The 2020 Presidential General Election thread

I think it was Jim Clyburn who is the real hero of the story. He timed his endorsement of Biden perfectly. Endorsements usually don't make all that much difference beyond looking good on a campaign flyer, but that's one that counted, when it mattered.

Save for the fact that if you don't see a lot of ads from the guy, you might not think that he's got much of a chance of winning in November. I don't know what the breakdown of people who vote for someone in the primaries, regardless of how they might due in the general, versus people who think about how the primary candidates will do in the general. And, a whole lotta people were gambling with their lives when they went to the polls.

Meant to get back to this but forgot until the AOC convo reminded me of it.

Another example of AOC and Justice Dems being able to learn.

When they first came on the scene they attacked moderate Dems in safe districts that had been in the House for a long time.

Now in a lot of states the House is the highest level of elected office attainable for a black Dem. Jim Clyburn, Joyce Beatty or Terri Sewell will never be governors, senators, attorneys general, etc. And thanks to Republican gerrymandering many are in ‘stacked’ districts meaning they are in some of the safest Dem seats in the nation. And black Dems in general but especially older black Dems tend to be more moderate than younger white Dems.

This meant that even operating from a purely objective position (safe D seat, moderate incumbent, long time in office) the Justice Dems ended up disproportionately targeting black Dems*.

Now they also wanted to shake up the power structure inside the House. They wanted more younger, progressive members to get better committee assignments and leadership positions. As opposed to the current structure that is heavily weighted to seniority.

Due to the the factors mentioned above black Dems are disproportionately senior in the House.

So it was a double attack (primary and leadership) on the CBC.

Things could have gone off the rails. Instead the CBC and CPC/Justice Dems sat down and hashed out their differences with compromises both on the primary front and leadership.

Instead of a fissure in the party we instead got the most Progressive agenda in six decades passed with a fingernail’s sliver of a majority.


*some might say there is a… systemic issue at play here…

The Dems really don't HAVE evil plots anymore, where they fail (as the often do) it's one of two things:

1. Insisting on tradition and decorum and bullshit like the blue slip process while their opponents think rules are for pussies.
2. Good old fashioned graft and corruption. The predator class doesn't have to buy MOST Dems (on the Federal level) because they own virtually all Republicans - so they buy just enough to reliably fuck up any truly progressive policy. This goes all the way to the top of Congressional leadership, and when we finally got the old guard to step aside you have a next wave that's not entirely understanding what the Old Guard got wrong (Jefferies has a few problematic stands)