Beto O’Rourke 2020 campaign megathread

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Anyway, keeping my mind open about this, but I want to see what he actually has to offer.

Random question, but how do I add a photo to my signature? I can’t seem to find out how.

Same as in posts, use [ img ] and [ \img ] tags around a URL (without the spaces in the brackets)

Do Imgur links work?

Forum has had troubles with Imgur in the past. Not sure what the status is now. Maybe use a different hosting service if possible. (Any subsequent questions just PM me)

Imgur works now AFAIK.

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I’m torn on Sanders/Beto. Mostly because I think they would have the best chance of beating Trump but also changing the status quo in the country

Only if by changing the status quo you mean welcoming our own Macron, riots and all

Bernie Sanders and Macron share very little in common.

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Hmmmm....im listening Beto

https://mobile.twitter.com/eschor/status/1106261014914453507

Trust his conservative record, not his liberal promises. Let's not fall into this trap again.

This. Beto is Obama 2.0.

Sounds great to me.  I'd take Obama back in a heartbeat.  

The problem is Obama’s presidency led to the rise of Trump. Another Obama will lead to another Trump and will not address the fundamental problems of the country.

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The problem is Obama’s presidency led to the rise of Trump. Another Obama will lead to another Trump and will not address the fundamental problems of the country.

So it's Obama's fault that angry white men couldn't accept the fact that a black man was elected president twice and to retaliate decided to vote for an unabashed racist and sexual predator.
That's a hot take if I ever saw one.

It's not singly handily his fault, no, but he didn't change the country in the way he himself envisioned (a good chunk of why was outside of his control to be fair) and that resulted in a culturally polarized nation in which someone like Trump could put together a winning coalition by scapegoating others.

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Hmmmm....im listening Beto

https://mobile.twitter.com/eschor/status/1106261014914453507

Trust his conservative record, not his liberal promises. Let's not fall into this trap again.

This. Beto is Obama 2.0.

Sounds great to me.  I'd take Obama back in a heartbeat.  

The problem is Obama’s presidency led to the rise of Trump. Another Obama will lead to another Trump and will not address the fundamental problems of the country.

If the oirignal quoted post is saying that Beto is another Obama ... and therefore Beto would lead to electing another Trump... I don't follow the logic??

B/c sadly ... to the extent that one can say Obama's success led to the rise of Trump... it has nothing to do with policy... and everything to do with race. (Not Obama's fault obviously... but the result of)...  It allowed Trump to exploit and stir up enough ppl with racial resentment towards a black president (that when added to the normal republicans.. & pple who voted for Trump due to Trade issues etc) was enough to scrape by and win the electoral college.... But without stirring up the racial fringe Trump supporters (even if its just a 5% who usually don't vote - but turned out due to Trump's exploitation of racial divides)... we would not have a Trump presidency.

And regarding policy... electing an angry far left President in 2020 would more likely would lead to a pendulum swing in the opposite direction far quicker than a less contentious politician like Beto (And I not saying a pendulum swing would necessarily happen... and I have no problem choosing whoever the nominee or however far left they are over Trump).

Yea, I don't exactly buy that, because a "far left President" would not blow political capital in the same way that someone like Beto would and would be less naive with the opposition party and more shrewd when it comes to shifting the overton spectrum to the left. Beto asks for 70% and gets 15%, while someone like Bernie asks for 100% and gets 25% IMO. The idea that a more moderate president can go around and get effective, transformative legislation done by being pragmatic with fiscally conservative Republicans has little merit in this day and age. It may have in say 1992, but not in 2019.

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Hmmmm....im listening Beto

https://mobile.twitter.com/eschor/status/1106261014914453507

Trust his conservative record, not his liberal promises. Let's not fall into this trap again.

This. Beto is Obama 2.0.

Sounds great to me.  I'd take Obama back in a heartbeat.  

The problem is Obama’s presidency led to the rise of Trump. Another Obama will lead to another Trump and will not address the fundamental problems of the country.

I honestly disagree. Trump would have happened either with or without Obama (or maybe not if Clinton became president in 2008 simply because the Dems wouldn't have had a candidate as weak as Clinton in 2016) in the race. But that's not the point. I think many people like Obama, even a lot of Obama - Trump voters.

