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Which Democrat Should I Vote For?
In 2016 I had a very difficult time voting for Donald Trump. When push came to shove, I did vote for him, for two reasons: 1) There was at least a chance that he would appoint judges faithful to the Constitution, and 2) He was not Hillary Clinton. Four years later, I don’t regret my vote. Trump has appointed many good judges, and he is still not Hillary Clinton.
He’s also exposed the Left as the lying, cheating, America-hating extremists they are and advanced the cause of conservatism more than any president since (and, arguably, including) Reagan. I’m still not a fan of Trump the man but I’ve come to appreciate him as a badly needed corrective to the post-American America we are increasingly finding ourselves in. I will be voting for Trump in November without hesitation. He has earned it, by my reckoning.
None of that has anything to do with this post, really, but it’s something I’ve been wanting to give voice to and this seemed as good a place as any.
This post is about soliciting thoughts and recommendations on who I should vote for in the New Hampshire primary, which is up in a few short weeks. I’m registered as an independent, which allows me to vote in either the Democrat or Republican primary. I’m trying to identify a Democrat who has a chance to win, but who will do poorly against Trump in November.
For what they are worth, here are the results from two recent polls:
WBURR
Sanders: 29
Buttigieg: 17
Biden: 14
Warren: 13
Boston Globe:
Sanders: 16
Biden: 15
Buttigieg: 12
Warren: 10
Any thoughts or analysis?
Published in General
It’s always playing with fire. On the one hand, we want their nominee to be as cray-cray as possible to make it easier for the Republicans. On the other hand, we don’t really want to take the chance that the most cray-cray gets elected somehow. There are three strategies:
One of the biggest factors in this race is that Bernie was done dirty in 2016. That was a factor in Trump’s win. The Bernie Bros will stay home or vote for Trump if he is done dirty again. We again want a close race between Bernie and some other Democrat that comes down to dirty tricks in the end. Who is most likely to help that? Who is most into dirty tricks who is left in the race? That would sort of point to Fauxcahontas, I would think.
I’m with you. I didn’t vote for Trump in ’16 and I still don’t like him, but he’s got my vote this year.
As for the Demoncrats, I’m voting for Bernie in the primary. If by some miracle he doesn’t get McGoverned in the general, he’ll do such a poor job in office that the party will be in ruins. Obama decimated Demoncrat office-holders and enabled the GOOP to regain the House and Senate. And that’s with a lame-stream media that adored him. Sanders is hated by the rest of the party and won’t be able to get anything done.
The GOOP. I like that.
As you can guess, I’m not a big fan of either party.
They can’t hold a candle to the real GOOP, though.
Is that one of Whatshername‘s products?
I would go with 2: Vote for the one you will think will do the least damage.
That would be Yang, Gabbard, Bennett or Klobuchar (Sp?) .
I have two reasons for this:
1: In 2016, the democrats pushed HARD for Trump to be the republican candidate, because no one was going to crazy enough to vote for him in the general election thereby handing the presidency to Hillary. See what that got them. The candidate you think is obviously too crazy or anti-American may win the general election.
2. A Sane, Pro-American Democratic Party would be a great benefit to American. Anything that pushes the democratic party towards sanity and a concern for the general welfare would help.
I think you need to leave Gabbard out of the running by this logic. Her positions do not back up her sane demeanor. I don’t know about the positions of the other three.
If I were an Independent in New Hampshire, I would vote for Bill Weld in the Republican Primary.
____________
The Dems have a strong chance of winning this year, so I think that you should vote for whoever has the best qualities.
I don’t know if people who have withdrawn are still on the ballot. If so, I would vote for Montana Governor Steve Bullock, who is respectful of Republicans who make up the majority there. He was the best Democrat this cycle by far.
If you are limited to active candidates, I think that you vote for whoever would do the least harm. For me that would be Biden, Bloomberg, Buttigieg or Klobuchar.
____________
In 2004, I changed my party registration so I could vote for a worthy Democrat for the legislature. When the presidential primary rolled around, I voted for the least bad Democrat, which was Joe Lieberman.
____________
Since my Arizona Republican Party has refused to allow me to vote for President, I will likely change my registration for a month, by February 18 so I can vote in a Presidential Primary on March 18. If so, I will likely vote for the strongest non-Socialist running, be that Biden, Bloomberg, Buttigieg or Klobuchar. I will flip back to being a Republican thereafter.
If I were voting on principle, personally I’d vote for Tulsi Gabbard as I think she’s the sanest and most reasonable Dem in the field.
But Arahant is right – vote for Warren, if only to cause maximum rancor and bitterness.
Thanks for this consideration- I’ve been wondering what box to fill in. The Bitterness Box seems a good fit. There are a lot of Pete signs my area of the Seacoast.
Vote for Sanders. Let’s see a real contest with out any mask or deception.
The dedicated Socialist/Marxist against a pro capitalist , America loving conservative.
For everyone else here are the official positions of the “non socialist” Democrats Mr Robbins is supporting.
Biden
Abolish capital punishment
15$ federal minimum wage
Paid family leave
“Study” reparations
2 Years free college
End oil and gas drilling
Carbon tax
“Voluntary” gun buyback
Abortion “some” limits
Expand ACA
Capital gains wealth tax and increased rates
Butty
Abolish capital punishment
15$ minimum wage
12 weeks paid family leave
“Study” reparations
Eliminate electoral college
End oil and gas drilling
Carbon Tax
“Voluntary” assault weapon buyback
Gun licensing program
Few if any abortion limits
“Rethink” entire healthcare system
Open borders
Increase EITC, increase taxes
Bloomie
15$ federal minimum wage
Paid family leave
Assault Weapon ban
Expand EITC
(Not much to his stated plans)
Klobuchar
Abolish capital punishment
15$ minimun wage
12 weeks paid family leave
“Study” reparations
2 years free college
Boost teacher pay ( feds pay teachers?)
