PA-SN 2022 megathread: Shrek vs. The Wizard of Oz

[Holy Unifying Centrist]

Go Costello! Costello would be a decent senator

Although I would prefer Fitzpatrick

[Holy Unifying Centrist]

Gonna go out on a limb and say a lot of the Cartwright support comes from people who haven't heard the man speak. Great rep, but not exactly bursting with charisma. Fetterman and Kenyatta, particularly Fetterman, would be better options.

Surely - not Kenyatta. Black, gay, from Philadelphia..... Almost any Republican candidate will crush him, and you may get some much worse Senator, then Toomey,

Um... what's the problem with being black, gay, and from Philadelphia? Plenty of minorities get elected and even outperform white candidates....

[Holy Unifying Centrist]

Gonna go out on a limb and say a lot of the Cartwright support comes from people who haven't heard the man speak. Great rep, but not exactly bursting with charisma. Fetterman and Kenyatta, particularly Fetterman, would be better options.

Surely - not Kenyatta. Black, gay, from Philadelphia..... Almost any Republican candidate will crush him, and you may get some much worse Senator, then Toomey,

Um... what's the problem with being black, gay, and from Philadelphia? Plenty of minorities get elected and even outperform white candidates....

Well, nothing from my personal view - i have nothing against Blacks or gays. But i doubt that such candidate (i must add "very liberal" too) is the best by strictly "electability" criterion. In Russia, at least, there is a very strong dislike against us, Moscow citizens, in most other areas of country. And to win Democrats need not only "motivate base", and get out Philadephia's vote,  but to attract other people - Independents and their like. I sincerely doubt, that candidate of Kenyatta type is the best by criteria of, say, typical coal miner of SW Pennsylvania - mostly white ethnic people.. Combine that with very strong ideological orientation, which makes attraction of most Indies and Centrists more difficult - and you will get far from the best candidate. Just that...

Vote for the best person regardless of their race, sexuality, or whatever. You may have "nothing against Blacks or gays" but you're discriminating against them (whether you have good intentions or not) by saying they shouldn't be nominated for "electability".

Now if you think Kenyatta is too liberal or has a massive personality issue, that's another thing. But her being black, gay, or from Philadelphia is COMPLETELY irrelevant.

[Holy Unifying Centrist]

My god, why do we have to make this about race and identity? Just wait to see what kind of campaign they run and see which you think will be more successful statewide / which one aligns more with your political values.

[Holy Unifying Centrist]

What Republicans are running?

[Holy Unifying Centrist]

I would definitely consider endorsing Sean Parnell. He ran a strong campaign against Conor Lamb (who's no slouch himself - Parnell only lost by 2.2% whereas Trump lost it by 2.5%) and seems pretty open minded on economics. I hope he runs!


Jeff Bartos seems decent too. And Everett Stern interests me too

[Holy Unifying Centrist]

Oz could beat Fetterman and peel off Black voters, a lot of Black people watch his show and if Fetterman's scandal with the gun and the Black jogger emerges again, Fetterman could be in a lot of problems.

For the love of all that is holy, stop making everything about race.

[Holy Unifying Centrist]

I think Conor Lamb's campaign has sucked so far. I think he's fallen hard since his first win. He showed some promise, but he's a full democratic swamp creature now.

[Holy Unifying Centrist]

I think Conor Lamb's campaign has sucked so far. I think he's fallen hard since his first win. He showed some promise, but he's a full democratic swamp creature now.

There's nothing to back this up - you could literally just say anyone who's been in congress for more than a year is a "democratic swamp creature now."

Just because you say words does not make them true.

If you make a central theme of your candidacy about January 6th and voting rights, you have officially become a democratic swamp creature. No one who isn’t super invested in giving the Democratic Party more power cares about those issues.

[Holy Unifying Centrist]

Kathy Barnette used to tweet like Chuck Grassley

Don't forget about:
https://twitter.com/Kathy4Truth/status/421667950895308800

"ANUS" stands for "A New US Senate". Vote for Kathy for ANUS!

[Holy Unifying Centrist]

He will at least be fine to debate, since there'll be a heart surgeon up on stage with him in case anything goes wrong.

[Holy Unifying Centrist]

Frankly,

He has too many health problems to be a competent senator. I fail to see how this is controversial at all.

This entire schtick from people to act like stroke survivors can't eventually get a job and be a productive member of society is completely gross. Not just that, but still recovering with some auditory and speaking issues does not make you "incompetent" in the slightest.

Honestly, I wouldn't imagine that most stroke survivors would be out doing this much even just 3 months afterwards, so I'd also give him a lot of credit for that.

I don't think "stroke survivors" can't hold a job.

However when someone having a stroke is literally running for office just after this stroke and that he has been having for months difficulties to literally be able to talk, that is seriously problematic too me.

Slowly getting your speaking abilities back to where they were =/= their brain power not being competent enough to do the job.

He's not fit to do the job now.

In a few years, probably.

But the election is in a few months!

Who cares? We have a ton of 80+ year old senators and a President who can barely talk. Fetterman has a few more months to recover before he takes the job, and it’s for a six year term.

