Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues Campaign 2020 Democrating Efforts

Why do you assume that is an insult? I am just stating the facts, and as proof all one has to do is look at a voting map. The population centers are blue, the rest of the state is usually red. The reasons are obvious, cities need more infrastructure and the ability to get it from the government means that handouts are available. Only a fool doesn't take advantage of the largess of free money. The fact that I do not advocate for it doesn't mean that I do not understand why it happens.

Tim

I just read that Trump’s idea of tightening up on disability fraud is projected to save a massive $2.6 billion over ten years, and will only cost $1.8 billion to administer.

There’s lots of meat on that bone to gnaw, but first I’d like to get a handle on what the centrist and conservative positions on it would be?

Let's look at your leading candidates:
Every one of the leading Dem candidates what large increases in Medicare. I must admit that if Lizzy were to actually get elected, in a headdress and feathers, and implement Medicare for all, I would retire the next day, but it doesn't mean that it would be the right thing to do. It just means that I am Republican enough to take advantage of every government program available.

Your leading candidates, except for maybe Biden, all want large increases in Social Security. I am not sure where Joe stands on that, because he really isn't sure. Once he gets a whiff of which way the wind is blowing, he will form his opinion in sand.

Look, the first thing that JFK did upon getting elected POTUS, was to cut taxes. There used to be blue dog Dems who actually held fiscally conservative views. Not NO politician, Republican or Dem, are fiscally conservative. The only difference is that Reps with throw the voting public a tax cut bone every now and then. The Dems just take all the money they can beg, borrow or steal and spend it on any special interest of the hour. The system is F@c$ed right now and nobody in either party wants to fix it. But there are no moderate Dems, never mind conservative Dems, in the House, just lemmings willing to follow Nancy down the path to oblivion because she is the best politician. The Republicans aren't much better, but hell, at least we have Rand Paul.

Tim

WOW! I never would have recognized that fact on my own.

Maybe that’s why I need you to explain about centrists and conservatives.

It’s my understanding that they want even larger decreases in insurance premiums. As a dyed in the wool pragmatist, I like that math.

Playing to one's base during the primaries is a given. But in the general one needs to move toward the middle. History shows that on average those who identify themselves as Republicans and Democrats vote for their party's candidate 90% of the time regardless of who that candidate is.

There are times during a general election where candidates care too much about their base and fail to attract the independent voter ALA Hillary Clinton. But she had a tough job of uniting her party, retrieving, placating angry Sanders voters.

After the gaining the nomination I would say in order.
1 uniting your base
2 making sure you have or gain the full support of independents which lean toward you party. History shows on average independent leans vote for the party they lean toward roughly 75% of the time.
3 Try to attract the pure or true independent voter which have no leans. These pure/true independents swing wildly from one party to the next. One never knows which way they'll go. A true wildcard in any election. Their reason for voting for who they do also varies wildly from election to election. This last group usually makes up 6-10% in any election.

The electorate is made up of the following, taking Gallup's margin of error of plus or minus 3 points into consideration.

Those who affiliate or identify with the two major parties 55-60% of the total electorate. Independents who lean toward one party or the other 30-35% and pure or true independents 6-10%. These numbers are dynamic and change constantly, but usually from month to month remain within the perimeters above.

I hadn't heard that one. How to they plan to pay for it, by removing the taxable income caps on rich people?

I agree, it would be very unfair to take more money from rich people for the unnecessary purpose of preventing the elderly from living in poverty. The rich people really need that money for their own comfort and security.

You seem to exist solely as a collection of right wing talking points concerning the left wing.

This would normally be the time to bring up the fact that red states tend to operate in the red at the expense of blue states, but these are not normal times, so I'm not going to do that.

Where did Ma_R go? We were just getting some interesting topics on the table to discuss.