Eliminate electoral college
End oil and gas drilling
Assault weapon ban
Abortion “some” limits
Slash defense spending
Increase EItC increase taxes
Higher taxes, increased regulation and job destroying policies for business, reparations, destruction of the energy sector destruction of 2nd amendment rights, and abortion to at least the moment of birth.
A set of policies a Reagan Republican would …. vomit over.
Me too on your Gabbard assessment. She’s a Bernie supporter, so no matter how she sounds on a Joe Rogan podcast she is some kind of socialist somewhere underneath.
Geez, somebody light a match already, it stinks in here!
I think Mayor Pete (I give up trying to spell his last name) would do the worst in November because most blacks have a big problem with homosexuality.
Vote for Bernie. We need him to get close and then get shoved aside so all his supporters will be angry. “Fifty puhcent of the seventy puhcent will vote fuh eighteen puchent of the twunny puhcent!”
They do?
First, you should think about your House race. If you have a good person that has a primary lock, you are free to vote strategic with your presidential vote. Bernie is the best strategic pick. The DNC will screw him over and the more votes he has the more angry the Bernie Bros will be. If there is a double miracle and Bernie wins, then the Deep State will knee-cap him.
I recommend avoiding the primary altogether. Really, when the ballot is gonna read something like..
why leave the comfort and sanity of home?
That’s kind of the situation I’m in here in Texas. I’m in CD-23, which is the biggest swing district in the state, both in terms of its size and its variability — three Republicans and two Democrats have held the office since 2006. It’s an open seat with Will Hurd retiring, and Beto and his hometown vote in El Paso almost carried Gina Ortiz Jones to a win in 2018.
She’s likely to be the Democrats’ nominee again this fall, so if you want to depress her turnout, as opposed to boosting it as O’Rourke did, you want the Democrat at the top of the ticket who would most alienate district voters (CD-23 is Latino/Catholic majority and has gobs of oil and gas at it’s NW and SE ends, so the Democrat most openly supportive of unlimited abortion and/or the Democrat most openly supportive of a total ban on fracking for oil and natural gas would be the guy or gal best set to alienate people over their beliefs or by threatening to put them out of their $50,000-$100,000 and up jobs).
I don’t know what the numbers are but there is no question that blacks and Hispanics have not warmed to Mayor Pete and I also know that the MSM would sacrifice their own firstborn rather than concede that his homosexuality is a significant factor there. I read excerpts from an interview with his husband (who took Pete’s last name) saying he can’t wait to be the first male to pick out china patterns for the White House. Maybe I am too old and unwoke to see the full picture but I can’t help but believe that is an image that will limit mayor Pete’s appeal across a number of demographic segments, not just blacks and Hispanics.
Ah, do I detect a little Operation Chaos activity? Rush did that in 2008, urging his listeners to vote for Hillary to keep her in the race.
Buttigieg’s already tried to make an Al Sharpton
payoffconnection, in hopes that high-profile black leaders supporting him will convince the masses to go along. And it’s pretty much a given the Congressional Black Caucus will back whoever the Democrats nominate. But Mayor Pete’s weak spot in his campaigning has been his inability to hide his rage against fundamentalist Christians, which is why Mike Pence tends to set him off in the same way Donald Trump sets off all the other Democratic candidates.Buttigieg may think when he attacks Pence and Evangelicals in general, he’s only dealing with a bunch of religious white people, but his main point of anger with them is their beliefs on same-sex marriage and LGBTQ issues in general, and the Evangelicals’ beliefs are pretty much the same as those in a lot of black Churches. That’s where he’s going to have to tone down his anger if he wants them to turn out, but that would anger the LBGTQers.
I didn’t vote for Trump in 2016. I didn’t like him and resented that he was losing an otherwise winnable election for conservatives. I didn’t believe was a conservative at all. I live in Oregon so I figured the state would go for Hillary no matter what. In 2020, after all that has come out about the illegal FISA warrants, the unmasking, the stupid Mueller investigation, and now impeachment, I will crawl over glass to cast my vote for Trump. (I won’t have to crawl over glass since we have vote-by-mail which strangely has ensured only Democrats win statewide offices) I sure hope he wins because Democrats will never let a Republican win again if we lose.
Prediction: If Trump wins re-election Portland downtown will be trashed in a fit of rage by leftists.. Leftists don’t think anyone but leftist should win elections. Our whip of a Mayor will will ask for calm, but he won’t actually condemn the violent protesters.
Or if Comrade Sanders wins, Portland downtown will be trashed not just from celebratory exuberance of the moment but because the work of crushing the counterrevolutionaries will begin in earnest–starting with all those kulak shopkeepers.
I was living in Los Angeles during the “Rodney King Riots,” and I remember Mayor Tom Bradley doing this. The city is literally burning, people are shooting at firefighters who are scrambling to save homes and businesses in their neighborhoods, and Bradley takes to the airwaves to announces that it’s understandable that the rioters are acting out this way, but, yeah, sure, we’re hoping things will settle down soon. Meanwhile, the police were ordered not to arrest rioters, and to literally stand and watch as looters and vandals pillaged the city. I remember watching in disbelief and realizing they want the city to burn.
I do not know the best answer to the original query, but analytically, I’d favor a vote for whichever candidate whose success would most likely pull the Chappaqua Hag “into the arena” (as she likes to say) so that Trump can hand her her head once again.
Use ButtGas, because I have given up as well.