2018 Midterms

I've come to realize that I have a legitimately unhealthy preoccupation with this stupid controversy and how it came to be and I should probably stop thinking about it. But I've been waiting for someone, anyone, to respond to it like this.

I really want him to win, like how does Ted Cruz become a senate lifer everyone despises him

Texas .

That video has been making the rounds. Several people have made the case that Texas is the ideal microcosm and bellwether of impending political changes/transformations throughout the entire country. This is mostly due to its changing demographic landscape. I'd like to read Lawrence Wright's most recent book. I've never been to Texas and there are probably a lot of Europeans who know more about the history of that state than I do... It's all a mystery to me.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/30/a-cool-dude-gop-attempt-to-insult-beto-orourke-on-twitter-backfires

welp

Discovering that Beto O’Rourke jammed with the dude from The Mars Volta was some unexpected news for sure.

Not only does it make me like Beto more but I’m gonna revisit The Mars Volta discography this weekend.

That seems unnecessarily cruel. You haven't done anything to deserve such torture.

zappo wrote:That seems unnecessarily cruel.  You haven't done anything to deserve such torture.

Listened to Drunkship of Lanterns on repeat for 6 hours straight!

Yeah. Thread took an unexpectedly dark turn just now.

It is 12:30PM & I’m on my 3rd listen of Frances the Mute. Imagining that I am the love child of Beto O’Rourke & Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

i can see not being into The Mars Volta (and i personally am not very into them), but i find it interesting they have a reputation as an unlistenable band. i think they're fine.

Proggy bullshit with a whiny shrill voice? Strange people find that offputting, yeah.

Duff... wrote:Proggy bullshit with a whiny shrill voice? Strange people find that offputting, yeah.

ha, sure. and i find Fleetwood Mac's Rumors to be insufferable trash, so we all have our eccentricities.

i really enjoyed this yesterday (and now)

At least we can find common ground on Fleetwood Mac.

Can someone explain to me how Cuomo is maintaining his lead in the polls when it seems obvious he’s a complete shit bag?

Eh, how did J.B. Pritzker win?

Though admittedly I have no idea if that's a proper analogy, I do my best to stay out of New York's affairs.

To a terrifying number of people, a familiar name is the most important attribute of any candidate for public office. So he's been around for a while and he may be the dude from Weezer. That shit resonates.

I get that incumbents have an advantage because of name recognition and people being dumb, but it is really strange to me that someone would make the effort to vote in a midterm primary election without bothering to know about the candidates. That is really a strange contradiction.

zappo wrote:a familiar name

WP64 wrote:name recognition

I haven't been following this race very closely, but isn't he opposite an opponent who has never held public office and is running purely on name recognition as a celebrity? Don't voters have two terms to judge him by, as well as a long history in politics before that?

Like I said, I haven't followed this election. If there's something you all know about that I'm missing, perhaps that would explain it.

Nixon announced her candidacy really early and she has made a very clear ideological distinction between herself and Cuomo.

The obvious parallel is to Richard M. Daley who simultaneously benefitted from both the popularity of his father and the political machinery of the statewide Democratic Party. They probably govern in a somewhat similar manner as well.

Then I would guess y'all are overrating how voters value stated beliefs/platform (especially in a primary; of course any challenger would run to the left, just as Rauner's challenger ran to the right) and underrating how much they value experience, stability, and whatever tangible gain they feel (correctly or not) they've experienced under the incumbent's watch. "Familiar name" and "been around for a while" are pros, not cons, for many voters. That said, if Nixon loses but still builds on the share of the vote that Teachout won in 2014, fatigue is probably setting in and this will be Cuomo's last term. I would be curious to hear what Waylon (LOPP's only New Yorker IIRC?) thinks about the election though. He would probably have a more informed take.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/14/andrew-cuomo-new-york-progressive-democrats

what a guy

He is literally the worst.

https://texaspolitics.utexas.edu/set/ted-cruz-favorability-february-2018

How does this guy get to win an election without even trying against a very charismatic opponent in 2018?

How does he even appeal to his base, who definitely don't trust and often truly despise Ivy League career politicians?

How does a dude born in Canada get that "real Texan" credibility while his opponent, actually born and raised in the state, has to prove he's not an outsider?

I use the word dude really loosely here.