Candidates for 2020 elections.

[Belsnickel]

(06-29-2018, 12:55 AM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: If Democrats were smart and wanted to ensure Trump didn't get another 4 years, they'd throw their support behind Kasich, maybe with Bill Weld as his running mate.

I'm not sure I see any surefire winners to beat Trump on the Democrat side. (It's harder to dethrone an incumbent.) Kasich could get the votes of Republicans who don't want to vote for Trump but don't want to vote for a Democrat, and a lot of moderates on both sides.



That probably sounds way too much like conceding to ever be realistic in this two party system, though.

So what you propose reminds me of the current argument that is going on right now in the Democratic party. I don't know if anyone else here actually gets involved in the party stuff on the left, but I am starting to because I have being wooed for local things. Anyway, the argument going on has continued since the 2016 election. We had it in full force, last year, because of our state elections. Party members are debating whether trying to sway the anti-Trumpers and more centrist voters with more moderate policies is the way to win, or whether going with positions more reminiscent of the New Deal is the way to win.

The problem is that right now it depends on where you are. In more traditionally left areas, sticking with the establishment and going with more moderate positions wins most of the time. But in areas where conservatives have had a stronghold we are seeing the more liberal leaning folks wanting more liberal candidates. We've seen DSA members winning in this state, and in our area we have even seen leftist and libertarians teaming up because of some issues where the government has pissed people off. The leftist candidates have had a great, grassroots ground game that has been turning out voters like crazy.

So this complicates things. If what voters want differs based on where they are, what do we do for 2020? Everyone knows that the typical formula is to run to the outside in primaries and run to the center in the general, but will that work in 2020? 2018 is going to be a test for this. We will get an idea of what the landscape is going to look like. I think a ticket with one more moderate and one more to the left will be the way to go, but should the more left candidate be on the top or the bottom? That is something we have to find out.