Ted Rall for February 26, 2020

The thing is that with the Trumpistas so far off to the right, if you go to the middle of the span, you’re still right of what we used to call “conservative”; and the folks who are actually liberal are so far to the left that it looks as though they’re off the chart. It’s not really true, though, it’s the incredibly right wing group who’s moved.

A centrist is a conservative who isn’t a reactionary.

There ain’t nothing in the middle of the road but yellow stripes and roadkill….

the center is where folks used to come together to work out compromises that satisfied both sides so that we could move forward. that polarization doesn’t work is something that ted seems not to grasp…

Trump and Bernie are a lot alike, in many ways

It is an absurd statement. A more accurate framing would be “why should someone vote for a pretend Republican when they can vote for a real one?” People are voting for people they think are “authentic” – which of course in #45’s case is someone who lies confidently and is openly sexist and racist – so a Democrat pretending to be conservative is inherently untrustworthy – and is.

The reality is that we don’t know if a liberal can win today, because we haven’t tried in a long, long time! Both Clintons and Obama were “neoliberals” – meaning corporate-friendly moderate Republicans, who were socially (relatively) liberal but otherwise very little different from George H. W. Bush, and in the pocket of Wall Street almost as much as the GOP (which of course has moved to being in the pocket of the Russians). Biden is no better. The “mainstream” of the Democratic Party “leadership” has abandoned labor for Wall Street, and has moved so far right that the former mainstream (New Dealers) like Bernie Sanders are now seen as “left-wing.” Nonsense. We’ve NEVER had a major candidate who was really left-wing – proposing government control of industry, forcible redistribution of wealth, or government-provided healthcare, for instance. Instead we see mild tax raises that are nowhere near where they were in the 1970s or even 1980s, and incremental improvements to healthcare through Medicare for All (admittedly a stalking horse for a more substantial single payer).

The enthusiasm for a flawed candidate like Sanders among #45’s own audience in the Midwest should give people some pause. I think it very likely that a REAL liberal, unafraid to call out plutocrats and speaking on behalf of most Americans, has a real shot at the presidency. We saw it in the “Blue Wave,” which were mostly composed of this category of Democrat, not the Powers That Be in the party.

What we need is someone who talks to what people need, and doesn’t let the GOP define the debate terms!

Swing voters are Moderates, and will vote for Liberals, and have. Most Americans are Moderates. They won’t vote for socialists.

Nominating a moderate is like agreeing to play the whole game inside the other team’s 50 yard line. I would rather choose a liberal and hope for a few Hail Marys than settle for someone who has already conceded the game before the kickoff.

This is a reeking pile of total fabrication.

False binary

Don’t make the Dem election about what Trump voters want, they are a lost cause.

Panel four is the result of the 2024 Presidential Election.

Nominate Bernie and Trump will spend the next four years ending the American system of governance

The problem for the “centrist” Dems is that they have no viable platform to contest Trump. They can’t run on “fixing” the economy. They can’t appeal to the higher paid union workers. Pro-life isn’t going to work for them.

These CONservative cartoonists are giving me a huge headache. They used to a gigantic pain in the butt.

Weaktoon

I feel ill.