2016 and the Annoying Liberal Conscience

The 2016 buzz has begun and already we are seeing polling numbers and commentary on a potential run at the presidency by Hillary Clinton on the Left and Jeb Bush or other prominent conservatives on the Right. The comments underneath all of the liberal articles are teeming with posts begging for a Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren ticket. This troubles me as a liberal because, although I know liberals tend to vote with a conscience, that conscience is a double edged sword that will come back to bite us like it has in the past.

Let me explain.

First, I should frame my viewpoint in terms of the analogous conservative equivalent. Hey, liberals. What do we tell Republicans about voting in hard core representatives from their conservative base? Yeah. You know what we say. Don't act like you don't. We tell them that Tea Party candidates are dangerous and not in line with main stream America. We tell them that extremist ideas are not good.

Well, isn't that the same thing Bernie Sanders ends up being? He's an extreme Lefty. He's our Ted Cruz. What chance does Ted Cruz have in a general election? What good does a Ted Cruz do for our country? Conservatives suck on his teat like no other just as liberals love a good Bernie Sanders appearance on TV, but the broader picture can't survive a Ted Cruz, so by the same token, Bernie Sanders is better left to fight our battles in Congress, not in the White House.

But your liberal conscience wants to argue with me over that just like Tea Party nuts want to argue with me over wanting Rand Paul to rise up and run. End the Fed. All that jazz. The same conservative conscience that turns its nose up at us wants a Rand Paul candidacy just like we want a Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren candidacy. That's why primaries are so messy. Every candidate has to play to the base in primaries and the broader picture in the general election. Jeb Bush knows this. Hillary knows this. Sanders doesn't care. Paul doesn't care. Cruz doesn't care. Warren might care. I'm not sure.

What I do know is this. Clamoring for a Warren or Sanders ticket is primary talk, not general election talk.

But your liberal conscience can't take a Hillary for President ticket, can it? That's the next part of our conscience that screws us over. You would sooner stay home and not vote than vote for Hillary Clinton. You would rather sound all smarty smart with George Carlin quotes than use History to make the case that not voting is a bad idea. Look at the 2014 mid-terms. Look where not voting got us. Turn out always favors Republicans and the liberal conscience prevents us from gaining any ground during those elections because we have principles or something that sounds warm and fuzzy like that.

And your liberal conscience also splits the vote like with Nader and Gore. What happened there? Thanks, liberal conscience.

Listen up. We need a moderate liberal voice in the White House and a liberal conscience in the House and Senate. Why? Legislation is written in Congress. The power of the pen rides on the back of Congressional legislation. If we send Bernie and Elizabeth to Congress, they'll push bills that Hillary will sign. If we push our conscience into the presidential election, we'll get a Republican who won't go along with anything Bernie or Elizabeth sign off on.

I've seen liberal media lately talk up this idea of riling up the liberal base by standing up for liberal ideas and whatnot. That's all fine and good, but if we don't get exactly what you want, does that mean the fire has to be doused with your apathy? When you back out, you give the Republicans Congress and the White House. I don't mind Hillary. She's not a Landrieu who won't represent a liberal like me in Louisiana. Hillary is going to follow our lead if we send her the message we want in Congress. She answers to us through bills we get our representatives to push. We have seen this with Obama, haven't we? If we want something, we have to fight for it, even if the president in office isn't our ideal liberal. If we send Obama a clean liberal bill without Republican obstructionism in the way, we'll get what we want.

If you'd rather Nader us again or put us through another shellacking, go ahead and convince yourself the liberal conscience is a hard line we must toe. You're no different than a Teabagger if you believe that. The pendulum cannot afford to swing back that far Left after the troubles Obama has faced. If we didn't have such strong conservative negative advertising against us like talk of tax hikes, scary fake Socialism claims, or threats of driving up the debt, I'd say go ahead and stick to your guns. That's not the way American voters work under normal circumstances because they're dumb. Don't stay home. Don't turn your nose up. Solidarity is our ticket. The rest can be adjusted via Congress.

