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In reply to the discussion: Pic Of The Moment: "Everyday Americans Need A Champion, And I Want To Be That Champion" [View all]calimary
(81,316 posts)Glad you're here. Welcome to The Big Debate! There are those of us hoping to encourage people to vote. And vote realistically.
Hey, I LOVE LOVE LOVE Elizabeth Warren. I think she's TERRIFIC! I LOVE her ideas and I contributed repeatedly to her Senate campaign, even though I'm a Californian. Some of me hopes that a President Hillary Clinton would appoint Elizabeth Warren to Treasury Secretary or to the Supreme Court - where she can have the biggest impact. You can bet your sweet patootie NO republi-CON president would even consider doing that! Elizabeth Warren does NOT want to run. She's expressed this repeatedly. There are still many who want her to change her mind. But I take her at her word. So I've moved on from that. I'd rather be practical.
Bernie Sanders? LOVE LOVE LOVE him, too! He's WONDERFUL!!!! But even HE says he will NOT be a spoiler so that a republi-CON gets in. And I appreciate that. He understands the game and doesn't want to pee on our parade just to satisfy his own ego, the way ralph nader did. No chance in Hell to win, but he went ahead anyway, and peed on Al Gore's parade enough - to allow the bad guys to get close enough to steal it.
It still makes me ACHE - to think about the "what-ifs" there. All those nader votes across the country, and especially in Florida - if they'd all (or even most of them had) gone to Gore, there would be NO possibility of a bush/cheney White House. There would likely have been no Iraq War. Since Al Gore didn't fill his foreign policy support staff with any of the neoCONS with their hard-ons for war war war and more war. Which means - think of all the military veterans who would still be walking around on their own two able-bodied legs today. Which means, Saddam might still be at work messing with the Iranians and keeping them distracted. The Middle East wouldn't be so damn disrupted and in such disarray that ISIS and other asshole groups couldn't have gained quite the foothold they have. There might not even have been a 9-11. Because there likely would have been continuity from the Clinton era. What was the last thing the outgoing Clinton people warned the incoming bush/cheney people? TERRORISM. It's gonna be your main thing. And what did bush/cheney do? Put it on IGNORE. Al Gore wouldn't have waited til September 10th to hold his first "let's look at the terrorism issue" meeting - the way dick cheney did - and cheney's attitude then was half-hearted and no-big-deal, not-a-priority, who-gives-a-fuck.
Just think. Just imagine. Just ask yourself - what life would have been like in the last decade with an Al Gore White House? Where would we be NOW, with that kind of continuity built upon? And considering it was Al Gore - WHERE WOULD WE BE NOW ON CIMATE CHANGE???? And the very survival of life on this planet, including OUR OWN? Probably more than halfway to reversing it, is my guess.
Spoilers. Don't like 'em. Unless they're working the other side of the aisle. Ross Perot I like. 'Cause he fucked it up for bush1 the first time Bill Clinton ran, and also fucked it up for bob dole four years later, when Bill Clinton ran for reelection.