Democrat candidates

[pondwater]

To me, the biggest thing we need to tackle is money in politics.  It is screwing up everything for every side.  It's affects both the right and the left.  All of our politicians, regardless of issues, have to depend on corporate money to get things done. 

I agree with you on that point. I think single biggest thing would be term limits. It would solve a lot of our problems. However, I don't think very many of the cows in congress will vote for their own slaughter. Funny how you can have term limits on the POTUS but none on the very people entrusted to pass the laws. It's a big con game and they're all in on it.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

I agree with you on that point. I think single biggest thing would be term limits. It would solve a lot of our problems. However, I don't think very many of the cows in congress will vote for their own slaughter. Funny how you can have term limits on the POTUS but none on the very people entrusted to pass the laws. It's a big con game and they're all in on it.

Term limits without getting rid of the money absolutely won’t fix the problem...in fact it will shift more power to well funded lobbyists. 

[Fau Teixeira]

Term limits without getting rid of the money absolutely won’t fix the problem...in fact it will shift more power to well funded lobbyists. 

term limits for the president also had to involve an amendment to the constitution, otherwise good luck

[Spider-Dan]

To me, the biggest thing we need to tackle is money in politics.  It is screwing up everything for every side.  It's affects both the right and the left.  All of our politicians, regardless of issues, have to depend on corporate money to get things done. 

That's preventing anything from changing.  I think Bernie is the best person to tackle that issue.

I think Bernie has a big blind spot when it comes to money in politics, which we're seeing at play this year.

Bernie is against corporate donations, under the premise that donations buy influence.  Fine.  But what we are seeing for the first time this cycle are billionaires that are accepting no donations at all and vastly outspending their competitors.  So in Bernie's world, where we don't have election reform preventing huge campaign spending but instead shame people into not accepting corporate donations, the only people who can run are a) billionaires or b) politicians who harvest enough donations from the working class to compete with billionaires.  I think that's even worse than the old system.

[Dave Gray]

I just think we should publicly finance campaigns and shorten the cycle.  Running for president for 2 years is crazy shit.

[Spider-Dan]

I agree that campaigns should be publicly financed.  But until we get there, I don't think we should handcuff ourselves in the meantime by refusing all corporate donations.  Money is the single biggest factor in determining the outcome of an election (not the ONLY factor, just the biggest one).

[Fau Teixeira]

I agree that campaigns should be publicly financed.  But until we get there, I don't think we should handcuff ourselves in the meantime by refusing all corporate donations.  Money is the single biggest factor in determining the outcome of an election (not the ONLY factor, just the biggest one).

i think publicly traded companies that are "entities" should be completely eliminated, a company is fine, private ownership is even better. But a company should have an owner or group of owners that are directly criminally and financially responsible for the company misdeeds. As it is now, CEOs bear no responsibility and shareholders even less so.

[CF DolFan]

I just think we should publicly finance campaigns and shorten the cycle.  Running for president for 2 years is crazy shit.

I couldn't agree more. I also don't how how to change it but it really, really, sucks to live in a state that is up for grabs because the tv ads for both sides are waaaayyyyy toooo much.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

I couldn't agree more. I also don't how how to change it but it really, really, sucks to live in a state that is up for grabs because the tv ads for both sides are waaaayyyyy toooo much.

It is even worse living in a state not contest and knowing your vote and opinions are irrelevant.  I have lived in both.

[CF DolFan]

I don't know how. We get hammered every commercial

[Dave Gray]

I don't know how. We get hammered every commercial

Since streaming, I just don't see commercials.  Really, the only way I ever see commercials is with live sports.

[CF DolFan]

I just saw a poll that said Bloomberg is leading the Dems in Florida. Is he someone that makes you excited to vote? Seems to me he is a far cry from Bernie Sanders.

[Fau Teixeira]

I just saw a poll that said Bloomberg is leading the Dems in Florida. Is he someone that makes you excited to vote? Seems to me he is a far cry from Bernie Sanders.

I saw that poll .. there's a few issues with the reliability of it tho. It's a machine recorded poll that only calls land-lines. Which tends to skew the poll towards those that are older and more conservative.  With that in mind, sure .. bloomberg is up in florida.

He doesn't excite anyone, He's the only one spending tons of ad money in the state since he's skipping all primaries until super tuesday, so it's not surprising that he's got name recognition.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

I just saw a poll that said Bloomberg is leading the Dems in Florida. Is he someone that makes you excited to vote? Seems to me he is a far cry from Bernie Sanders.

He doesn’t excite me.  But I think of all the candidates he has the best chance at attracting swing voters and moderate republicans.  And while I personally am more aligned politically with Sanders, I think a centrist might be what is best for the country rather than another swing on the pendulum.  And he is the only one who can outspend Trump in the general election.

[Fau Teixeira]

He doesn’t excite me.  But I think of all the candidates he has the best chance at attracting swing voters and moderate republicans.  And while I personally am more aligned politically with Sanders, I think a centrist might be what is best for the country rather than another swing on the pendulum.  And he is the only one who can outspend Trump in the general election.

Your analogy is correct, but your thinking is wrong.

Republicans swing to the right with regan/bush, dems swing back to the center with clinton, the republicans call the center the left and swing even further right to bush II, then the dems swing back to the center with Obama, Trump swings even further to the right of Bush II as a fake populist, then you wan't to swing back to the center again. The next time bloomberg would be called a communist, and we'd get a populist much further right than trump. Nominating a centrist is
a - a sure way to lose (see hillary),
b - a sure way to get someone even further to the right of trump next time when billionaire centrist policies don't make the poor white people any better off.

swing to the left for fucking once, we need FDR left right now, not a "democrat" that would be about as far right on the spectrum as Ronald Regan.