton. I voted for the worthless Democrats in 2016 against my best judgments, so why should I do it again? What have they done for me and people like me? What have they done for America? Nothing. And considering my family is dependent upon the welfare system and lacks health coverage, I'm pretty sure the "you're so privileged" argument should be used on someone else.

Healthcare took up the majority of their agenda in 2009 and 2010, but there are also numerous areas where Obama and the Congress were able to help improve people's lives:

--American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which expanded the Earned Income Tax Credit, college credit, child tax credit, dedicated billions more to Medicaid and education, increases to Pell grants, billions more for low income public school students, added money for childcare services, gave billions to food stamps, more money for TANF ($3 billion), millions more for free school lunches, and billions in infrastructure investment. This list is by no means exhaustive.
--HEARTH Act, which dedicated more funding to the HUD
--Unemployment Compensation Extension Act, which extended unemployment benefits by 13 weeks
--Healthy and Hungry Kids Act, giving billions for free lunches and child nutrition programs.

These are just off the top of my head. If you want more examples, let me know.

As noted above, I said that Obama and Democrats did some good, but that it amounted to peanuts, especially compared to what was possible. All the progress they made was mediocre at best. And there were often rollbacks of progress, such as expansion of the drone war, surveillance of allies, destruction of Libya, expanding mass deportations, presiding over the growth of income inequality to record levels, failure to punish those responsible for crashing the economy, allowing bailed out banks to continue foreclosing on Americans, pushing through a stimulus package that was over $1 trillion less than was needed, austerity policies like focusing on the deficit, maintaining a high military budget, protecting the Patriot Act, bringing in Wall Street and other elites into the Obama Administration, not trying to create a national works program, break up the large banks, truly end too big to fail, expanding corporate oriented free trade agreements, and I could go on.

Libya was going to be destructed the moment people tried to rebel against Gaddafi; I'd much rather the US/NATO/Arab League intervened and stopped Tripoli turning into something out of Bosnia

[Blair]

People forget the dirty tricks the corporate Democrats donors pull against those who dont heed the party establishment:



If Warren or Sanders run...the establishment Dems will do them in

I really don't think there's a link between 'being in the establishment' and being willing to play dirty; it's worth noting that Sanders towards the end of the race was actually much more willing to play dirty (she's not qualified remark in New York) and that his own band of supporters threw a lot of untrue crap against Hillary. Like most things in factional party struggles it's awful/unfair when you're opponent does it, but fine if you do.

I don't think that Warren or even Sanders would face some sort of 'establishment' plot; at best it would be a group of people doing oppo work and then funding it