tags: election 2016
2015
June
July
- 2015 Jul 9
- Jeb Bush sez ur lazy
Jeb Bush thinks American workers are lazy, even though American workers work 47 hours/week on average and get far fewer benefits than workers in other industrialized countries. But I think Jeb Bush is still going to win the nomination. And then we'll all be working 60-80 hour work weeks when he wins the presidency. #GrimMeathookFuture
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2016
January
- 2016 Jan 6
- Election Season
The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.
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February
- 2016 Feb 17
- Scalia is Dead
It was quite shocking to learn that Justice Antonin Scalia was found dead.
· Read more… - 2016 Feb 26
- Hillary Clinton has no chance among young PoC
Clinton reacted badly to being interrupted by #BlackLivesMatter protester Ashley Williams. I think this is going to cost her among young PoCs. But she's not doing great in this demographic anyway.
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March
- 2016 Mar 1
- Campaigning in Massachusetts
In the event of a Clinton vs. Trump general election, there are probably going to be two large groups of voters who will be inclined to stay home: Sanders voters who think Clinton is too much like a Republican and Republicans who think Trump is too much of a fascist. Clinton has the capacity to get those groups to vote for her, but she's not going to do it by feeding the "I'm above the law" narrative.
· Read more… - 2016 Mar 4
- Ben Carson Withdraws Care from His Campaign
Dr. Carson finally decides to withdraw care from his campaign.
· Read more… - 2016 Mar 9
- Superdelegates
It is heartening that The New York Times has decided to separate pledged delegate counts from superdelegate counts.
· Read more… - 2016 Mar 9
- Beware the Ides of March
I feel like the March 15th primaries deserve a "Super" name. No one appears to be calling it Super Tuesday II or Mini Tuesday.
· Read more… - 2016 Mar 16
- Legitimacy of Democratic Institutions
Even when the margins are insurmountable, you still have to play out the whole game. That's what gives democratic institutions their legitimacy. Demands to short circuit the process are demands for invalidating the entire system.1
· Read more… - 2016 Mar 16
- Ford v. Reagan
In 1976, neither Ford nor Reagan had enough delegates to clinch the nomination, although Ford was leading.
· Read more… - 2016 Mar 19
- Why Bernie Sanders Has a Right to Stay in the Race
Down by more than 300 pledged delegates, the calls to unite around Hillary Clinton and for Bernie Sanders to drop out have been growing louder.
· Read more… - 2016 Mar 21
- Democrats Abroad
Sanders gets 9 delegates while Clinton gets 4 delegates in the Democrats Abroad primary.
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April
- 2016 Apr 5
- Word Salad
Inexplicably, Sarah Palin is still being paid attention to.
· Read more… - 2016 Apr 5
- Berniebots
I thought "Berniebot" was just a pejorative term for Sanders supporters (akin to "Obamabot" in the 2008 election without the definite racial component.)
· Read more… - 2016 Apr 12
- Is Bernie Sanders a Democrat?
Especially from the Clinton camp, there has been much talk about how Sanders isn't really a Democrat.
· Read more… - 2016 Apr 13
- Restoring the New Deal
While I totally agree that Clinton is closer to the center than Sanders is, they're still both far to the left of guys like Kasich, Rubio, or Jeb!
· Read more… - 2016 Apr 20
- Legitimacy
Assuming that existing polls hold (there is a paucity of polls in the remaining primaries—there's only really data for CT, MD, PA, CA, and NJ, and absolutely nothing from all of May) and using the national polling data as a guide for how the states without data will go (538 has Clinton at 49.4% and Sanders at 41.7% nationally which will be wildly inaccurate in a lot of states—a lot of those smaller states will probably go heavily towards Sanders—but it's all we've got) there's no realistic way for Clinton to get 2,383 pledged delegates before the convention (she'll probably have just under 2,000 pledged delegates by the end of the DC primary.)
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May
- 2016 May 9
- The Center Cannot Hold
The problem with being pragmatic is that you tend to underestimate other people's frustration and anger. Because you could never imagine wanting to wreck the whole thing, you have a deep and abiding belief that no one would ever desire such utter and complete wreckage.