You Supported Hillary, Now McCain?

How can you go from a Hillary Clinton supporter to a John McCain supporter overnight? Just because Hillary didn't get the nomination you're going to sacrifice your political stance? Policies are completely different when comparing Hillary Clinton to John McCain. You are doing a complete 180 degree turn. What the hell is wrong with you?

Vote based on policy, not on gender. Don't vote based on resentment or because you lost and now choose to protest. Protest by writing in her name, not by voting for someone who will lead the country in the opposite direction Hillary was planning on taking it. Compared to McCain, Barack Obama has more in common with Clinton. You want universal health care, you won't get it with McCain. Want out of Iraq? Can't get that with McCain. Want independence from foreign oil? Won't get that with POW soldier boy. I have to ask...are you on drugs?

I don't see how someone can go from supporting a Democrat one day and a Republican the next like that when political stances between the two are so very different.

You are indeed an idiot.

I just saw a woman on BBC News America that said she was going to write in Hillary's name, but now with McCain's VP pick, she's going to vote for McCain. The thing is, this crazy fat dolt of a woman couldn't remember Sarah Palin's name.

Hillary, if you are listening, your message to back Barack Obama was not received by your supporters. SAY IT LOUDER so these deaf morons can hear you.

A Clinton Coinkydink

This is just gonna be a brief post, but interesting nonetheless.

I was driving through Little Rock on I-30 the other day. A Jeep Grand Cherokee drove up along side me. She had a Hillary '08 sticker on the back window. The second she pulled up, my iPod started playing Journey's Don't Stop Believing.

Sopranos Parody anyone? Uncanny. Please tell me you get my sense of irony?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BEPcJlz2wE

Compassion Forum???

Looks more like "Let's get some good PR" forum. I'm sure everybody will say some important things and decent questions will get asked, but do we really need to hear what they're saying at this point in the campaign? Hopefully you've been listening to every debate up to now. If you haven't, I don't think it's a good idea for you to start now. Voting has serious consequences. We've learned that the hard way.

Holy hell look at all the religious questions! Be compassionate to your viewers and leave God at the door. Fcuk! (Yeah, the clothing store :P )

Is this Liberal Faith Fluff day? You know, they'll attempt to convince the crazies on the religious right that there are God-fearing liberals. They aren't voting for a Democrat anyway are they? Who cares. Don't pander to those religious nuts. Ah...a vote is a vote isn't it?

With the dissatisfaction from the religious right towards McCain, maybe the idea here is to see if some of those folks are willing to vote for Hillary or Barack. Independents may go for it, but any Christian conservative will snub their nose at such a thought.

When do you think life begins?
Are they really asking that? Stupid stupid stupid.

Okay, first off, they're asking the wrong question. Your wording has to be very specific if you're going to get involved in talking about abortion. You can't say "life" or "living" because anyone who took high school biology knows that cells are living by definition. You need to ask when you consider "it" a human being. Then you can move forward.

Where is forward? So glad you asked. Embryology 101 is where it's at. That's where you will get the answer. A human being at conception is a religious idea and as you all know, the world is full of people who practice different religions. Science, however, is universal. Sit down with an obstetrician and learn how a clump of cells turns into something else. Potential for human life is like potential to commit murder. You wouldn't arrest me even though, potentially, I could run out and kill someone tomorrow. Ever see Minority Report? Potential means exactly dick.

Abstinence?
Doesn't work. End of discussion. Get lost. Move on. Quit being a stick in the mud. Aint gonna fix the problem. You want to fix the problem, don't you? Well convincing yourself that abstinence has worked might help you sleep at night, but the fact remains. It works about as efficiently as Lucille Ball at a production line.

Ugh this forum is so ridiculous. It's only as good as the questions that are asked. Well the questions suck donkey balls.

