The U.S. Presidential Primaries: The Final Stretch

[Prolescum]

Now that we're down to the last six-and-a-bit months of the U.S. presidential election cycle, how do you feel about the policies proposed by the final five candidates?

How do you think each would deal with the issues most likely to be theirs to solve?

Who is most likely to win, and is that who you're hoping for?

It goes without saying that this thread isn't just for American users...



Hillary Clinton: I hear she's essentially considered a continuity candidate, as in, she'll continue being at loggerheads with the rabid Tea Partiers making almost no progress economically or socially, barely able to maintain her anger through gritted teeth. So I hear. Not entirely sure what her main ticket policies are yet.

Bernie Sanders: Effectively attempting to gain a mandate to rework the political and economic system of the U.S., scaring all the slave owners bankers, CEOs, and their parliamentarian brethren. I like this chap.

Ted Cruz: What can I say...? Debater for Christ, seemingly indefatigable arse, and possible Zodiac killer, I can't imagine why anyone would let him in the same room as them, let alone vote for this guy. As I understand it, his policies revolve around abstinence, dismissing Roe vs. Wade, and some sort of unworkable tithe tax.

John Kasich: Looks like an animated dinosaur. No other information is available about this bloke so don't have a view on him.

Donald Trump: I cannot discern any policies from anything I've heard him say, except it is apparent he's such a fuckwit that he thinks he can win a presidential election with a single (and by many accounts small) demographic. I can't see the Republican establishment, nor their wider base, supporting him if he wins the candidacy.


I think if any of the Republican candidates wins, we can all rest assured that the agreement between America and Iran will be obstructed, if not torn up.
I also expect all three to bolster the fear and hatred of the boogeyman (of their own making, mostly by outsourcing) China and their theft of American jobs.
I think if Hillary wins, the world will sigh in relief, half because they're scared rigid of the very idea of a socialist U.S. president, the other half by a backward moron with the codes to Gotterdamerung.
As depressing as it is, I don't think America is ready to let go of their neo-liberal romantic view of themselves just yet.

 

[he_who_is_nobody]

I am voting third party; either Green or Libertarian. I am also going to convince as many people as I can to vote third party. The only person that might change that is Bernie. However, if Hillary wins the nomination, it will be easy to convince people to not vote for a Republican or Democrat.

As I see it, things will change very little no matter who wins out of the two big parties. There will be only lip service paid to education, the environment, and economy. We will continue to keep our fingers in the middle east (because of the oil). The government will still prosecute people that expose their corruption and law breaking, even though they should get whistle blower status. The banks will remain to big to fail, thus in the next economic downturn, nothing will happen to the people that caused it.

I would prefer a Democrat over a Republican, because the one thing that would make a difference is the people they choose to put on the bench of the Supreme Court; meaning the laws should slowly bend to a more just society. Besides that, the two parties are mostly the same.

 

[thenexttodie]

I would prefer a Democrat over a Republican, because the one thing that would make a difference is the people they choose to put on the bench of the Supreme Court; meaning the laws should slowly bend to a more just society. Besides that, the two parties are mostly the same.

I agree that the parties are mostly the same. Why do you believe that the Democrats will lead us to a more just society?

 

[Prolescum]

Perhaps because the GOP is more or less a group of wannabe despots, fundamentalists, and/or corporate whores? I wouldn't trust any I'm familiar with to look after their own children... Given that they're mostly (if not all) Christians, the amount they don't give a flying fuck about their fellow citizens amazes and depresses me.

The Dems have agreed that wages are too low and the minimum wage should rise. That alone makes his statement likely to be true.

 

[Collecemall]

I find all of them but Bernie to be sickeningly fake. While I don't care for Hillary she has the benefit of not being a religious nut job. While I think Trump is just playing a game he's plain scary. But again at least he's not a religious nut job. So he can at least be reasoned with to some degree I think. My hope is the primary ends and the republicans fight it out and decide to nominate someone else at the convention. Which leads to Trump running independent. Which wrecks the election for the republicans. I wish Bernie had a prayer of winning as he actually has some integrity and has been on the right side of almost every issue for the past 30 years. It's really sad that the best candidate we have can't win because people label him a "socialist" and drown in their ignorance. I'll be glad when it's over and I can forget about for another 4 years. I think this election is a clear sign of how much trouble the republican party is in. They are in for a long 2-3 decades if they don't come out of the hate filled, fear spewing, authoritarian fuge they seem to be wallowing in.