· Read more… - 2016 May 10
- Economic Injustice and Systemic Racism
I can't help but feel that reducing every problem to the problem of income inequality is one of the major reasons why Sanders really never made significant in-roads with older PoCs.
· Read more… - 2016 May 18
- Schisms
The caveat is, even if Sanders drops out and dedicates his fundraising efforts to Clinton's campaign, that's probably not enough to placate his most ardent supporters.
· Read more… - 2016 May 19
- The Destruction of the Republican Party and the Decline of the U.S.
Stepping back further in order to fully admire the spectacle, the whole narrative arc of the Party of Lincoln transforming into the Party of Trump is quite breathtaking.
· Read more… - 2016 May 19
- Bernie Sanders is the Only One Standing in the Way of a Trump Presidency
The bridge building probably can't really start until Clinton clinches the nomination, but if she doesn't succeed in reconciling with a majority of Sanders voters (the Bernie-or-Trump crowd is unreachable anyway) then we're definitely going to be watching Trump being inaugurated next January.
· Read more… - 2016 May 19
- Trump Leads Clinton
Caveats: yeah, it's a Fox News poll, the margin is well within the error range, polls this far out from the general election are mostly useless, Trump has already clinched the nomination while Clinton hasn't, etc., etc., but, still, it kind of freaks me out. [#AllHailPresidentTrump](/tag/all-hail-president-trump "tag: All Hail President Trump • mahiwaga"
· Read more… - 2016 May 20
- The Realignment of the U.S.
Matt Taibbi already deconstructed how absurd Andrew Sullivan's argument is—the problem with the U.S. isn't that it's too democratic—but I do think there's a chance that Trump will win and I do think the backlash might make our system even less democratic than it already is.
· Read more… - 2016 May 25
- Hate Voting
Historically, has there ever been a general election in the U.S. like this where both (presumptive) nominees were so intensely disliked by significant percentages of their own parties?
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June
- 2016 Jun 1
- Political Reality
Unless something catastrophic happens between now and June 7th (like a stock market crash or a banking scandal or a federal indictment or whatever), this is probably how it's going to play out. The more moderate Sanders supporters will resign themselves to voting for Clinton in November and the more radical Sanders supporters will stay home or vote for Jill Stein or Trump or do something else that's totally crazy and counterproductive, and Sanders' personal political future will depend entirely on whether or not he reconciles with the Democratic establishment.
· Read more… - 2016 Jun 2
- Who Needs Data Anyway?
I just came across a headline about how Donald Trump has no apparent interest in utilizing the IT infrastructure the Republic National Committee had built up with $100 million since Romney's failed campaign in 2012.
· Read more… - 2016 Jun 3
- Unfavorability Ratings and Mob Rule
It does seem like one of the major reason why people don't like Clinton is simply because of the media perception of her character and personality and hardly anything to do at all with policy. Hopefully Trump will remain far more despised than Clinton until November. Democracy and mob rule FTW!
· Read more… - 2016 Jun 6
- There's No Reason for Sanders to Quit Now
It really makes no sense to expect Sanders to quit before the tallies from tomorrow's elections are in.
· Read more… - 2016 Jun 8
- Election Memes
Don't blame me. I voted for Kodos.
· Read more… - 2016 Jun 10
- Vitriol in 2008
While it's probably only a matter of time until the Democratic party manages to unite at least a majority of itself into a force dedicated to ensuring Trump doesn't get elected, Obama's endorsement of Clinton reminds me once again of how much more rancorous the 2008 Democratic primaries were.
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July
- 2016 Jul 29
- Bernie or Busters and Moderate Republicans
It is interesting that there seems to be more venom reserved for Bernie-or-busters compared to moderate Republicans who think Trump is a disaster but can't stand the idea of voting for Clinton. Both these demographics' interests can at least be partially served by voting for Clinton, but for some reason, holding out because you're a Republican is more virtuous than holding out because you're a progressive.
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