I still have nothing to add that others don't say better. No new insights. Because we are something of a group I might be interested in what you will do, and you might be interested in what I will do, once we get closer to action time. But as it will be largely symbolic, I see no hurry.
Or maybe this.
Vote for Veep?
ReplyDeleteAs the old Pogo strip went: "Never mind who's for president, who's for vice?"
We could categorize general strategies for voting selection:
ReplyDelete1. Vote for the candidate you like best and want to be President. (Problematic when you don't like any of them and experience at least a mild frisson of horror whenever you contemplate any of them in the Oval Office. This happens to me frequently.)
2. Vote for favorite Veep, a la James.
3. Vote against the candidate who's more horrifying.
4. Vote for (or against) the politicians the candidate will bring in on his or her coattails. (I think not much of an issue this election, since I don't think either major-party candidate is likely to have coattails, but possibly applicable in other elections.)
5. Vote for the segment of society that will be encouraged by the victory of [candidate], if you think that segment deserves encouragement. (Alternative: vote against that segment, if you believe they could stand some quashing.)
6. Vote for or against the candidate's likely court nominations (not just SC - other federal judges are enormously influential).
7. Vote against power: vote for the candidate who is more likely in practice to face greater limits on their power as president (from Congress, the press, the courts, the bureaucracy, public opinion).
jaed, #7 is a winner.
ReplyDeleteI jest, but it really is all of the above, as jaed says. Although I do wonder if Trump would get bored with the job.
ReplyDeleteI have no feel for how this will turn out. In an ordinary year I'd guess that the machine would do its job and anoint the Queen. It may yet--I know plenty of yellow-dog Democrats and the usual systems are still in protected and in place.