Gender shouldn't outweigh all other considerations, but it has for the entire history of the US presidency. We have always been selecting our president from a much smaller pool than we should have been.
So all other factors aside, it really is frustrating that we haven't cleared that hurdle, even if that old white man is the best choice.
Right, it's like in an ideal blank-slate world, maybe gender should just be background noise, as remarkable as favorite food or music preference. But that's not the world we live in. You don't undo all of our history of discrimination just by saying "our bad, we'll stop noticing it if you do too." That's why the whole colorblind racism thing is a problem too.
I am torn about Bernie Sanders. As a socialist I am delighted at the thought he could get the nomination and I'm encouraged by what happened with Corbyn. As a feminist, I just shake my head and sigh at the thought that our best chance for a woman president might lose to an old, White man.
I share your, what to call it, discomfort, frustration, unease? The worst is I don't really see another viable stand in for Hillary over the next few elections. I don't really see a viable stand in for Sanders, either. Surely there must be some, though.
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Chained out, like a sitting duck just waiting for the fall _Cage the Elephant
Buuuut that said, I don't doubt that under all that, I sympathize more with Bernie's positions on economics and foreign policy.
Given that the median Democrat in Congress will be to both Bernie and Hillary's right and the median Congressman will be well to their right (and the House will almost certainly remain under GOP control), I don't see the stakes in picking between them based on ideology as very high on any issues except foreign policy.
I think the far more important criteria for picking between them are #1 electability and #2 administrative competence. On the former I give advantage to Hillary - Bernie's favorable poll numbers in general election matchups don't mean much at this point, and likely reflect that he's not being attacked in the way Hillary is (something which would change drastically should he win the Democratic nomination). I view his liabilities as larger than hers. On the latter, I'm not as sure but I'm leaning towards Hillary on this as well.
I'd give a little weight to electing the first woman being a bit more important than electing the first Jewish president.
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Originally Posted by SR71
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Originally Posted by Janet
I love me some Laurie Penny.
I am torn about Bernie Sanders. As a socialist I am delighted at the thought he could get the nomination and I'm encouraged by what happened with Corbyn. As a feminist, I just shake my head and sigh at the thought that our best chance for a woman president might lose to an old, White man.
I share your, what to call it, discomfort, frustration, unease? The worst is I don't really see another viable stand in for Hillary over the next few elections. I don't really see a viable stand in for Sanders, either. Surely there must be some, though.
Elizabeth Warren would've been the best of both worlds in many ways (although to be honest, I don't really have a feel for how I would judge her on all issues, e.g. foreign policy).
This year may have been her best chance to go for it, assuming she's even interested in the job. She's only a couple years younger than Hillary, so if we have to nominate someone new in 2020 she'll be pushing the age limits too.
Let me be clear. There's no way I'm voting for Hillary no matter what. I will vote for Sanders in the primary. If she's nominated, I will vote third party. I decided long ago that I would not vote for anyone who voted yes on the PATRIOT ACT and I stand by that. Hell, I'm even more sure of it now with all the mass spying it's lead to.
So, no, it isn't all about gender for me. That said, if she is elected I may feel guilty that I didn't vote for our first woman president. I feel a bit bad, in the historical sense, that I didn't vote for Obama, even though I disagreed with his proposed policies and didn't want him as my president. But after I held my nose and voted for Gore only to be stuck with 4 years of W, I promised myself that the next time I spent 4 years with a president I didn't want, I would spend it safe in the knowledge that I voted my conscience.
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"freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order."
- Justice Robert Jackson, West Virginia State Board of Ed. v. Barnette
I don't view voting as an endorsement in any sense except picking between the candidates with a chance to win. When I vote for someone, it would only pang my conscience if I thought the person I voted for ended up worse than the realistic alternatives. For all Obama's faults, I have no regrets about voting for him over John McCain and Mitt Romney. I have seen nothing since those elections to indicate that they would have been better presidents than Obama. And realistically, as far as US presidents go (almost all of whom have some truly shitty stains on their legacies), I think he's been pretty good.
The knowledge that I voted my conscience doesn't benefit anyone but me, but preventing a Rubio, Cruz or Trump presidency does.
