So, Kyle ripped Dean Phillips over his Nikki Haley VP idea. And while I had my own take on the issue where I was trying to be more fair to Dean...thinking about it, I kind of dont feel comfortable supporting Dean any more, especially with Marianne Williamson getting back into it. I mean, for the record, I was strongly considering just straight up endorsing Biden for a bit, as with him we know what we're gonna get and he isnt as bad as I thought he would be in 2020. But again Biden is more like my last resort option, not my first choice, and given Dean aligns more with me on policy at least on paper, I decided ti stay the course with Dean.
However, I'm going to be honest, Dean Phillips working across the aisle with republicans is a bad idea. I mean, how is he gonna stay true to ANY of his campaign promises if he works across the aisle with someone who thinks polar opposite of him on EVERYTHING. Nikki haley is ok on foreign policy I guess, but on social issues and economic issues, she's HORRIBLE. She's a bog standard republican who is a little weaker and moderate on SOME stuff (read: not totally batcrap insane with it), but that doesnt mean that i LIKE her or would ever endorse her. I want nothing to do with Haley.
And yeah, Dean is just doing the same mistake Yang did where he ended up sharing his power with a bunch of people diametrically opposed, and suddenly UBI and human centered capitalism is gone. Sure, yang still supports it in theory, but it's a mere virtue signal at this point. And that's how a Dean Phillips presidency or vice presidency would end up. With him just abandoning his entire platform to meet Nikki Haley half way. I'm sorry, but while everyone loves bipartisanship on paper the reason it's so unpopular is because the two parties actually often want totally different things, and don't align.
And while we shouldnt be too insane with our purity tests like the left is doing, there should be like those 5-10 issues that really define you and your candidacy, and if you just abandon them, that doesn't mean anything. I like Dean to an extent because listening to him on Yang's podcast, he was hitting all the right stuff. He was never as extreme as I wanted at times, but again, no one is perfect, we still aligned on most of our top issues to some degree and he was, at the very least, an upgrade from Biden. BUT, if the dude just goes off and plays paddycakes with republicans like Yang is doing with forward, then...this is meaningless.
I wanna emphasize one of the reasons I came back around to Biden in 2023 was because after Yang more or less "betrayed" his movement with his "forward together" crap, I was so alienated Biden's accomplishments started looking good. Had Yang held the line on forward and his ideals, I'd still be ride or die on that camp probably. But like everything else, I ended up just coming around to "ugh, Biden it is...I guess". Like I wanna emphasize that, I really dont WANT to endorse Biden outright until I HAVE to. I want something more, and someone better, but honestly when the alternatives end up messing up that bad, all it does is make me wanna just back Biden because at least we'll get SOMETHING from him.
This bipartisan crap forward and to some extent Dean phillips are delving into is just going to water their politics down to uselessness. You need to have a strong moral compass and a willingness to not abandon your ideas. This isn't to say you never compromise at all, but there should still be those 5-10 things that you believe in that define your candidacy that you absolutely won't compromise much on. When bipartisanship becomes "that thing" it ends up displacing and sabotaging all other things. Because you'll just abandon everything to make the other side happy, when they are our political opponents. And yes, they are opponents. It doesnt mean we should dehumanize them or something, but yes, in politics, your ideas should fight their ideas. Because otherwise, what's the fricking point?
So yeah. Idk if I'll re-endorse Dean if Williamson drops out again, I might just skip the line of succession and go straight to Biden, but yeah. Dean's out, Williamson is back in. If Williamson is an option, well, I know she's genuine. And even if I dont get everything I want (I still dont think she'd follow through on UBI), she's a solid candidate otherwise.
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