 

[Visaki]

I find all of them but Bernie to be sickeningly fake. While I don't care for Hillary she has the benefit of not being a religious nut job. While I think Trump is just playing a game he's plain scary. But again at least he's not a religious nut job. So he can at least be reasoned with to some degree I think. My hope is the primary ends and the republicans fight it out and decide to nominate someone else at the convention. Which leads to Trump running independent. Which wrecks the election for the republicans. I wish Bernie had a prayer of winning as he actually has some integrity and has been on the right side of almost every issue for the past 30 years. It's really sad that the best candidate we have can't win because people label him a "socialist" and drown in their ignorance. I'll be glad when it's over and I can forget about for another 4 years. I think this election is a clear sign of how much trouble the republican party is in. They are in for a long 2-3 decades if they don't come out of the hate filled, fear spewing, authoritarian fuge they seem to be wallowing in.

Lets think optimistically; Drumpf doesn't get the needed 51% of the republican electorate, the GOP railroads someone else for their candidacy and Drumpf runs as an independent. Would Sanders then also run as an indepedent as that wouldn't surely doom the democrats in that scenario? Or would he stay out of it and be maybe rewarded with a vice-precidancy if he has the balls to do some little innocent political backroom blackmail?

Although Clinton isn't as favorite against Drumpf as Sanders would be I don't think Drumpf can beat her. Then again a Drumpf precidency would be much more interesting as Clinton would, methinks, be the boring corporate president. Not to mention a Drumpf presidency could pretty much doom the republican party and pave way to a Sanders 2.0 candidate (E. Warren perhaps who would be both truly progressive and a woman) in 2020.

I'd just hope the US would sort out their outdated election system for something more simple and... democratic.

 

[WarK]

To me Sanders is the best option. If not him my second choice would be Trump. He's an idiot and as I don't have to live in the US I think it'd be funny to watch . Clinton is just hollow. She'll be corporations' puppet... but still better than the Christian nutjob.

 

[he_who_is_nobody]

I'll be glad when it's over and I can forget about for another 4 years.

Elections are every two years.

I'd just hope the US would sort out their outdated election system for something more simple and... democratic.

If you are talking about the actual Electoral College, you are right. However, these primaries have nothing to do with U.S. democracy. For whatever reason, the media only seems to recognize two clubs for that office. As independent clubs, they are free to makeup whatever rules they want to put someone up for the Oval Office. However, the primaries has nothing to do with the actual election system.

 

[Visaki]

If you are talking about the actual Electoral College, you are right. However, these primaries have nothing to do with U.S. democracy. For whatever reason, the media only seems to recognize two clubs for that office. As independent clubs, they are free to makeup whatever rules they want to put someone up for the Oval Office. However, the primaries has nothing to do with the actual election system.

Yes I mainly was talking about the actual elections. The fact that you can get most citizen votes and still loose the election is down right undemocratic , but then again I am reminded from time to time that the US isn't a democracy but a republic.

But on the other hand the system for getting a party candidate should either be that the party power that be choose a candidate, or the party membership voted for it. The currant mix-and-mash system of farsical pseudo-democrasy is absurd and I personally think that it's down right insulting to the members of each party, and that's before all the other stupidity going on.

 

[he_who_is_nobody]

But on the other hand the system for getting a party candidate should either be that the party power that be choose a candidate, or the party membership voted for it. The currant mix-and-mash system of farsical pseudo-democrasy is absurd and I personally think that it's down right insulting to the members of each party, and that's before all the other stupidity going on.

I honestly love this election year because it has exposed the primary system. Most of the time, the first few states that vote decides the candidate (a problem as well). Most of the time I am left trying to explain this process to people that are not that interested in the first place. However, them seeing it live is giving a lot of people a reason to leave the two parties behind. Hopefully that will translate into huge numbers for third parties in this election.