Just got this message/survey from a Democratic PAC, who would you pick?

AOC turns 35 right before the election, she's eligible. I think she'd be incredible. She knows how to energize people
- I really wish she wasn’t constantly referred to by an acronym, it makes her sound like a super PAC or some other soulless organization instead of an actual person. Pedantic I know, but as someone only vaguely familiar with her, it’s the first thing I think of when I hear about her.
  
  What about MLK, LBJ, JFK, RFK, etc? Lots of people get "initialized"

Why doesn't it ever stop
It's not just in the politics subs now, it's everywhere
Please, won't someone make it stop
- You can try to ignore politics all you want but it'll fuck up your life anyway.
  
  Not everyone lives in the USA you donkey. Your circus is EVERYWHERE and it's driving me insane. It's literally all you can talk about.
  
  And it'll fuck up your life if you don't ignore it either. Talking about politics online does not equate to political activism.
- Welcome to Mr. Bones' Wild Ride, it never ends!
  
  I want to get off Mr. John Adultman’s repeated explanations of why Biden needs to step down
- It's only going to get worse for almost a year.
- Just keep your head in the sand bruh. Its where you've been this whole time.
  
  Hey! It's the guy with nothing worth saying. That still manages to say it too loud.
  
  Not everyone lives in the US you idiot.

Bernie sanders with AOC as his VP pick
- Biden is too old but you want to pick Bernie? I love the guy and donated to his campaigns, but he is not the Biden replacement.
  
  Old yes but still on his game, which is all that matters
  
  He's still sharp, and there's literally no one I trust more to do the job tbh.
- I'm curious who Bernie would pick.

Bernie?
- How about we appreciate the work he’s done but get some actual you get folks who aren’t boomers in charge. His time has unfortunately passed for the highest office but he can be hugely effective in an important cabinet position.
  
  Shutup Feinstein
- I've been saying that for over ten years now, but the time has passed for him. Doesn't he have a younger protege that we can start pushing?
  
  I think it's AOC, but conservatives have a disdain for her that I worry would be Hillary part 2.
- I voted for him in the 2020 primary, but if were pushing Biden out because he's too old then the same certainly applies to Bernie. Even if he's more coherent and effective now, how will he be in four years?

The obvious answer is "whom ever the corporate lobbyist says should take over."
- I should’ve answered that. But, I picked Harris even though I wanted Whitmer.

Why the fuck is Michelle Obama even in the list?
- Can't have america without political dynasties
  
  Seriously. Even here on Lemmy people are suggesting her. I think she's an awesome person but what makes her even remotely qualified to be president other than being married to a previous president? When I see shit like this it just reminds me of Hollywood and their insistence on rebooting anything and everything familiar to the populace whether they want it or not. If they'd more consistently won it'd be Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama, Clinton, Biden, Obama spanning the last 40 years in a country with 330 million individuals.

Danny DeVito
- Good choice, but he’s contracted to play the next Wolverine.
- If Danny DeVito were president, I would love to America in a heartbeat.
- I'm pretty tired of celebrities with no qualifications running the country.

Other: Birdie Sanders, the only politician benevolent enough to be blessed by a visit from a bird during his speech.
- If Democracy is threatened by fascism, as we’ve been told, then it’s time for Michelle Obama to step up. She can resign after the win. Do the right thing Michelle.

Other
Pete Buttigeg/AOC dream team.
Young, wicked smart, progressive enough.
- The McKinsey consultant? The guy managing the Boeing stuff currently? I guess he couldn't be too much worse than the current situation but why would you proactively choose him?
  
  Because he could talk his way out of a pair of handcuffs and a locked cage, and I think we need someone to highlight the stupidity coming from the right and he can do it. Let AOC be the power behind the office and keep him in line.
- Found the New Englander.

None of the above, although Michelle would rock it - but she's said she's not interested, and having watched her husband do the job for 8 years, that's probably a hard "nope."
Harris will lose the race. She'll be a popular punching bag for conservatives, and she's polling even lower than Biden.
My favorites aren't on there. Where's Cory Booker? Where's Amy Klobuchar? Where's Andrew Yang? Where's Buttigieg, or Warren?
Yang, Buttigieg, and Warren would lose, for different reasons. Klobuchar or Booker would stand a chance, i think. But of all of these "pre-vetted" options, I guess Whitmer's in a strong position.
But not Harris. It'll be her, of course, if he does step back, but they'll crucify her. It'll be Clinton all over again, only she's starting even less popular than Hillary was. I don't think conservatives have quite the visceral hatred for her that they seem to have foot Hillary, and she's less prone to sticking her foot in her mouth, but nobody likes her, either. At least Hillary appealed to progressive women.
- At least Hillary appealed to progressive women.
  As a progressive woman, this is news to me.
- Harris is the least disruptive choice. I want a socialist, but that ain’t happening.
  