Yes Obama, you hit it right on the head. Self righteousness and the inability to admit that you're wrong when injecting religion into the public debate is a problem. You've got to learn how to word it so that these values and ethics can be communicated across all walks of life, not just spoken to the beat of the little drummer boy.

CNN, faith interwoven into the fabric of America is dangerous because Americans are dumb. People are generally dumb. Don't talk this stuff up because they aren't absorbing any of it.

• Michigan, Florida

If Michigan and Florida voters would have bitched, moaned, and groaned this much BEFORE their elections, maybe both states would have played by the rules. Both states were warned and it wasn't any secret. Yes everyone's vote is important, but going through the motions when you knew you were doing something that wouldn't count, don't whine about being disenfranchised. The way I see it, this whole debacle illustrates how easy it is for Americans to sit on their butts and not get riled up about important issues. They want to let somebody else go to the local government and complain. Hello? Backbone?

Yeah Hillary wants the advantage and I'm not happy with her for doing what she's doing. Bite the bullet and quit trying to squeeze out as many delegates as you can. Why did you put your name on the ballot to begin with? I like your health care plan babe, but you're getting too 2000 Al Gore about this. That kind of image is going to hurt. Keep fighting with what you've earned so far or concede.

• Ice Queen McCain

If you think Hillary is an ice queen, then you should not have any problem with me pointing out that McCain's wife looks like an icy witch too. That shrew makes Hillary look like a princess. We don't need cryogenic technology to freeze John McCain's body. Just let him kiss his wife and he'll be turned stone cold instantly. Why has she suddenly stepped up to stand at his side in almost every public appearance? If anything, the prude hurts his image even more. I'd rather see Al Gore kiss Tipper on a video loop connected to a big screen TV in high definition. I find it amusing that the pundits on the Right find her attractive. I bet they think Ann Coulter is hot too. These Republicans wouldn't know hot if it sat on their face. They love their shrewy blonde stick figures, don't they?

• Re: Bill Maher 2-1-2008

I really wanted Bill to mention Ann Coulter's bs that came out of her ass of a mouth today about campaigning for Hillary Clinton if McCain gets the Republican nomination. If I were Hillary, I would have come on national TV and declined the gesture and would have flat out said no way in hell would I accept her endorsement. Coulter claims that Clinton is more conservative than McCain.

Bill didn't, so I was disappointed.

There was one joke, however, that I heard him tell that I expected to have a completely different punch line. He was sitting down with that jerk off, Frank Luntz, and they discussed his Playboy article reflecting on a survey of liberals vs conservatives regarding sex. I've already heard something like these results before on his show, but apparently liberals have more interesting sex lives and conservatives have happier sex lives. So here came Maher's joke.

But Democrats are thinking about the person they're fucking. When Republicans have sex, they're not thinking about the person they're with. They're thinking about Democrats.

I expected a different joke because I've heard Bill talk about the almost homosexual infatuation Republican men have with Ronald Reagan. I expected him to say Republicans think about Reagan during sex instead of their spouse.

• Hillary Campaign a Distraction?

It crossed my mind a while back that Hillary could be running as a distraction for the right wingers so that Obama can move up without getting hit by the Republicans smear machine. We all know how much people hate the Clintons. The right wing media figures and their followers are chomping at the bit to get their chance at attacking Hillary and Bill.

Recent events in the race might flat out debunk my idea.

The bickering and competitiveness between the two in South Carolina makes it look like Hillary really is in it to go all the way. Bill's involvement in the middle of all of that stuff means he's also on the march back to the White House. With the recent endorsements for Obama, a Hillary campaign still could be a put up deal. I know it sounds a little far fetched, but it's a good idea. Several media figures have actually commented on how ill-prepared the conservative candidates would be if the election were fast approaching and Obama was the Democratic nominee. They've been so busy busting Hillary's balls that Obama has slipped right past them.

On a side note, this also speaks to the preparedness of the Democrats to handle Romney because in South Carolina, all three voiced how well they would fare against McCain as if he was automatically the nominated Republican candidate, not the Mormon dude.