[Holy Unifying Centrist]

Just saw an Oz ad during the Eagles' game (RIP Carson Wentz) pelting Fetterman for his support of student loan forgiveness.  

During one scene, the ad showed a steel worker with a hard hat wiping his brow and decrying that hard-working tax payers would have to pay off the student loans of "gender studies" majors and "bartenders with blue hair".  

I have mixed feelings about student loan forgiveness, but the ad's message that only blue-collar workers pay their taxes was equal parts laughable and enraging.  

Seems like a really good message to me? The point is that the tax dollars of people who don't have a college education (generally lower to middle class) is going to people who do have a college eduction (generally middle to upper class). I don't think the message is aimed towards you, as you are someone with many years of higher education.

[Holy Unifying Centrist]

Just saw an Oz ad during the Eagles' game (RIP Carson Wentz) pelting Fetterman for his support of student loan forgiveness.  

During one scene, the ad showed a steel worker with a hard hat wiping his brow and decrying that hard-working tax payers would have to pay off the student loans of "gender studies" majors and "bartenders with blue hair".  

I have mixed feelings about student loan forgiveness, but the ad's message that only blue-collar workers pay their taxes was equal parts laughable and enraging.  

Seems like a really good message to me? The point is that the tax dollars of people who don't have a college education (generally lower to middle class) is going to people who do have a college eduction (generally middle to upper class). I don't think the message is aimed towards you, as you are someone with many years of higher education.

In that sense, the tax dollars of everyone go to everyone else, no? Like Jeff Bezos uses the same roads that my taxes pay for. This seems like a silly way to view taxes. It is still true that lower income people are paying a lower net percentage of taxes and it's also true that student debt forgiveness is coming disproportionately from taxes on college grads.

Infrastructure is an important expenditure by the government because it is the most efficient way of pooling enough resources to fund massive projects that might not be initially profitable.


Bailing out people for student loan debt that they choose to pick up is incredibly stupid. They should pay their damn loans. Why should people who choose not to go to college be on the hook for other people's choices?

[Holy Unifying Centrist]

I really hate a lot of the criticism that the student loan plan is getting because so much of it is based on assumptions. I went off on this in another thread a few weeks back and really don't want to repeat myself by addressing every aspect of the argument, but is it really realistic to expect college students to have their whole life figured out before taking on loans for what they may want to study in school? And isn't it also possible that blue collar workers might have gone to college for some time or even graduated before taking on the job they did, even possibly taking on some student debt of their own? I get why the "blue-haired" urban-dwelling millennial with a non-technical degree and "lowly" job is built up as the straw-man they are in order to get the right people feeling resentful, but it's so presumptuous and kind of offensive to any of the large swathes of people of all demographics, backgrounds, and occupations who have incurred student debt (like Penn Quaker Girl).

In a rational country the debate on student loans and higher education would be based on why students have to take on debt in the first place, the price of tuition, society's job market necessitating a college degree as the equivalent of a high school diploma for generation's past, and what to do about all that. But we obviously do not live in a rational country that can have good faith debates like that and instead make the bandage that is the Biden proposal out to be some sort of inconvenience to "real, responsible Americans."

Student loans being so readily available without any sort of underwriting or questions is part of why college tuition is so expensive, and bailing out the poorly structured system is just going to continue to make the college inflation problem worse and worse.

This is the same problem with most of the democratic parties policies today, and it is why we are seeing such persistent inflation despite the Federal Reserve's constant 0.75 rate hikes. It's honestly baffling seeing how poorly the democratic party's handling of the economy is; I'm generally more liberal on the economics side but it doesn't take a genius to see why dumping so much money into the economy doesn't make a lick of a sense.

[Holy Unifying Centrist]

Based Mastriano?

https://twitter.com/ORMorrison/status/1579486453239009281

awkward.

Did Mastriano just finally have a broken clock moment? I almost appreciate that honesty out of him. What's next? Is he going to declare that Biden and Democrats don't actually control gas prices and inflation rates?

Democrats have a lot of impact on inflation rates. While it is too late to change anything about inflation in the next month, they could have reduced inflation by doing the following things:

• Austerity measures instead of the inflationary American Rescue Plan -- raising taxes or cutting spending instead of increasing spending.
• Not extended the rent moratorium well past its due date
• Not increased unemployment payments
• Not defer student loan payments
• Cut regulations, specifically licensing requirements
• Increase and encourage the usage of fracking
• Encourage the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates sooner

The gaslighting and sheer ignorance by the democratic party on the topic of inflation is why I am swapping from a Biden/Ossoff/Warnock vote into a Kemp/Libertarian/Drew Ferguson vote this November. Don't piss on my leg and tell me it's raining. Inflation was inevitable from the actions taken in 2020, but it didn't have to be this bad. This inflation is not transitory.




Edit: As far as this race goes, I'm expecting Fetterman to beat Dr. Oz right now, unless it's a big GOP wave year. Oz comes across as awkward and non-authentic. Fetterman is having issues with extremism perception on the topic of crime, but otherwise is relatively charismatic. I think it will have to be a GOP + 4 year or better for Oz to win.

