Purgatory: And, they are off - Republican 2024 Primary - (Purgatory & Epiphanies guidelines apply)
With the recent announcement of Nikki Haley as a candidate, the GOP primary race is officially off and running.
CNN says there can be as many as sixteen candidates. The list is here.
I am not Republican; but, of all the potential candidates, I prefer Nikki. She is a first generation American, she removed the confederate flag from the state flag, and she was the only sane person in the former president's cabinet. She also has strong foreign affairs experience. I think she is a direct threat to Biden's bid for a second term.
(Edited title re mixed guidance, Doublethink, Admin)
CNN says there can be as many as sixteen candidates. The list is here.
I am not Republican; but, of all the potential candidates, I prefer Nikki. She is a first generation American, she removed the confederate flag from the state flag, and she was the only sane person in the former president's cabinet. She also has strong foreign affairs experience. I think she is a direct threat to Biden's bid for a second term.
(Edited title re mixed guidance, Doublethink, Admin)
Comments
The South Carolina flag—a white palmetto tree and crescent on a blue field—has never included a Confederate flag, except to the extent that the basic design of the current state flag was used by South Carolina during the Civil War.
At this point, I don't see that there would be alot of Democrats who would be willing to switch over to the party of MAGA just because the candidate once made the right call on the rebel flag(while apparently also making the wrong call on lost-cause nostalgia in other instances), and was the least ridiculous member of a clown-show cabinet.
So unless she has some fantastic ability to mobilize previous non-voting Republicans, or Biden is visibly in the throes of absolute dementia during the campaign, I don't really think she's much of a threat to the Democrats.
However it has been suggested that the main effect of a Haley primary run will be to split the anti-Trump vote and ensure another Trump candidacy. This prospect does not fill me with glee at all, at all.
The "anti-Trump vote" within the Republican party is probably no more than 15% of primary-voting Republicans. I don't think it makes a difference whether it's split or not.
My main thought for the Republican candidate is 'anyone but DeSantis', not that the Biden presidency has a glowing track record in Florida since they decided that Haitian and Cuban refugees arriving by boat in the Keys will automatically be deported with zero access to the asylum process (not even Cruella Braverman can do that in the UK) - although unfortunately that's probably a popular policy.
I count at least two. Tim Scott and Nikki Haley.
And Will Hurd is mixed race.
Must of missed one or two women as well, three to be exact.
Should we count the first picture as white? He usually looks orange.
Or people who are speculated to be considering a run. Or people that various members of the pundit class want to run but probably aren't actually considering it.
So long as she's not a white supremacist and a number of other things.
I mean Nikki Haley meets those criteria and she seems to be cut from the same cloth as DeSantis. Being a woman of colour doesn't make her less far-right.
It's also a mistake to characterise Florida as 'a very conservative state' - the north of Florida (aka East Alabama) is a completely different beast to Central and South Florida (and the Keys aka the Conch Republic). A lot of the conservatism is driven by snowbirds from up north, not actual Floridians. The Orlando area tends to be very liberal thanks to the many younger transplants there working for Disney and other entertainment companies. Many Southern and adjacent states have liberal hubs, and just look at Georgia.
This is pretty much exactly the same analysis that's being used by the "they will not replace us" crowd.
But also, who gets considered white or not white is verrry much a moveable feast.
You misspelled "Jews". Part of the conspiracy theory is that the browning of America is not the natural demographic result of population growth and immigration but a deliberate conspiracy directed by the Jews international bankers.
As for DeSantis specifically, he seems like the Scott Walker of this election cycle. Republican governor of a populous state who people seem to like less the more they see of him.
Fact is, both parties will change with the browning of America. See this link..
To be clear, the phrase, "The Browning of America." is not something I coined. A simple internet search will give you a long list of articles using that phrase. It comes from the very old concept that if one had a drop of
I look forward to the time when that enslaving term will disappear.
I didn't want to restrict my comment only to that particular version of replacement theory. It just seems weird that people can on one hand assert that replacement theory is utter bunk while at the same time crowing about how demographic change means that white people will eventually be, well, replaced as the majority demographic.
Also, criticising it purely on conspiracy theory grounds inadvertently grants legitimacy to those who are well aware that it's natural demographic change caused by immigration but still don't want it to happen.