  Why not? Republicans won with a fascist.
  Surely this means as the "center" position liberalism can accept a socialist.
- I honestly don't fully understand the Kamala hate. I know she was a prosecutor, but I don't remember having a strong negative opinion of her in 2020.
  
  I have no opinion about her. I just know she hasn't polled well.
  I have read that some progressives didn't like her performance as prosecutor, but you're never going to win with some groups with that job.
  
  It's just racists and misogynists not wanting to vote for a WOC
- Where’s Andrew Yang?
  #YangGang is a glimpse into the reality of the Democratic Party's Asian American problem. (this isn't the appropriate venue to actually discuss those issues; a quick Google search will quite contemporary results showing the trend).
  Yang has moved on and created the "Forward Party" which is working to gain ballot access at the local level in a handful of States.
  
  Thanks! I know Yang's active, but I wasn't aware he was that active. I hope he gets traction; it's a steep, nearly impossible hill for third parties.
- Tammy Duckworth FTW...

I want to get off mr bones wild ride

Pete Buttiegieg
- ✅ Military experience. We may need a leader who knows first hand the danger they are putting our young men and women in.
  ✅ Governing experience (if you can be a community organizer, peanut farmer, or reality TV star, being a mayor is absolutely legitimate experience)
  ✅ Federal experience
  ✅ I'm gonna say it- in hindsight he managed the rail union strike amazingly well. He avoided a supply chain catastrophy, then a few months later got the union the sick time they need. He had his cake and ate it too.
  ✅ Medicare for those who want it is a realistic plan. It's it perfect? No. But it's better and more importantly can pass through Congress.
  I fully expect comments to fully support this take without any criticism for a center left candidate who doesn't plan on tearing down capitalism brick by brick./s
  
  Also, I'm gonna say it, I'd love to vote for a gay man. I'd love to see the GOP desperately try to bite their tongue knowing that the overwhelming majority of Americans wouldn't support them saying "don't vote for the f*****" which we all know they'd want to say so damn hard. You know they'd end up slipping up and showing their true colors which could help turn people away.
  
  All of that and he does SO much better than any one else I've seen on interviews. If he isn't president this year he'll run in 2028.
  
  I dunno. He seems kinda Cunty In Allegiance.

I don't do these polls. They are just a way to get a foot in the door to solicit donations. The majority of the time you can't even complete them without pledging to donate.
- Yes, they solicit donations. It doesn’t mean you have to donate. I do them to influence the party. Give me the policies I want, then I’ll donate.
  
  They get their guiding information from real polls, collected by real people, over the phone or in person. There is no way they would rely on a crazy inaccurate web poll to gather any useful information. If you analyze these "polls" at all, you can easily see that they are barely disguised push-polls without any statistical value. They would be crazy to rely on them.
  I DO participate when an actual pollster conducting an actual scientific poll calls me,

I'd pick the one that polls the highest against Trump whether I like them or not. That was the only reason I was supporting Biden in the past. If I could go back in time and do a real primary and pick someone based on who would run the country the best it could be a million people (Bernie, AOC, Buttigieg, etc), but the thing that matters to me most is who stands the best chance against Trump. A milquetoast do-nothing dem is a mile ahead of Trump 2.0 + P2025.
- That's pretty much the entirety of the DNC platform now, "Not Trump". I went to the Democrat's website last night to actually read the platform and the first thing I saw was a huge banner with Trump's face.

Boaty McBoatface

As POTUS I don't doubt that she'd adopt the same shitty foreign policy as Biden, but I do like what Whitmer has done in Michigan. We could do worse.
- I wanted Whitmer but I chose to be pragmatic and picked Harris. I just want Biden to bow out.

Please don't take Josh Shapiro. I don't have faith in my fellow Pennsylvanians not to elect a Republican.
- We probably aren't lucky enough to get three in a row.
  Also, he reminds me of David Rosen from Scandal, and it already feels too much like we're living in that dystopia.
  
