cradleandshoot wrote: ↑Sat Dec 31, 2022 6:25 am
MDlaxfan76 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 30, 2022 8:45 pm
In national elections, I don't expect most Dems to vote for a Republican, just as I (normally) would not expect many Republicans to vote Dem...these are weird times, but if we get back to sane politics, that'll be the pattern.
The question is whether the unaligned tilt one way or the other in any given election and whether voters of any particular group turnout higher than usual.
But times are indeed weird, so I'll likely crossover.
I've only voted for a Dem for POTUS once in my life, but until MAGA (and any other brand of Christian Nationalist, etc) is put down hard, Dems are going to be my default for a bit.
I'd vote for Cheney in a heartbeat over DeSantis, and I'll have the opportunity to make that choice in the GOP primaries should they both run. I won't vote for Trump or DeSantis or Abbott or Cruz or Hawley or any other MAGA Republican in the primaries, nor in the general, period.
On the other hand, the Dems will need to put up a decent person to earn my vote, OR the GOP puts up a MAGA. I'd even take a Warren over a MAGA at this point.
Biden, even old and doddering two years from now, is better than any MAGA by a long shot.
I don't think RD is dumb enough to invest his political capital in an election in 2024 that could include trump running as a 3rd party candidate. I could be wrong but hopefully trump will be castrated of any sort as a viable political candidate in the very near future. If it ain't RD or trump then who more likely could the Rs turn to that would give them a smidgeon of hope? I understand the fact that most Republicans don't like Liz very much. If your willing to throw in the towel on 2024 then Liz Cheney would be the perfect sacrificial lamb.
Why are you so fixated on Cheney?
There's no way on god's green earth that she could win the 2024 primary in MAGA-GOP world.
We can wish all we want that the situation was different and that putting country first is actually rewarded politically right away in the GOP, but it won't be.
It's going to take more than Trump dissolving to get rid of this extreme right lurch, this appeal to Christian Nationalism, demonization of the "Other" etc, this bizzaro world of conspiracy mongers and election deniers, as dominant in the GOP.
At least another cycle, maybe two or three. Gotta lose repeatedly.
This is likely DeSantis' moment, whether it's the "smart" time or not.
I could be entirely wrong, but everything he's done over the past two years appears to be in anticipation of the national run in 2024, under the expectation that the Trump voters will ultimately need a candidate who channels their "values" (deranged and ugly as they are) if and when Trump falters as their standard bearer. He's tried not to directly antagonize Trump, while also not endorsing him. That's an untenable situation, but I think he plays this out as the non-declared candidate in the wings, hoping that Trump's legal woes worsen to the point where the party en masse turns to him and begs him to join the race. They're already doing so behind closed doors, with large, mostly dark, fundraising in anticipation.
Meanwhile, in some polls, he's ahead of Trump by 20%, yet without declaring himself a candidate.
On the other hand, if Trump survives the legal woes, wins the nomination and loses the general, yes, people will again turn to DeSantis...but had he endorsed Trump in the primaries, not a candidate himself? Did he work hard publicly for Trump in the general?
And, at least IMO, DeSantis' image is going to worsen significantly the more that people pay attention to him...as they will be doing these next 6 years.