[Holy Unifying Centrist]

Based Mastriano?

https://twitter.com/ORMorrison/status/1579486453239009281

awkward.

Did Mastriano just finally have a broken clock moment? I almost appreciate that honesty out of him. What's next? Is he going to declare that Biden and Democrats don't actually control gas prices and inflation rates?

Democrats have a lot of impact on inflation rates. While it is too late to change anything about inflation in the next month, they could have reduced inflation by doing the following things:

• Austerity measures instead of the inflationary American Rescue Plan -- raising taxes or cutting spending instead of increasing spending.
• Not extended the rent moratorium well past its due date
• Not increased unemployment payments
• Not defer student loan payments
• Cut regulations, specifically licensing requirements
• Increase and encourage the usage of fracking
• Encourage the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates sooner

The gaslighting and sheer ignorance by the democratic party on the topic of inflation is why I am swapping from a Biden/Ossoff/Warnock vote into a Kemp/Libertarian/Drew Ferguson vote this November. Don't piss on my leg and tell me it's raining. Inflation was inevitable from the actions taken in 2020, but it didn't have to be this bad. This inflation is not transitory.




Edit: As far as this race goes, I'm expecting Fetterman to beat Dr. Oz right now, unless it's a big GOP wave year. Oz comes across as awkward and non-authentic. Fetterman is having issues with extremism perception on the topic of crime, but otherwise is relatively charismatic. I think it will have to be a GOP + 4 year or better for Oz to win.

Weren’t you literally demanding stimulus when Biden first was elected?

Yes, as I wanted to make sure we recovered from the recession. I realized around June 2021 that we quickly needed to cut back on expenses and start raising interest rates once inflation started to hit. I wasn’t paying much attention to economic data from Jan 2021 - May 2021 because it was my last semester of college.

[Holy Unifying Centrist]

Based Mastriano?

https://twitter.com/ORMorrison/status/1579486453239009281

awkward.

Did Mastriano just finally have a broken clock moment? I almost appreciate that honesty out of him. What's next? Is he going to declare that Biden and Democrats don't actually control gas prices and inflation rates?

Democrats have a lot of impact on inflation rates. While it is too late to change anything about inflation in the next month, they could have reduced inflation by doing the following things:

• Austerity measures instead of the inflationary American Rescue Plan -- raising taxes or cutting spending instead of increasing spending.
• Not extended the rent moratorium well past its due date
• Not increased unemployment payments
• Not defer student loan payments
• Cut regulations, specifically licensing requirements
• Increase and encourage the usage of fracking
• Encourage the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates sooner

The gaslighting and sheer ignorance by the democratic party on the topic of inflation is why I am swapping from a Biden/Ossoff/Warnock vote into a Kemp/Libertarian/Drew Ferguson vote this November. Don't piss on my leg and tell me it's raining. Inflation was inevitable from the actions taken in 2020, but it didn't have to be this bad. This inflation is not transitory.




Edit: As far as this race goes, I'm expecting Fetterman to beat Dr. Oz right now, unless it's a big GOP wave year. Oz comes across as awkward and non-authentic. Fetterman is having issues with extremism perception on the topic of crime, but otherwise is relatively charismatic. I think it will have to be a GOP + 4 year or better for Oz to win.

Weren’t you literally demanding stimulus when Biden first was elected?

Yes, as I wanted to make sure we recovered from the recession. I realized around June 2021 that we quickly needed to cut back on expenses and start raising interest rates once inflation started to hit. I wasn’t paying much attention to economic data from Jan 2021 - May 2021 because it was my last semester of college.

You really are representative of the average American swing voter, and thats an insult.

What is wrong with wanting to start austerity measures once we started seeing inflation? I’m fine with 5-6% inflation in 2021, but we shouldn’t be seeing 8%+ in 2022. We had a 40 year period or so where inflation was barely an issue. The whole point of Keynesian economics is that you do deficit spending during a recession and deficit reduction once the economy is recovered. Except all of the politicians just do the deficit spending part and not the deficit reduction.

You can try to imply that I’m dumb, but I’m at least not the person in charge of the Federal Reserve gaslighting the American People that inflation is transitory when in reality, it was only going to get much much worse if no action was made. And I’m not the person voting for the party that keeps lying about their ability to do anything on inflation.

Would it have been better if I just completely ignored economic data and just had the exact same solutions for 50 years even if the problems are no longer there? That doesn’t sound smart.

[Holy Unifying Centrist]

Obviously Oz won the debate... he spoke clearly and gave multiple specific answers, while making sure to moderate and reach out across the aisle. He did come across as smarmy with his facial expressions, but overall seemed prepared and competent. You have to be a complete and utter hack to say that this debate was a tie.



Here are two of my previous comments on Oz vs Fetterman:

https://talkelections.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=412776.msg8802992#msg8802992

https://talkelections.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=412776.msg8746939#msg8746939




Compared to when I made these comment, Oz came across far far better than he did before, and Fetterman looks like dogsh!t.