  I'd prefer the Scandal dystopia to this. At least the main characters would be better looking.
- I don’t know much about him
  
  I'm not American and actually don't know much about him but aside from the one glaring topic in that wiki, he sounds ok to me? Curious as to what shitty things he's done if anyone feels like sharing.
  Editing to say: the one glaring topic is a pretty fucking important topic in my books, but I don't imagine any other American politician with a chance having a different opinion on the matter

elizabeth warren

John Cena.
- Haven’t seen him campaigning /s
  
  He heh.
- After he apologized to the CCP in Mandarin?
  Please don't make this turd president.
  
  Ah yes, Zhong Xina
  
  Come now, that's just proof of international goodwill and diplomatic accumen. We should all be kind to each other.
  Also, being a polyglot is something to always be admired.

Unless they run another primary, Kamala is the best choice IMHO. Already tied to the Biden ticket, so it would feel less like the DNC is hand-picking whoever they want as a candidate. She polls well. Can get creative with the VP.

No Pete Buttigieg? Probably just as corporate as the other ones, but seems like he’d make a semi-decent pick.
- I'm already sold, you don't have to convince me.

Bernie

Probably Harris because Michelle said no and newsome is an easy target.

Michelle Obama would honestly just win by default, but I'd probably pick Whitmer realistically.
- I got another message. This one I picked Whitmer.

There was a poll a few weeks back that showed Michelle Obama being the most popular pick; take that with a grain of salt because we all know how biased and skewed those poll results are based on a number of factors which we can't know.
That said, I think she did a lot of great work as First Lady and I'd happily vote for her. I think she's got the potential to get people fired up and excited about the possibilities, much like Obama did, and everything else aside, that's what we really need - excitement, enthusiasm, and for people to want to get out there and vote. I think she could provide that moreso than anyone else on the list.
- Has she expressed an interest?
  
  afaik she's expressed a disinterest

Harris would be the only pick that would prevent the Supreme Court from installing trump as dictator.

Pritzker has been awesome in IL. He would be an amazing president. Probably the most progressive of anyone in that list.

I would unitity, not division
- Like Cyclops, Unitity is an interesting mythical character: one boob.
  I also like unity.

- Aquaman it is.

Gretchen Whitmer.
Garlin Gilchrist is way more pro transit and would be great for Michigan.

All of 'em are better than Trump and I think Kamala probably has the best chance of winning the general.

Mark Kelly

These options are kinda wild, and I'm wondering from where they're sourced. Of the ones available, I think I'd prefer Newsom.
Has Pritzker expressed any interest? I thought he was a bit busy being my governor.

Its a coming to Jesus moment for party centrists about being so historically wrong they've been about everything, this entire time. And this is them trying to make up for it in rapid time. This is them realizing they don't and didn't know what the fuck they were doing, ever.
Real answer: We should nominate whoever is most likely to win. The most important and only point is that we need to beat Trump, and we need to stop project 2025. Keeping Biden as the nominee has continuously fucked over our ability to fix this idiotic and stupid unforced error, but here we are. We can fix this.
I think the most electable combination is Kamala + 1. I think that + 1 should be either farther to the left or farther to the right, but regardless you need to get a demographic. The two best options are AOC and Andy Beshear. If you go Andy Beshear, you are trying to pull off NC and GA, and PA. If you go AOC, you are doing so to recover the upper midwest. Andy Beshear is the harder path in an extremely polarized environment; Democrats have been notoriously bad at clawing back votes in southern states. If you go the AOC route, you let her take an oppositional stance on Israel/ Gaza and claw back MI/ MN/ WI.
- AOC is a lightning rod for conservatives, moreso due to sexism imho than her politics because she gets way more hate than Bernie even though they're politically very similar. She's not a good choice just because of that. I don't think the general population of the US is ready for two women on a ticket, esp two women of color. Could make an exciting ticket in the way Obama was, but only if Kamala proves to be as engaging of a speaker. Which, honestly I think she's a good orator but a lot of people will have trouble seeing past the fact she is a woman, and Kamala will unconsciously or consciously have all the usual biases against women in power (bossy, crazy, etc).
  I honestly had no idea who Beshear is but just looking him up, I think he'd be an okay pick. Looks like a boring white guy, has solid liberal track record. I feel like a white guy who supports Palestine would be better, Kamala has a lot of pushback from leftists from her time as DA in CA. Idk who that would be.
  
