2020

Another one from the this should be a tweet thread not a blog post file.

I don’t discuss politics often. I don’t mind discussing politics, but my knowledge of proposed policies is pretty thin. For example, I’m embarrassed to admit that I can’t tell you the differences between single payer or medicare for all. Is there a difference? In the past it’s been enough for me to know that the GOP policy is don’t be poor.

There are a lot of Democrats running, that’s for sure. I’ll be voting for any of them over Trump. I need to start getting smarter about the differences in their policy positions. I figured I could wait a bit to see if the crowd thinned. The length of the campaign is ridiculously, unnecessarily long.

I’m intrigued by Tulsi Gabbard. She’s one of the few candidates who is clearly not a neoliberal neocon. Probably doesn’t make a lot of sense to use those two terms next to one another. The media suggests she’s a Russian asset. If you watch MSNBC, everyone’s a Russian asset. I’ve also heard people suggest that she’s a Trumpist in Dem’s clothing, what with her appearances on Tucker Carlson and her popularity with the right’s twitterverse.

I just finished reading brief overviews of her policies on her website. End the forever wars, healthcare for all, focus on the environment, etc. In almost every section she criticizes Trump. I’m not sure where all the suspicion comes from. I’m a little suspicious about the suspicion!

I don’t think she has much of a chance, but it seems like the DNC has done its best to marginalize her. If anyone knows of any thoughtful criticism against her that doesn’t start with Russia Russia Russia Fox News please send it my way. If anyone’s curious, I think her meeting with Assad was a bad idea, but I also think using that to label her as pro-Assad or pro-Russia is dumbed down analysis. It’s possible to view Iraq, Afghanistan, and the DOD’s dishonesty revealed in The Afghanistan Papers and conclude that we should not be in another Middle Eastern war without it being a statement in support of authoritarian dictators.