2020 Democratic presidential primary

no

True. That's why my vote is committed to Elizabeth Warren. She talks the talk, baby.

Hail Jupiter. Hail Rome.

oh god another "comedy" account

I haven’t figured out who they’re targeting. Hope they don’t think they’re getting Zion

I haven’t figured out who they’re targeting. Hope they don’t think they’re getting Zion

i haven't been following the gravel saga too closely. i didn't realize that teenagers really ARE running his campaign, sorta

https://i.imgur.com/AIYLPYo.jpg

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/06/magazine/mike-gravel-teens-twitter-presidential-campaign.html

tbh, #gravelistas would probably fit right in here at ilx

Broadly speaking, the Mike Gravel campaign is part of the same Democratic Socialist moment that elected Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in 2018 and nearly nominated Bernie Sanders in 2016. If Gravel seemed like a sideshow in 2008, then today — post-recession, post-Occupy, post-Trump — his campaign represents the most absurd form of a legitimate movement on the left that feels little obligation to the Democratic Party. Among this young, emergent class of leftists, change is enacted through local organizing efforts, and discourse tends to play out on Twitter, where news, and the organizations that produce it, are subject to daily systemic critique. The rise of leftist discourse on Twitter has helped to hone a new political humor that undergirds the @MikeGravel campaign. The target of this humor is not President Trump but rather what the far left sees as a defeatist and servile center-left that values compromise over belief and denigrates the social reforms beloved by the very same voters it seeks.

These values are ingrained in the center-left’s own humor, exemplified by late-night hosts’ trying to outreason Trump by fact-checking his tweets or calling him names like a lying orange Cheeto. If center-left humor says that Trump can be outwitted — despite what the overwhelming evidence suggests — then far-left humor is much more concerned with mocking the kind of political system that says you have to argue with someone like him at all. Williams describes this strain of humor as “a kind of postmodern ironic detachment, coupled with real earnestness.” Often this particular earnestness is vulgar, using bluntness as an antidote to self-regard. When I asked one #Gravelanche supporter what he thought of the candidate Kamala Harris, a former attorney general of California, he suggested that she “would be a good secret-police chief.” When I asked him what he thought of older voters, he said: “Older people are going to be dead in 10 years, so they just want their tax money and [expletive] to buy kangaroo-skin dildos.”

Elizabeth Warren Spends Evenings Tutoring Underperforming Candidates On Creating Comprehensive Policy https://t.co/dzPupnyQGy pic.twitter.com/RAAnAf02k3

— The Onion (@TheOnion) June 6, 2019

haven't been following the gravel saga too closely. i didn't realize that teenagers really ARE running his campaign, sorta

love the Gravel teens

that gravel teens NYT mag story i posted above is really, really good btw. honestly i just posted the image at the top because i thought it was funny, but it turns out to be a wonderful portrait of the teens (a mix between bill haverchuk on freaks and geeks, max fischer on rushmore, and kramer) wrapped around a critique of the center-left that they oppose and their own naiveté

would be really into a short-lived saturday morning cartoon called Gravel And The Gravel-Teens, btw

A drink called the Gravelteeni

Should be like the Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators books, where the teens check in with Gravel at the end of each political adventure

the actual Gravel is a crank with weird/bad associations sadly typical of aging leftists, but the Gravel teens rule

doesn't gravel think 9/11 was an inside job?

he definitely palled around w/ truthers at least

I took one of those "which candidate do you match up with best" online quizzes back in the day and got Gravel; I spent the rest of the day being sad

the Gravel campaign just seems cringey to me in exactly the same way it was cringey when Hillary tweeted "delete your account", but everyone who hated the latter seems to love the former?

Hillary tweeting "delete your account" was a center-right boomer cynically appropriating youth culture in service of neoliberal goals.

The Gravel tweets are leftist teens appropriating the image of a boomer politician in service of socialist goals.

Disliking the first and appreciating the second seems totally intellectually consistent to me.

