2016 elections - because it's never too early

[viper37]

I expect we're going to see a slew of articles like this.  Some writer has a pet axe to grind, and proclaims the reason for The Donald's success is Teh Establishment's failure to address this very valid concern.

yes, we were a lot better without Free Trade, there was no poverty, there was no one firing workers due to market changing conditions or arrival of new foreign competitors.

[Savonarola]

Looking at the Michigan electoral map Hil did well in the traditional Democrat bastions; Detroit (and its blue collar suburbs), Flint, Saginaw, Benton Harbor.  The only two that she lost were Washtenaw county (home of Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan) and the western half of the Upper Peninsula (one time mining area, now home to a lot of moose.)  The Bern won almost everywhere else; (perhaps significantly, the areas where the state's Democratic leadership doesn't come from.)

I'm a little surprised Trump did so well in Metro Detroit (winning everything except Washtenaw county.)  That's usually home to more moderate Republicans. 

[Admiral Yi]

Michigan has open primaries, right?  CNN was reporting anecdotally that a lot of people were crossing lines and voting tactically.

[Berkut]

Voting on a budget (or the modern counterpart, continuing resolutions) *is* the process in place.

Refusing to approve a budget because you cannot abide some part of it that has been legislated separately is an abortion of the process. It might work, but it is abusing the system.

It is clearly not tenable as a general tool for legislation, or nothing would ever get passed. It absolutely relies on the fact that only the fucking assholes are willing to actually be assholes, because if everyone did it for every issue they felt was important, the entire system could not possible work.

The system as it was designed assumed that the people involved would, by and large, operate in good faith. The fact that some people on your side have successfully screwed everyone by refusing to operate in good faith is not evidence that that is the process in place, or rather that it is the process as intended.

[Savonarola]

Michigan has open primaries, right?  CNN was reporting anecdotally that a lot of people were crossing lines and voting tactically.

Yes it does have open primaries.

[garbon]

Voting on a budget (or the modern counterpart, continuing resolutions) *is* the process in place.

Refusing to approve a budget because you cannot abide some part of it that has been legislated separately is an abortion of the process. It might work, but it is abusing the system.

It is clearly not tenable as a general tool for legislation, or nothing would ever get passed. It absolutely relies on the fact that only the fucking assholes are willing to actually be assholes, because if everyone did it for every issue they felt was important, the entire system could not possible work.

The system as it was designed assumed that the people involved would, by and large, operate in good faith. The fact that some people on your side have successfully screwed everyone by refusing to operate in good faith is not evidence that that is the process in place, or rather that it is the process as intended.

Yeah but we have a history of assholes. I was reading recently about how for quite a bit, the House never considered any petitions on abolition as the House passed a resolution that no such matters would be considered in the House and they would just be sat aside. John Quincy Adams managed to get one considered  through some tricky shenanigans.

[DGuller]

Yeah but we have a history of assholes. I was reading recently about how for quite a bit, the House never considered any petitions on abolition as the House passed a resolution that no such matters would be considered in the House and they would just be sat aside. John Quincy Adams managed to get one considered  through some tricky shenanigans.

Well, it all got worked out in the end.

[alfred russel]

I recently wrote an op ed in the NYT on why Trump won't be the nominee.

http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/03/08/how-trump-loses-revisited/?module=BlogPost-Title&version=Blog%20Main&contentCollection=Opinion&action=Click&pgtype=Blogs&region=Body&_r=0&mtrref=undefined&assetT

[The Minsky Moment]

Yeah but we have a history of assholes. I was reading recently about how for quite a bit, the House never considered any petitions on abolition as the House passed a resolution that no such matters would be considered in the House and they would just be sat aside. John Quincy Adams managed to get one considered  through some tricky shenanigans.

The gag rule.  Usually recalled as one of the more disgraceful episode in US history; i.e. hardly a model to be emulated or respected.

[jimmy olsen]

I think this is a large part of the Donald's appeal

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/07/donald-trump-why-americans-support

Except - everything that Donald has actually done with this life is part of the problem that Guardian claims to be identifying.  Knocking down old line department stores to build luxury condos.  Bulldozing old working class neighborhoods to build highly leveraged casinos that go bust.  Even his reality show is the ultimate expression of the winner-take-all ethos: dozens compete for a single job opening, where "success" entails deferential toadying to the big boss.

I can get why working class people would go to Bernie over Hillary.  But Trump?  At risk of being the arrogant ivory tower elitist, that is just false consciousness.  Yuge, yuge, false consciousness.

That just means he really knows what he's talking about.

[jimmy olsen]

Supporting any other Republican candidate is at least as much if not more false consciousness for working class Americans as Trump. What's the alternative? Harvard graduate Cruz? Rich Wall-Street-Jew-bought Rubio? Union busting Kasich?

At least Trump is authentic and could play a "I was one of them so I know how to bust them" card.

What the ...?

[Razgovory]

Okay, I'm going to stop you here, because last week you were singing a different tune.

If Clinton ends up getting elected, which seems likely either way, then both parties need to start figuring out how to really begin to redress the systemic problems. Hell, maybe the specter of Trump is just what is needed to wake the "establishment" up and get them to actually start representing their constituents instead of their donors.

Look, you can't have it both ways.  You can either want politicians to do what their constituents want, or you don't.

Representing constituents isn't the same as blindly following whatever tactics constituents might applaud.  That is a key aspect of representative democracy.  The representative advocates for and pursues constituent interests and views, but using his or her own judgment as to effectiveness in a context of a political regime that requires cooperation and compromise to get things done.

Yes, and when a politician takes the nuanced view we hear screams of that he has "sold out".  Voters elected Cruz and people like him explicitly so they would engage in such nonsense.

[11B4V]

http://www.redstate.com/streiff/2016/03/09/video-breaking.-fox-news-reports-marco-rubio-drop/

[Habbaku]

[Habbaku]

He'll probably officially drop late tomorrow or Friday, I think.  Give all those campaign workers the weekend off.