Presidential Candidates

Are there any candidates that you like? If so, why have they received your approval?This is open to U.S. citizens and everyone else because, even though some of you cannot vote for them, who is in the White House matters to the entire human population.I like, literally, none of them. Not a single one. And if it came down to a lesser of evils, I would either write-in a candidate or abstain from voting altogether. Edited by Hyroglyphx, : Edited for clarity

Right now im leaning toward Bernie Sanders. The way I see it, only certain candidates will ever actually have a chance at winning, so I pick between them.Hillary is smart, but I dont like her overall world view.

Right now im leaning toward Bernie Sanders. The way I see it, only certain candidates will ever actually have a chance at winning, so I pick between them.Hillary is smart, but I don't like her overall world view.And as for Republicans? Fugeddaboudit!Edited by Phat, : No reason given.

I think at EvC we'll probably find that most people would prefer Bernie which is vastly better than many of the other candidates. However, I really don't like his economic policies and militarily he seems nave. Putin would walk all over him. Smart in the sense of conniving or cunning, yeah.

Donald Trump is a fascist reactionary -- I don't think I need to belabor in depth the obvious reasons why he's an exceedingly disgusting part of humanity.Of course, the other GOP candidates can be summarily dismissed, too, because the GOP has quite a track-record for conserving existing power structures that advantage those who prefer that their genitalia only interact with anatomically dissimilar genitalia and oppress anyone who isn't white, or wealthy, or Christian. The GOP also has the surly habit of creating their own facts despite overwhelming evidence in contradistinction to their worldview.Surprisingly, there's a huge swathe of the U.S. population that actually thinks people that deny anthropogenic global warming and common ancestry -- and people that create terms like "legitimate rape" or think that women can't get pregnant if they're raped, or think there's a "Muslim" problem or that undocumented immigrants are responsible for waves of crime (the sociological and statistical evidence, of course, contradicting this myth time and time again) -- somehow make respectable, viable candidates for the symbolic leadership of one of the most powerful nations known to humankind. 'Nuff said.Hillary Clinton is a warhawk and overall seems to pander -- for purposes of political expediency -- to whatever zeitgeist exists, making her more of an opportunist than anything else.I haven't explored the other Democratic candidates in depth, with the exception of Bernie Sanders, so I can't comment on the other candidates whose names I do not presently know.Bernie Sanders, then, seems to be the best candidate. Of course, there are the hysterical cries of, "Well, he's a socialist!" Yes, and the U.S. has been a semi-socialist democracy for quite some time now. At least he won't be going around murdering civilians in the name of supranational corporate interests. Maybe NASA and STEAM education would get more funding instead of trillions of dollars going to so-called national defense.All of this being said, U.S. politics is nonsense anyway. It's not like voting actually, really, tangibly does anything to significantly affect the existing power structures. That's something that technology will have to do. But that's a whole other topic for another day. Edited by Genomicus, : No reason given.Edited by Genomicus, : No reason given.Edited by Genomicus, : No reason given.

Specifics?

I got this about his supposed economic policies:

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AS PRESIDENT, SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS WILL REDUCE INCOME AND WEALTH INEQUALITY BY:

Demanding that the wealthy and large corporations pay their fair share in taxes. As president, Sen. Sanders will stop corporations from shifting their profits and jobs overseas to avoid paying U.S. income taxes. He will create a progressive estate tax on the top 0.3 percent of Americans who inherit more than $3.5 million. He will also enact a tax on Wall Street speculators who caused millions of Americans to lose their jobs, homes, and life savings.

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Increasing the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 an hour by 2020. In the year 2015, no one who works 40 hours a week should be living in poverty.
Putting at least 13 million Americans to work by investing $1 trillion over five years towards rebuilding our crumbling roads, bridges, railways, airports, public transit systems, ports, dams, wastewater plants, and other infrastructure needs.
Reversing trade policies like NAFTA, CAFTA, and PNTR with China that have driven down wages and caused the loss of millions of jobs. If corporate America wants us to buy their products they need to manufacture those products in this country, not in China or other low-wage countries.

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Creating 1 million jobs for disadvantaged young Americans by investing $5.5 billion in a youth jobs program. Today, the youth unemployment rate is off the charts. We have got to end this tragedy by making sure teenagers and young adults have the jobs they need to move up the economic ladder.

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Fighting for pay equity by signing the Paycheck Fairness Act into law. It is an outrage that women earn just 78 cents for every dollar a man earns.

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Making tuition free at public colleges and universities throughout America. Everyone in this country who studies hard should be able to go to college regardless of income.

