Seanchaidh said:
Tireseas said:
Sanders doesn't really offset any concerns of Warren's
And that is where you are quite wrong.
She didn't back Sanders against Clinton; that's a big concern to a lot of progressives. Her foreign policy is basically the same as someone like Clinton in that it is more or less what Raytheon wants. Lots of people have critiques of her from the left and, if there's anything you should have learned in 2016,
that means turnout problems.
Because Warren was somehow expected to back a challenger with whom she has fundamental differences over someone she had vocally supported for a president to the point of publicly urging for her to run in 2014 [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2014/04/27/elizabeth-warren-i-hope-hillary-clinton-runs-for-president/]? Do you realize how fucking mental that sounds?
A few things:
1) defense and foreign policy spending is set by the Congress, with all the strings and caveats as well. If you're pissed off at defense contractors, then your beef is with the appropriations committee, not the State Department and Department of Defense.
2) Continuity of the previous administrations foreign policy is currently falling into the "definitely would have rather had that then the incompetent-to-blatantly-corrupt policy we currently have." We are literally on a very short path to war with Iran, in no small part from pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal. North Korea is effectively unchecked. Russia's interference in the 2016 election is not only not barely acknowledged, much less addressed through policy, but is practically being rooted for. Saudi Arabia de facto runs our middle east policy. Our foreign relations with allies are in tatters at the time we most need to band together to address major security issues such as cyber-security and climate change. The State Department has pretty much been hollowed out of its expertise and experience. Two potential (if not in progress) ethnic cleansings in Eastern China and Kashmir are completely unresponded to. Multiple trade wars on top of instability and unpredictability threaten to cause a global economic crisis.
So, yeah, "more of the same" from the Obama admin sounds pretty good right about now. If Warren is elected, she'll be spending a massive amount of her foreign policy capital just repairing our foreign relations with allies. And Sander's just sounds like Obama circa 2008 [https://www.vox.com/2019/6/25/18744458/bernie-sanders-endless-wars-foreign-affairs-op-ed], as do most of the other Democratic candidates because foreign policy is rarely decided ahead of time and more trying to create the reasonable reaction that the US will take to events as they happen rather than trying to say with any specificity, because circumstances determine options and options determine choices.
Tireseas said:
If Biden was 30-years younger and wasn't running, he'd be an ideal VP candidate (like he was in 2008).
So that what, she can chip into the segregationist vote? (I mean, that's essentially why Obama picked him...) Biden's support comes from people who assume he's electable because he's been VP. He's not a great candidate, he wouldn't be a great VP pick even if he were younger-- indeed, if he were younger he'd have fewer excuses for his horrible policy platform and incoherent and racist debate answers.
A vote is a vote is a vote. The end goal is to make sure you have more than the other candidate. Where that vote comes from is irrelevant to that calculus if you get more votes than you lose.
Yeah, Biden's willingness to play nice with racists in the past was a major plus with his VP candidacy, and still would be. It's hard to not see plainly that the pace of racial and cultural change is causing a lot of potential voters to act rashly and cling to the person who is selling them racial and cultural animus as the cure for their anxiety rather than looking rationally at the situation and see the republicans have been selling them a bill of goods. If those voters feel less threatened by the pair at the top of the democratic ticket, they may be willing to let them win by not voting (or even vote for them if they're particularly turned off by the republicans).
And here's the thing: Obama still helped push along key protections for minorities even with Biden at the Navel Observatory. Gay and Trans Americans went from being near-pariahs to integral parts of the American fabric. There were major pushes for police reform through consent decrees and immigration reform. Biden didn't put a stop to any progressive measure, and often assisted.
Plus, his experience on the foreign policy and judicial committee sure helped as well.
But, hey, if you decide to not back the democrat because you care more about your pride than trying to move the country in a more progressive direction, then you've made your choice.
