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Big Red jumps into the race
By adamg on Mon, 04/15/2019 - 10:40pm
He's got a campaign video that plays up his appointment by St. Ronnie, but doesn't mention the courage it took to resign from the Reagan Justice Department, and which points to his huge margin in his first election, but forgets to add he ran against a man who self-immolated in an angry interview with a beloved local anchorwoman.
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Public vs Private persona
I know several people who knew him when he worked in private practice after he left office. They claim he was generally an asshole. Not at all the like the folksy, friendly guy he was portrayed as governor.
I have zero axe to grind and am not a right or left extremist. And I admit voting for him once.
The Internet
This is the sort of useless information you find a lot on the internet. You could be anyone. You could have an axe to grind. Please, if you have something to contribute that you think can be of use, provide some kind of credible bona fides.
The debates should be fun
Weld will roll the dear leader.
And Weld could win the general in a landslide.
But it won't matter brcause he won't get the nomination. Fox and Fanatics and all their followers will have none of that.
Assuming the southern district of NY doesn't come up with something else first.
Weld has zero national appeal
Weld has zero national appeal. He couldn't even win office in MA again.
So..
If you are on the right, who else do you vote for?
The left, isn't big enough to win the election without independents.
The middle votes Weld in a landslide. Progressives (pretty much all Dems in the race) don't appeal to the middle.
So unless the Republicans vote by staying on their couch, Weld wins.
We live in a liberal bubble. Big country out there.
Sadly, Trump will win the nomination, possibly even from a jail cell.
stop saying MA is a liberal
stop saying MA is a liberal bubble. just looking at the the commentariat on this site makes a strong, if anecdotal argument against it. hint: voting Democratic =/= liberal.
also stop saying the democrats don’t appeal to the “middle”. outside of bernie, most of the candidates — and the party at large for that matter — are center-left.
this is a perfect example
Of our liberal bubble
there are a about 4 conservative posters on this site. Just check out the "approvals' on comments - even if people don't comment, they vote 10-1 with liberals.
Most of the rest of the country is no where near as liberal as we are - even NY and CA have pockets of conservatism. We don't.
As my friend said - listen to the radio in Louisiana. Even liberals are big 2nd amendment supporters. The difference is that conservatives think you not only should carry guns, you should have free reign to use them. Hyperbole - sure.
You are the left version of my Fox news loving family - they think they are centrists because from their point of view, they might be (scary). What you view is "left centrist" is viewed as socialist by the middle.
you're doing what you're accusing me of
i don't know about this -- from what i've seen since i've been posting here, people vote with viewpoints i consider conservative in nature just as frequently as liberal ones.
as a 32 year old person of color that grew up in leominster and moved to boston 5 years ago, i beg to differ. i don't really think i need to cite any examples, this is a self-evidently false assertion.
this is the typical refrain from MA is Liberal truthers: "we aren't as bad as the south". is that really your barometer for how liberal MA is?
this is the crux of the issue that i have with your original statement. you are telling me that my point of view is skewed by citing your own point of view as though it is objective. in what world are elizabeth warren, beto o'rourke, kamala harris, nancy pelosi, barack obama, hillary clinton socialists? these are the faces of the Democratic party at large, not AOC or bernie; and its a even a stretch to call them socialists!
just take a minute and consider that maybe centrism in the United States is actually center-right?
In what world indeed
They cloak it in the euphemism "progressive" - but at least publicly their first answer is government is the answer. People furthest out on the right think government is (almost) never the answer.
There is a middle ground - but if you think those people are not closet socialists (again, at least in their public statements), then you need to look again They may be right of Bernie and Ocrazio - but they are still pretty far left. And BTW - half of them aren't running. In fact, those three are so far right by the party's standards, all would struggle to get the nomination.
I agree, most of the country is center-right at least on average.
And I'll go on record - if it's Kamala or Beto or Petey B v. Trump, I likely vote "D". I dislike Trump so much, I might even vote for Bernie. But in all likelihood I'll end up voting "I" like I did last time, depending on who the I's are.
They cloak it in the
i disagree with this strongly. people on the right want the most extreme forms of government - historically, these are people that would prefer a monarch or autocrat to a (small d) democratic government. why do you think trump appeals to these people so much? he certainly isn't shrinking government.
leaving your obvious unfamiliarity with AOCs actual policy positions and how they compare with "socialism" (scare quotes intended), this is in direct contrast with your prevailing point. you said that centrism is what the public, and therefore the Democratic constituency actually wants, yet now you say the centrists would struggle to pick up the nomination. which is it, bud?