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Expanding Social Security by lifting the cap on taxable income above $250,000. At a time when the senior poverty rate is going up, we have got to make sure that every American can retire with dignity and respect.

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Guaranteeing healthcare as a right of citizenship by enacting a Medicare for all single-payer healthcare system. It’s time for the U.S. to join every major industrialized country on earth and provide universal healthcare to all.

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Requiring employers to provide at least 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave; two weeks of paid vacation; and 7 days of paid sick days. Real family values are about making sure that parents have the time they need to bond with their babies and take care of their children and relatives when they get ill.

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Enacting a universal childcare and prekindergarten program. Every psychologist understands that the most formative years for a human being is from the ages 0-3. We have got to make sure every family in America has the opportunity to send their kids to a high quality childcare and pre-K program.

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Making it easier for workers to join unions by fighting for the Employee Free Choice Act. One of the most significant reasons for the 40-year decline in the middle class is that the rights of workers to collectively bargain for better wages and benefits have been severely undermined.

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Breaking up huge financial institutions so that they are no longer too big to fail. Seven years ago, the taxpayers of this country bailed out Wall Street because they were too big to fail. Yet, 3 out of the 4 largest financial institutions are 80 percent bigger today than before we bailed them out. Sen. Sanders has introduced legislation to break these banks up. As president, he will fight to sign this legislation into law.

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Now for the military stance...let me do a bit of research....

Not to mention dangerous to the safety and security of the United States and abroad. To think of him on the pulse of a nuclear warhead is beyond frightening. He thinks this is one big game of Monopoly or an extension of his reality tv show. I was hoping Rand Paul might be a little bit more like his father, and while there are elements of his father's ideals, he's a far cry from Ron. Ted Cruz is a self-loathing homosexual and a conniving rat. As much as Trump is wrong on just about everything, he is right about Jeb Bush who is incompetent, weak, and ineffectual. Hilary is the Devil, plain and simple. She covets power above all else and perfectly embodies the mind of a megalomaniac. She too is dangerous to America's safety and security. But at least he's open about it! He's the only American socialist to be honest about his position. That, if nothing else, earns some respect in my book considering how many other Democrats have tried valiantly to hide it all costs. Edited by Hyroglyphx, : No reason given.

Democratic socialism is not full blown socialism, but a combination of capitalism with social limits, a social conscience if you will to rein in the extreme sociopathy of unregulated capitalism -- and this has been a part of American democracy since FDR.Certainly we had a lesson in the sociopathy of unregulated capitalism with the great crash and following depression, and again with the mortgage crash and following recession. It took democratic policies to pull out of the depression. It took democratic policies to pull out of the recession (even hampered by republican obstructionism).Bernie Sanders follows FDR in pursuing universal single payer health care via expanded medicare.Bernie Sanders follows FDR in pursuing programs to help the common workers -- $15/hr minimum wage versus "a chicken in every pot"Bernie Sanders is getting increasing support from many disillusioned republicans who (a) think the GOP has gone insane and (b) like his policies for working people. This means he may have bi-partisan support, especially from the Rand Paul anti fed side (see new policy to audit the fed annually and to de-link it from the big banks).His record speaks loud and clear, and consistent -- unlike any other candidate.Hillary has too much baggage and way too much pre-installed hatred in the GOP base to be effective, she would follow Obama in being obstructed at every step by the GOP congress. Certainly she will have a divided congress to deal with just like Obama, with nothing to entice bipartisan support, even though she is a DINO imho.Trump is a pompous blowhard loudmouthed egotist who appeals to the most base emotions of the GOP base.Trump supporters say they like him because he speaks his mind and he doesn't pander to anyone. If that is true then they should like Bernie Sanders too.On policies (what you can find on them) there are no significant differences between any of the republican candidates, with the possible exception of Rand Paul (who is more of a libertarian and won't get significant GOP support and would be unelectable), they are all pro-corporate anti worker misogynist warmongers.A Bernie Saunders / Rand Paul ticket would be interesting ...BUT *** the overriding issues that we face are:

• global climate change -- Bernie is the only viable candidate to address this -- has already caused the Syrian civil war and assisted the rise of ISIS (combined with the reaction to Schrubbias invasions and drone bombings),
• the next Supreme Court Justice can change the balance of the court -- one more GOP appointment and you can say goodbye to Roe v Wade and civil rights and say hello to expanded Citizens United \ Hobby Lobby corporate and religious pandering over people, and an expanded militarized police state,
• dealing with the (corporate) media hyped fear campaign where appeals to xenophobia and emotion outweigh and overwhelm rational analysis -- the next GOP president will lead us into another war in the middle east and expand the police state "Homeland Security" ... all in the name of making the US "more secure" ("we have to attack them there so they can't attack us here")

Those last two reasons are why I will vote for Hillary if she wins the democratic race against Bernie. Certainly she is the only candidate with massive foreign policy experience and knowledge, and her positions on women's rights and health-care are worth supporting.There is too much at stake to not vote.Enjoy
if you canEdited by RAZD, : .Edited by RAZD, : ..