The fact that it didn't work out when I voted for Kerry and we still had Bush doesn't make me think I should've voted for Nader or something. For me, that conclusion simply doesn't follow. It's as if I bought a Betamax player because I thought it would win the format war, got upset that VHS won, and then decided I would've been better off buying a Video 2000 player.
I will vote for Sanders in the primary. If [Clinton]'s nominated, I will vote third party.
I agree with Janet, for she is wise. Sanders will get my vote at the caucus on 3/1. When the party nominates Clinton in July -- and it will -- I will vote for the craziest left wing moonbat on the ballot in the general election come November. It's relatively easy for a presidential candidate to get on the ballot in this state, so voters generally have plenty of far left and far right nutjobs to chose from.
You'd think lesser-of-evils pragmatism would get easier with age. Hasn't worked that way with me at all.
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"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis D. Brandeis
"Psychos do not explode when sunlight hits them, I don't give a fuck how crazy they are." ~ S. Gecko
I did buy a Video 2000 ! It was technically the best of the three at the time. It was great for recording and playing TV, but, as it turned out, useless for buying or renting pre-recorded stuff.
My vote for President in the general election won't mean diddly squat anyway. Oklahoma is already polling a majority for Trump. So, I'm voting for Bernie Sanders in the Primary election on Super Tuesday (March 1st). And, if Hillary Clinton beats Bernie for the nomination, I'm either abstaining voting for President* or voting third party in the General Election.
*It is entirely possible there will be no third party candidate on Oklahoma's ballot and there is no provision for write-ins.
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Sleep - the most beautiful experience in life - except drink.--W.C. Fields
Well, to be honest, none of our votes will particularly matter.
But to the extent that that's true, it also makes "voting your conscience" meaningless as well.
I'm more concerned with promoting the pragmatist view in hopes that a larger group of people will be influenced to vote the way I think they should rather than because I think my personal vote will matter (being in DC, it's in the bag for the Democrats, so yeah, it definitely won't matter). But even this is pretty pointless. Oh well.
Thanks, from:
Ari (01-20-2016), Crumb (01-19-2016), Janet (01-19-2016), SR71 (01-31-2016), The Man (01-19-2016)
As I said, the PATRIOT ACT is my single issue. Frankly, I find it hard to believe that McCain or Romney could have been much worse in their overuse of that to spy on everyone than Obama has. So not getting one of them in would not have helped my conscience at all in the past eight years.
Maybe a clear conscience only benefits me, I don't know. I have a lot of scathingly brilliant but evil ideas, so I tend to believe that not cracking the door to my conscience benefits everyone. That's probably why I relate to Batman, because I know just how bad I could be without iron willpower and an overactive conscience.
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"freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order."
- Justice Robert Jackson, West Virginia State Board of Ed. v. Barnette
I mean, if that's your only issue, then I guess...
Except that I'm pretty sure if major portions of the PATRIOT Act are going to be struck down by the SCOTUS, it won't be by the conservative wing. There's at least a chance of it with Democratic appointees. But maybe I'm wrong there.
Actually, the Think Progress headline buries the lede a bit, because he wasn't just abusing children, but abusing special needs children because of their mental disorders.
And what a surprise that Babeu is running for Congress as a Republican.
This could have gone in Fuck the Police, but I figured it would be better in the News, Politics, and Law forum since Babeu wants to inflict himself on the residents of Arizona's 1st Congressional District.
Welcome to Sup Bro 50! Where the NFL just rented downtown SF along Market, our financial and tourist district (the area is walled off, with airport security like screening to get in) for the amazing price of -$5 million. As in the city is paying over $5m for the honor of becoming the playground of the rich. Not only that but public transit has been trying to hide expenses and now it turns out the Sup Bro was a wink and nod deal and there's no publicly viewable contract.
Wouldn't they be small asteroids? Because it's Luxembourg.
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Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.
“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” -Adam Smith
A former Minister of Health was murdered here in 2014. It turns out now she was murdered by a Christian terrorist over the liberal euthanisia laws that she introduced. The murderer claimed he got a 'divine command' to murder her. Of course nobody calls him a Christian terrorist. Bart van U. vermoordde Els Borst 'om euthanasiebeleid'
Re: News Miscellany
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