AOC's socialism by any other name...
Is still socialism. Confiscatory taxes, top down environmental regulations that may help the environment, but disproportionately hurt the economy, medicare for all. You can call it whatever makes you feel good, but that's effectively European socialism. I agree with a piece of all of these - but any one of those could seriously harm our economy.
Again - many of these are centrist positions from your perspective in the bubble. But few in the middle and nobody on the right would agree with you.
Sorry, but your scary words are boring
Confiscatory taxes: That you used the word confiscatory denotes a appeal to fear, not reality. Taxes are needed for a strong nation. Money doesn't grow on trees. Everybody has to pay to keep the services of government going. If the lowest economic classes don't have enough money then the higher economic classes have to make up the difference. Again, money doesn't grow on trees.
Top down economic regulations. Again an attempt to incite fear by using the term top down. You at least acknowledged that regulations for protecting the environment actually protect the environment. What you argument ignores is that no economy has any worth is the environment itself is sick. A sick environment equals sick people.
Medicare for all. Better than bankruptcy and death for those who don't have to pay their fair share of taxes while they generate lots of environmental pollution.
European socialism: Another appeal to fear.
Using fear as the basis of arguments is the Trump way.
Obviously you are not paying attention
70% top marginal tax - plus state taxes of 5-10% is confiscatory (and I'll pre-empt you - the 90% rate in place decades ago was very short lived and nobody actually paid that - there used to be even more loopholes and ways to hide that for high earners)
I'm a big fan of cleaning up the environment - but some of what AOC was proposing was seriously moronic. Not all bad - but the moronic and unrealistic parts made her sound like an idiot.
Universal coverage is not "medicare for all" - to say nothing of the fact that Medicare is beyond broke and not easily fixable. (admittedly, the devil is in the seriously lacking details)
European socialism - do you have another word for it? There's a reason our economy crushes all others. You sound like one of those privileged kids I see that want to "save the world" - as long as mummy and daddy pay for them to jet around the world and otherwise subsidize their lifestyle, except you want to substitute "the kindness of extremely wealthy strangers" for mummy and daddy.
Great article in the WSJ on Greenwich mansions on what happens when you start jacking up taxes. And if you are familiar with what is happening in CT, it's in a downward spiral driven in part by the wealthy who pay a big chunk of the taxes fleeing the state.
We can improve all of the above, but we can't be stupid about it and most of these ideas are beyond stupid, unless you want to be a European socialist. London calling!
i'll give you a couple
i'll give you a couple guesses as to why they had to hike taxes in greenwich.
who cares anyway? old money moves out, a bunch of NYC investment bankers move in.
and i don't need to explain to you that a 70% marginal tax rate doesn't mean that the government takes 70% of your income, right? right?
No idea if they hiked in Greenwich
They hiked the statewide income tax. What used to be a low tax haven for corporations and individuals in the NY area became about the same. GE moved out, now Travelers and, like many areas, a very small number of extremely high income individuals generate an enormous proportion of taxes. They are deathly afraid of about 100 people deciding to pack their bags.
It's not old out money out, new in. It's everyone out and nobody in. No tears to be shed, but there is something like a decade's worth of VERY expensive homes on the market at the current pace of sales. Lower the price - fine. But that means people of lesser means buying them meaning less taxes. Trickle down economics may not work, but trickle down taxes do. Eventually somebody has to make up the difference and it's often people that can't pay even if you spread the burden.
And yes, I know what a marginal tax is. But it's still confiscatory even if it's on the margin (I believe there were questions about the constitutionality of a rate like that).
for the record - I believe in universal health care - as long as it comes with a universal deductible and an opportunity for private pay/insurance.
I believe in higher taxes - but there are reasonable ways to do this (unlimited payroll taxes, possibly with a donut hole, estate taxes and other ways to do this). I also believe in lower spending - especially on entitlements (long story)
And I believe in cleaning up the environment. But that's also a long story and nobody likes the real answer to the problem. In the meantime - yes we can do things to improve the environment without wrecking the economy.
There's reasonable ways to do all of this. Then there's Ocrazio's ideas (can you say bye, bye Amazon?)
Forget it Jake
it’s stevil town.
You are so full of it your eyes are brown
Middleboro might as well be Mississippi. Pickups trucks with gun racks and stars and bars licence plates/ window stickers litter the place.
Our politicians (even the Libtard Democrats!) fought pot legalization tooth and nail at the behest of police unions.
Redlining, busing crisis, and lots and lots of other racism examples.