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think at EvC we'll probably find that most people would prefer Bernie which is vastly better than many of the other candidates. However, I really don't like his economic policies and militarily he seems nave. Putin would walk all over him.

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Back in 2009, Canada spent about $3000 per person on health care (I think the government spent around $2500 of it and the people around $500 out of pocket) while Americans had to spend many times that just on premiums. And what did the "premium" buy. A bureaucratic health-care monstrosity which makes it difficult to know which doctors and facilities are in the "network" of "covered" services. Nevermind the high deductibles. Nevermind that is could cost you $80,000 if your appendix bursts (Rowland Martin, formerly of CNN, had an appendix burst in 2000 and that is what it cost him) when you are in-between jobs and switching insurance. Don't quit your job in the good ole free USA! Don't move from one state to the next in the good ole "land of the free" USA.In (evil) socialist Canada, you can see whatever doctor you want and go to whatever facility you want. You can move freely. You can quit your job and switch jobs. No paperwork, no b.s. Always covered no matter what. And it costs the government and businesses very little.The Republicans keep talking about rehashed economic policies and how we will magically see "4%" growth. Bernie Sanders and his health care plan might just create enough of a pro-business environment so we can see growth inch toward 4%.However, I'm not sure if his plan is funded by a general income tax or a payroll tax (the former would be good for business, the latter would discourage job hiring).

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But at least he's open about it! He's the only American socialist to be honest about his position. That, if nothing else, earns some respect in my book considering how many other Democrats have tried valiantly to hide it all costs.

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I am more interested in freedom than "socialist" labels. Like freedom to buy a cheap plot of land (in say Houston) and (here is the rub) to pitch a tent on it to live. That freedom doesn't exist. Freedom to build a cheap shack on your own land? Not in the good ole "free" USA. Freedom to buy a large broken down old van and have it towed to your "own property" to sleep in? Nope!This country isn't a beacon of freedom. Let's stop pretending that it is.

No.I may vote for Sanders in the primary. But I suspect that he would be an ineffective president.Clinton: owned and fully paid for by the military industrial complex.Trump: makes for a good bullshitter, but not a good president.

He will tax wall street "speculative" trades so that everybody (regardless of what their parents make) can have a free public college education. It sounds like there will be little to no paperwork hassles and requirements, exceptions, disqualifications.I haven't read his plan but I wonder if he excludes those evil "immigrants" (the political climate might require such a disqualification). It would be ironic because something like 60% of our doctors are sucked from the rest of the world, and Americans still feel that there is a "shortage" of doctors (I'm sure there is).How can any politician be proud of our education system when we can't even produce half of our doctors?Sanders plan might be the most economical way to attempt to remedy that and many other problems.

If the less wealthy 99% in the USA voted to benefit their own selfish interests like the other 1% does, then Bernie Sanders would be polling at 99%.

I dunno, he has a wife and two kids, do you know something the media has not uncovered due to some form of insider information?Besides, even if Ted Cruz was gay, what does that matter? To me, what matters is the candidate's positions along with the necessary honesty, integrity, and consistency required to know one is not being bullshitted and/or victimized.I am also rather concerned he is a religious fanatic who would cause WWIII just to force Jesus to return, as his father likely would.There are essentially a ton of reasons I wish Ted Cruz would disappear from the public sphere but your reasons don't appear to be mine.

No, I don't have any insider information, it is admittedly purely speculative. My only reason for mentioning it is to demonstrate what level of duplicity people who want to run for president will go through. It's speaks highly of a persons lack of character and integrity to hide something like that just so they can be in charge of shit -- the near universal character trait of people who want to be president. I'm sure we can all appreciate the irony of the army of self-loathing homosexuals within the GOP who would cast stones while secretly banging gay, meth-addled hookers. My point is, he is as fake as it gets.Hilary is in that exact same boat, only she doesn't hate homosexuals, she just denies being one. But she shares the same duplicitous nature and insatiable lust for power that Cruz does.And Trump, well, no explanation necessary. The man is bat-shit insane