  This hand wringing around what "conservatives" want is not a way to decide who the Democratic nominee should be.
  She’s not a good choice just because of that.'
  If anything, having them as a lightening rod to be able to put the racism & sexism of the republican party on full display; there is narrative power in that.
  You put AOC on the ticket and you let her step left on Gaza/ Israel.
  You make the ENTIRE campaign about abortion rights and a woman's right to choose. Get back to the progressive roots that underpinned the platform that got Harris/ Biden elected in the first place. Activate a base around specifically abortion rights and I think you get this thing in the bag. Women right now are incredibly disenfranchised by the shockingly weak way in-which Biden has responded to the overturning of Roe V Wade. This is a chance to activate the singularly largest voting block there is in the US: Women. And they overwhelmingly support a womans right to choose.
  VP's are notoriously bad at "getting" their states. Beshear is the soft answer and MSNBC is test-ballooning this right now.
  If Andy Beshear "gets you" KY, he's worth it. If he can't get KY (and really also GA, and NC), he's a waste of space. But maybe he can do it. I just don't see any other conservative Democrat who can fit that bill right now.
  I think the double woman ticket leaning into the only thing thats worked for Democrats in 20 years, progressive idealism, is how you lock things up.
- MN hasn't voted republican in a presidential election since tricky dick in 1972. There have been a few close calls.
  
  MN Polling: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/minnesota/ MN polling at a toss up (keep in mind Trump almost always outperforms his polling).
  Another fun one, Jersey is now a swing state: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/new-jersey/

Pritzker has done a good job here for us, but I don't know if I'd want him as president. I hear good things about this Gretchen lady, even if she has an unenviable name. I'd have to do some actual research first, and I'm not doing that right now.

As a non-USAmerican I only know Michelle Obama from that list. But if you want real change and young voters, get AOC on the ticket. I bet you that'll wake people up. She's media savvy and could probably get the entire tiktok+insta viewership to campaign for her. The facebook folk probably less so, and the redditors 50/50. She would need a male vice president though. Two women in the US ain't making it this year.
But honestly, I want Trump to win. The world needs a good shake up and divorce from the USA. New alliances have to be made and the reliance on US tech and media has to stop. I know it would hurt USAmericans, but it'd be the best for the world to stop following the USA as if hypnotised.
- You're delusional if you think it would only hurt Americans. America would become EVERYONE'S problem in a big way.
  
  I doubt they can become a problem in 4 years. Come election time (2028), there will be a civil war and it'll implode as Trump tries to hold on to power and become president for a 3rd time. He's unpredictable, but one country against the world? They lost countless war games.
- Already happened 2016. It was awful. Hoped we'd never be here again.
  Unless you've been hiding under a rock, you can see its influence spread over the globe. Germany recently voted hard right. Israel is a genocidal shithouse. India is Modi's Muslim hate factory. All strutting the Putin way: oligarchs ruling & fascist division of the people spread with propaganda (RT, Fox news, Facebook & twaXtter).
  
  Do you seriously think that was Trump? Nah dude, that was US media that has been infecting the world since the second world war. After Europe collapsed, the US swooped into the void and filled it with media portraying themselves as the victors and saviors. It spread USAmerican tribalism far and wide.
  Then social media came along and Europe still hadn't caught up nor recognised the power of media. Investments in film, TV, music, and internet were, and still are, ridiculously small compared to US investments. The internet just helped US media percolate deeper into European society. Now it's on everbody's phones and is an endless barrage.
  Of course fossil fuel companies have a large role to play too. They helped mold a world focused on their product, which fucks up the environment. And tech companies play an even bigger role today, exploiting poor countries that were kneecapped by the US by destroying their democracies (or attempts at democracies) decades ago.
  People want to flee and Europe comparatively easier to reach than the US, so they tried and still try to escape their situations. That of course gives right wing parties fodder to spread their hatred and blame a defenseless scapegoat.
  I'm not saying the US is the root of all evil, I'm saying they play a monumental part in it. Trump is just an accelerator to a possible decoupling of Europe and other economies from the US.
  We all know the DNC is controlled by corporate interests. They aren't protecting the population. All they are protecting is their investments. Had they cared about the people, they'd never had thrown their support behind a second term for Biden. He too old 4 years ago and is way too old now. If the vote is won by a democrat, and that will only happen if the DNC takes a fucking stick out of their ass and force Biden to drop out ASAP, that will just mean another 4 years where the US can keep semi-good relations with the world. The world won't have a reset button.