I think America's media culture made the rise of Trump possible. In some way, he was always a cult figure in America's media. I think he is the first thing that came in your mind when you think about America's culture, and the sensational media helped him put his name onto the table. "Politics is entertainment". I don't think it has something to do with anti-Obama sentiment, because if that was the case, he would have lost in 2012.

It depends on who’s elected instead of Obama. Someone like Bernie Sanders I think would have done more with a supermajority and be more likely to be the re-aligning figure that many hoped Obama would have been, or more realistically, negating the initial disappointment from swing voters who voted for him due to muh hope and change, and in turn reducing the odds of a Rust Belt backlash.

Just to be clear, Obama (and his post-1980 predecessors for that matter) only is responsible for Trump in the sense that he didn’t address the fundamental problems in terms of income inequality and his efforts at healing the cultural divisions were not successful

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Ok my question is y tf would he flip flop on healthcare after defending it while running STATEwide in texas and then chooses the opposite in a national D primary.

Seriously! It has really left a bitter taste in my mouth. One of the primary reasons I was for him was because I thought he’d be able to maneuver a general electorate with progressive policies. Of course my vote is almost a year away so I will see what he says on the debates but it’s looking grim for me as a continued supporter. I will not be content with working with Republicans as an answer when they will always be negotiating in bad faith. It’s unacceptable.

Why does Beto absolutely have to do the same as all the other candidates are doing, as in moving further and further to the left?

Because the overton spectrum is shifting more in line with the voters in the country?

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https://twitter.com/_waleedshahid/status/1106543029371002880

Inexcusable.

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Real question, when are we actually going to see Beto’s policies? Because right now the only indication are his blue dog endorsements (plus half of his support on here is from #bothsides moderate heroes, Republicans, and libertarians). I want to like Beto, but I really need to know what he’s running as first.

So when Beto initially said he wasn’t supporting Medicare for All as a presidential candidate I was miffed and briefly stopped supporting him because I thought he had nothing in place and would try to negotiate something with obstructionist Republicans. I walked it back when he came out in favor of Medicare for America which was written by Reps. DeLauro and Schakowsky. Medicare for America would move everyone from the ACA Exchange to Medicare, folks (like myself) who are about to age out of their parent’s insurance can join as well as others not insured, and all children born after its enaction would be born into the program. The main difference between this and Bernie’s plan is that people can retain their employer insurance if they so choose. This is much more realistic and puts us on a path to single payer.

The purists will hate it but it is ambitious and will get us to universal coverage. Eliminating all private insurance is unrealistic.

https://slate.com/business/2019/03/beto-orourke-health-plan-medicare-for-all-america.html

I need to find the link but while 81% of Dems would support Medicare for All, 91% support Medicare for America. Bernie supporters who think he can snap his fingers and make all his dreams the law of the land will resist this but Beto’s plan is progressive and attainable.

It is a crap policy vs Single Payer. It is a buy-in which will have little effect on millions of uninsured & underinsured & would continue to encourage a system with huge per capita spending with poor results.

And it will never lead to Universal healthcare which neoliberals don't want anyways. They just should be open & accept it.

It's not a buy in in the same way a publlic option is AFAIK.

. It would automatically enroll newborns, the elderly, and the uninsured. It would also bar insurance companies from selling policies to individuals that duplicated the government’s coverage, meaning it would largely wipe out the nongroup market as we now know it. However—and this part is key—the bill would permit businesses to continue offering private insurance as a benefit, as long as it was as comprehensive as today’s gold plans. Companies would also have the option of purchasing Medicare for their employees by paying a tax equal to 8 percent of their annual payroll.

Now to be fair, hard single payer is probably better to run on on the campaign trail since it's an easier public sell and would shift the overton spectrum left enough to where something like this proposal would be likely to pass but it's not a bad policy per se. Still, I don't know why Beto is not framing this as a particular version of Medicare for All rather than an alternative. Is he doing it out of pure honesty? Or does he feel the need to run to the center for some reason?

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Has dropped out. See new thread: https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=342431.0

Locking this.