Universal Healthcare was a republican idea, (Thanks Mittens) to benefit large insurance companies.
Scott Brown
Non-stop election of Republican Governors (Weld, Cellucci, Swift, Baker) the two Dem Governors in my lifetime actually tried to help bolster the MBTA.
MAYBE one could point to gay marriage as evidence we are super liberal here in MA but thats about it.
Define pocket
I wouldn't call a single town a "pocket" on the national stage. Maybe a change purse at best. If you can't elect a congressperson in a state with 9 of them of one party or the other - there are no pockets. Preferably a "pocket" would be a consistent exception to the rule of who is elected in the rest of the state and even better, a small number of neighboring districts vote contrary to the rest of the state or are at least swing districts. Those haven't existed in MA for years.
If you look at the numbers, we've been trying to help the MBTA for almost two decades. The problem isn't the R or D governors. It's the MBTA itself that lines their own pockets instead of investing in the system.
I have a neighbor up the street
Who has a NRA bumper sticker on his pickup truck. Therefore, I must live in a right wing neighborhood.
I agree with your overall assessment. My gut is that the Democrats need to nominate someone who can win Ohio. Nominating someone who can win Massachusetts or California makes as much sense as the Republicans nominating someone who can win Wyoming or Texas. Picking someone who "reflects the values of the party" is a recipe for losing, regardless of which party we are talking about.
I mostly agree with you
But if the Republicans nominate Trump, they are nominating not someone who reflects the values of the party, but someone who reflects the values of Trump, which sadly are about the same thing these days. I have family members that think he walks on water and that quoting him is the equivalent of quoting Jesus Christ - not from the Bible, but the actual historical Jesus. Of course, fully reinforced by Fox News. Not sure which side is scarier.
Middleboro might as well be
Middleboro might as well be Mississippi. Pickups trucks with gun racks and stars and bars licence plates/ window stickers litter the place.
Hyperbole much?
Silber interview
Somehow I never saw this interview. But I think most of us knew Silver was an angry authoritarian a-hole even without seeing this.. Silber was so bad that I voted for the amber liquid drinking Republican. He was the only Republican I ever voted for in my life.
And make no mistake.Weld is a Republican. Just this morning on MSNBC he said he "loves" the Trump tax cut for the rich.
Egads! I voted for Silber
At that moment we needed "change" and even though I hated the guy when I was at BU, somehow he seemed like the person who could get things done. As time went on and Weld did a great job, I was so happy that I "lost" that election.
I now forget why I became repulsed by Silber, but
I was happy to vote for Weld and happy with his performance as governor. An excruciating shame what a travesty of conservatism the current national GOP has devolved into.
Remember the Silber shockers!
John Silber would be hailed as the voice of reason in today's political climate.
Weld is ripe. Time to go.
Weld is ripe and needs to go. Love him or hate him, President Trump enjoys a stratospheric 88% approval rating among Republicans who will decide the nomination. Unlike the Democrat party, there is no backdoor way for Weld to steal the nomination like Hillary did to Bernie with the Superdelegates and leaked debate questions in advance. It's another quixotic campaign for Weld, who should have been embarrassed enough to stay home after running with Gary "What's Aleppo?" Johnson. Weld hasn't won an election in a quarter century. He should follow Dr. Silber's advice and fade out.
As for Weld's unlikely gubernatorial win in 1990, recall that voters perceived the heavily favored Democrat Silber as being too close to reviled Democrat Senate President Billy Bulger. Although not yet revealed as a serial killer at the time, the public was just beginning to catch on to the Globe's lies that Whitey Bulger "kept the drugs out of Southie." In fact, because of distaste for the Bulger's, Silber lost and Republicans won 18 seats in the State Senate, two shy of a majority. Some Republican winners had not campaigned at all. Sadly, Weld would become even closer to Billy Bulger than Silber ever was, even publicly singing a ditty to Whitey while the bodies of his victim's were decaying, toothless on the coast not far away.
The boot-licking Cult of Trump would love Weld to go away
lest he make it as far as a debate and expose the Orange Buffoon's shocking ignorance of, oh, name the topic.
Trump approval rating.
> President Trump enjoys a stratospheric 88% approval rating among Republicans who will decide the nomination
Sure, but that doesn't necessarily translate into an easy Trump victory in a Republican primary against someone like Weld.
The Victor
....of many a hard-fought bottle.
Tall Duval or Donnie Darko?
I;d vote for Bill Weld over Donald Trump any day.
At least Bill Weld knows America is and always has been great,
Unless you count the Herbert Hoover and George W. Bush presidencies.