The only thing those two phenomena have in common is twitter

worst venn ever

saw one spicy meatball tweet from gravel re biden and did wonder whether he was maybe a little unhinged... it makes sense now

wow

Beto O’Rourke in Knoxville, Iowa, being introduced by a local Dem who calls him “a blank slate waiting to be filled by our hopes and dreams.” pic.twitter.com/JvZkEwrk1R

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) June 7, 2019

local Dem is antifa

"but in a good way"

er, xp

Also to his credit, Gravel has this fucking amazing campaign video many moons ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rZdAB4V_j8

iowa caucus goers poll:

New CNN/DMR poll in Iowa:

Biden 24%
Sanders 16%
Warren 15%
Buttigieg 14%
Harris 7%
Klobuchar 2%
O’Rourke 2%
Bennet 1%
Booker 1%
Castro 1%
Delaney 1%
Gabbard 1%
Inslee 1%
Yang 1%
Bullock <1%
Gillibrand <1%
Moulton <1%
Ryan <1%
Swalwell <1%
Williamson <1%
de Blasio 0%
Messam 0%

— Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) June 9, 2019

also lol people haaaaaate bill de blasio

Net Favorables

Warren +54
Harris +51
Biden +50
Buttigieg +49
Sanders +46
Booker +37
O'Rourke +34
Klobuchar +27
Castro +20
Gillibrand +14
Inslee +12
Delaney +10
Swalwell, Bullock, Bennet, Hickenlooper +9
Yang +4
Gabbard, Ryan +2
Moulton +1
Messam -7
Williamson -8
De Blasio -25

— Kenton (@KentonTilford) June 9, 2019

I think it's time for most of the names on this list to drop out, but of course that won't happen

As long as de Blasio and warren stay in I’m fine with anyone else dropping out

not sure why ppl who don't live in NYC hate de Blasio

too ambitious, needs to be taken down a peg

somebody on my fb feed posted that they live in ohio and will vote third party if biden is the nominee, and i was like, yeah, we really have to take seriously the idea that someone like warren will boost turnout over a more traditional candidate, and then in the comments her friends were evenly split between "why is the MSM ignoring Tulsi" and "why is the MSM ignoring Marianne Williamson," so basically, I just wanted to notify you guys that I actually saw a Marianne Williamson primary supporter in nature

Hell yeah elizabeth warren

Should could win iowa if this is where she is now

this thing nearly over yet?

i think as more people are seeing warren on the stump she's gaining traction. still flummoxed by buttigieg's rise. who's his audience? if he flames out, where do his supporters flock to?

xp

also o'rourke needs to drop out now and start his senate race, i cant believe what a little dweeb he is

Texans are overwhelmingly in favor of him dropping

if he flames out, where do his supporters flock to?

they flock to the other studious valedictorian-type in the race, elizabeth warren

Moulton? Messam?

are 80s hockey players running for president? who are these ppl?

im inclined to believe that. the two buttigieg supporters i know are positive on warren.

i don't understand why de blasio is running. mayor of new york city should be a big enough job for anyone. it's not like he's solved all the issues here.

he could run in 2024 after his term's up if he really wanted to.

he shouldnt tho

definitely not. him an beto annoy me because there are other things for them to be doing.

Moulton might have been a really interesting JFK-like candidate in 4-8 years. Centrist rep from Mass, young decorated former Marine officer that might draw off a bunch of lean-Rs. Within party negatives for supporting (any) other leadership over Pelosi and the other septuagenarians, but that's not seeming like such a terrible idea ATM. Like Beto, should seek the Senate first, and like Beto, too centrist for this moment of the pendulum swing.

for the love of god can we bury this fantasy of centrist dems appealing to republicans WE HAVE A BIMODAL DISTRIBUTION IN US POLITICS NO ONE IS A CENTRIST EXCEPT FOR THE BELTWAY AND SILICON VALLEY AKA THE WORLD'S WORST PEOPLE

im inclined to believe that. the two buttigieg supporters i know are positive on warren.