We all agree we MUST defeat Trump

[no2trump]

Our country can not take four more years. But all of our 20 candidates are killing each other. I believe none of them will have enough votes at the convention to be nominated. Unlike the Republicans with Trump, they feel they are fighting for the soul of the party. No one will drop out.

Trump’s secret weapon was nobody thought he could win. It was safe for the never-Trumper’s to vote for him in the GE on a straight party-line vote. After his defeat, the soul of the Republican party would return to the establishment. The Democrats do not have that advantage. This will be a battle to the death for the future soul of the party since they think they will win.

There will be a lot of blood spilled and it will hurt personal feelings. So if it plays out the way I think it will, what about Sherrod Brown being our nominee? Since he was not a candidate, he hurt nobody’s feelings and will be strong in the states of the rust belt.

[msongs]

1. actually the candidates are not really referring to each other, its the supporters of some

that may qualify for your assertion

[watoos]

2. WTF?

Trump's secret weapon was Russia and not just help on social media, they fucked with voting machines.

Vigorous debates among our candidates is just fine with me, Trump/Putin is our enemy.

We need Sherrod Brown in the Senate.

[no2trump]

4. I had 2 Republican friends who voted for Trump because he could not win

They just wanted to shake up the system. They liked the fact he was politically incorrect although they thought he was crazy and supported Rubio and then Cruz

The people here on DU are not typical Americans, we follow the news and care about politics. Most people do not; unless it in some way, it will effect them. Leave me alone, don't bother me unless it is within 2 months of an election. Then it is a sport. Even then they will tend to vote for the status quo by re-electing a president unless their personal economy is bad. (Obama, GW Bush, Clinton, Reagan, Nixon, LBJ, Ike, Truman, FDR)

We have to assume the states Hillary carried are our base which we will win in 2020 no matter who we put up against Trump. It does not matter if we win them by 1 vote or 10,000,000 votes, they will count in the same way. Therefore we do not have to excite the people in NY, CA, MA, Ct, WA, OR, NJ, IL etc. They are ours anyway.

However, these are the states which will have the greatest voice in picking our candidate. But the states which will choose our next president are OH, PA, MI, WI, FL, all of which went for Trump in 2016. These battleground states tend to be moderate politically and historically pro-union. We are crazy if we put forth a Health Insurance plan that does not allow for private employer-provided insurance. Benefits are the main reason Unions give when they organize employees. Whoever is our candidate must be able to take three of these states away from Trump.

So the question that must be answered is, which and how will the candidate win the necessary states to defeat Trump. Sadly I think our strongest candidate has already dropped out of the race. The only way Sherrod Brown could be our candidate is if the convention deadlocks.

[BumRushDaShow]

7. "the states which will choose our next president are OH, PA, MI, WI FL, all of which went for Trump"

PA hadn't voted for a Republican for President since 1988, so 2016 was a fluke. The governor here is a Democrat in his 2nd term, the state Supreme Court is majority-Democrat (elected), and all of the top state offices (AG, State Treasurer, State Auditor General) are also all Democrats.

A better thing to look at is what happened in the Governors' races and you see that shift in both WI and MI, so that seems to bode well for those states to vote blue like they did in 2008 & 2012. Also don't leave out states like AZ that is now moving into purple territory and could actually flip.

[BumRushDaShow]

11. That assumption failed for the PA GOP Governer Corbett

when he became the first incumbent governor to NOT be re-elected to a second term in 4 decades after the 2014 gubernatorial election and the first from his party to not have consecutive terms in over 6 decades. Democratic governor Wolf just won his re-election last year (2018).

https://www.mcall.com/opinion/mc-why-tom-corbett-lost-governors-election-yv-1107-20141106-story.html

So as they say, the only thing that is certain is "change".

And as a note for here in PA, the margin of votes that Jill Stein got was greater than the margin of the loss between Hillary and Drumpf. I don't think Stein will be a factor in 2020. She seems to have disappeared into Putin-land.

[marylandblue]

3. Trump's secret weapon is that he's a shameless malignant narcissist.

So I say, let's mix it up, whoever comes out on top is the strongest. Trump & Co. will give him or her 10X what we could do to each other.

[no2trump]

6. Sadly we know it, but the 40% of the general public does not

The other 20% is unsure who they will support.

Trump will pump so much money into the economy that the stock market will continue to go up. He will point to it and say he has the best economy there ever was. Of course, this is not true. Classic economics says when so much money is pumped into the economy inflation should be going wild. But it does not seem to be. The inflation is confined to the Stock Market. This is because 90% of the money being pumped into the economy is going to the rich, and there is only so much stuff they can buy. Instead of the general public enjoying the benefits of all this easy money and buying stuff only the rich are. So the rich buy stocks.

This is creating greater demand for stocks. So, their prices go up because of greater demand. The rising stock market is not a measure of the economy but only the result of inflation in the market. Since the rising market is included in the measure of economic growth, it is included in the GDP number. So the GDP goes up, but it is not a real measure of what is going on in the economy.

Trump's greatest scam on the American people is his phony economy. But it may very well get him re-elected.

[BumRushDaShow]

13. The effect of the tariffs will be taking their toll very soon. nt

[Laelth]

16. Spot on. Well-explained. Thank you. n/t

-Laelth

[MarcA]

5. drumph must be defeated, And indicted and convicted. If not,

he may well return in 2024.

[Lucky Luciano]

8. Most of the 20+ will drop out when clear leaders emerge and...

... most run out of campaign money.

[Lucky Luciano]

12. I doubt it and they tend to push their delegates to a preferred candidate. nt

[Honeycombe8]

15. Yes, they're going to drop out.

When the money and numbers don't pick up when debates start, they'll start dropping like flies.

The candidates are not killing each other. I see one candidate...one....whose supporters are being aggressive against other candidates. I don't see that, to any significant extent, by the supporters of other candidates, or the candidates themselves.