Is it "weird" in the same way people will point out that California's 2018 wildfires weren't caused by a Rothchilds-controlled space laser but will still acknowledge the existence of California's 2018 wildfires? Because that doesn't seem weird at all to me.
I'm pretty sure racists aren't waiting for other people to grant them legitimacy to be racist.
Because most Hispanic people in Florida are Cuban-Americans, who tend to be vote Republican. But also, Hispanic is a description of nationality not race/ethnicity - many Hispanic people are white.
He said he could not see a path to nomination. He is thinking too many people in the race only helps Trump.
Further to backstage discussion, we have decided to try the following:
Despite the fact that this thread potentially crosses over with Epiphanies issues it will stay in Purgatory, but, any tangents in it about Epiphanies issues - including discussions of identity based voting decisions - must take place in line with Epiphanies Guidelines.
Obviously, this is an experiment, and we will review how it goes.
Doublethink, on behalf of the SoF Host & Admin Crew
/Admin
Looking for Sununu of Vermont to throw his hat in the ring shortly.
The other (as yet undeclared) Republican presidential candidates chose to attend an event for big donors sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce, which was scheduled at the same time as CPAC. I'm guessing the logic here is that CPAC is a very MAGA event these days so no matter what you do you'd be overshadowed by Trump, plus it's more likely this year than ever before that you'd be caught posing for a photo with an out-and-proud neo-Nazi at CPAC.
Sununu is currently governor of New Hampshire, not Vermont.
Oops.
Ships business questions belong in Styx.
Doublethink, Temporary Hosting
I'm not sure why being able to win statewide office in Florida is seen as the mark of political genius within the Republican party, but apparently it is. For the record, DeSantis is apparently "rebooting" his presidential campaign, which is pretty amazing considering that he hasn't officially announced his candidacy yet.
I've always felt that DeSantis' main constituency is the political press, who are desperately in search of a sane Republican Daddy and if one doesn't exist they'll invent one. In 2016 it was Scott Walker. This time it seems to be DeSantis.
See, I thought he was aiming for "as evil as Trump but not currently indicted and/or under investigation for crimes against the United States". Apparently the GOP faithful prefer their supervillains indicted.
Nah the GOP won't go anywhere near him, hopefully he'll stand as an independent and split the Republican vote.
I worry that Biden -- if elected -- may die in office, and I'm not confident about Kamala Harris's ability to fill the requisite shoes (to say nothing of winning the following election). I'm also not confident about a Biden-v.-non-Trump opponent.
He's not yet declared, but if former NJ (?) governor Chris Christie opts in, Biden may be toast.
Chris Christie left office with an approval rating of 14%. I'm not sure how that's even possible in the modern political context, but it happened. His last presidential campaign was cut short after his sixth place finish in the 2016 New Hampshire primaries so I'm not seeing Christie as the electoral juggernaut you seem to. Could you explain why the Blockader of Fort Lee is such a threat to a second Biden term?
DeSantis will likely jump in soon. Biden can beat him.
Here is a ranking from The Washington Post that lists the likely Democratic Candidates: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-top-10-democratic-presidential-candidates-for-2024-ranked/ar-AA14RgPB
One person not named is Robert Kennedy Jr who is an anti vaxer. Definitely a dark horse, in my mind
All told, the Republicans are playing a losing game with one arm tied behind their back. I cannot think of one issue they have which reflects were the American people are at. Maybe someone else can answer that.
And the Republican response: https://youtu.be/kLMMxgtxQ1Y
The Republican response is notable for two reasons. The first is that it uses AI-generated images of the imagined hellscape of a second Biden term, which I think is a first for a political ad in a presidential campaign. The second notable thing is that apparently the Republican party can't think of anything to criticize Biden for from this term so they have to invent imagined horrors from a second Biden term and preemptively criticize him for that.
The Republicans did pretty much the opposite during the 2020 election, running an ad which cited the fentanyl crisis, immigration, and crime as massive problems in the U.S. which Biden would be unable to successfully confront. In other words the message was "Trump's America sucks, and if you elect Joe Biden it might still suck". Apparently this time around the message is "We can't think of anything wrong with Biden's America, but imagine bad things that might happen at some time in the future".