> Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon.
Dianne Feinstein has died
191–200 of 377 posts
Re: Dianne Feinstein has died
#192Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't discount the huge advantage incumbents have, both in campaign contributions [0] and name recognition. 0 - https://www.opensecrets.org/elections-overview/incumbent-adv...
I'm not. But do you think they'd still have that incumbent advantage if they consistently voted against their party's interests (I should also clarify that with "and were honest about it, not lying through their teeth and claiming otherwise"). And even then, they wouldn't keep getting major donor funding if they weren't voting in those people's interests, incumbent or no.
There have been a few cases of incumbents changing party (ignoring the "I'm totally independent guys even though I caucus with one party incredibly reliably" ones) to follow their voters.
In general "I'll only ever vote X party" is the same as "I don't care who at all".
Re: Dianne Feinstein has died
#193It is nothing shy of disgusting that someone clearly incapable of serving the role of senator dragged her constituents and the country through this till death. Shame on her, her family, and her staff.
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Re: Dianne Feinstein has died
#194I know the easy approach here is for people to want an age limit in Congress, but I've always been more partial to a term limit. I'm sure there are plenty of hypotheses as to why this happens, but whatever the cause elected officials seem to have an extremely easy go of getting re-elected these days. The increasing average age in Congress is just a side effect of that in my opinion.
If I had a magic wand: 1- One six-year term on the presidency. Enough time to get stuff done and see the results, but then you're out. The current structure gives the American public 1-2 years of productivity, then they go into campaign mode on the tax payers dime. 2- All official party nominees get the exact same budget for campaigning. Creates a level playing field and neutralizes the power of lobbying 3- Congressm…
I'd throw in restructuring the Supreme Court. Lifetime appointments seem to have devolved into them being wildly politically swingy based on when very-old people decide to retire (or die), with a strong incentive to then install the youngest doctrinaire ideologues you can get through the Senate. (And to engage in political brinksmanship to push an appointment back a few months to give it to the other party if you can, etc.)
Give them a fixed number of years and have new ones appointed on a schedule that's synced to presidential terms.
Re: Dianne Feinstein has died
#195She was mentally unfit to serve for the last couple years. It was a travesty many countries seem to have no mental bar required to serve or even reasonable age limits (Feinstein was 90!) Any decision "she" was made in the last couple years was made by her aids and not her. This is not how democracy is supposed to work. Details: > Four U.S. senators, including three Democrats, as well as three former Feinstein staffer…
She was also incredibly right wing vs. her constituents and was extremely bought off. She did some civil rights stuff early in her career, but it’s been 100% corruption and destroying the environment for this entire century. She wasn’t senile that entire time. (I’ll quantify right wing: She voted with the Trump administration more than any other democrat, and voted like an average republican senator during his admini…
> (I’ll quantify right wing: She voted with the Trump administration more than any other democrat, and voted like an average republican senator during his administration.)
That's nonsense. She voted like every other cookie cutter corporate Democrat, i.e. whatever her handlers told her to do. At the tail end of her career, it was pretty explicit (and disgusting to watch): https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/sen-dianne-feinste...
Some stats on here "voting with Trump": https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/congress-trump-score/
She's clearly not at the top of that pile when sorting by Democrats.
Re: Dianne Feinstein has died
#196Can someone give a QRD on all of the political ramifications that will come from this? I've heard things about judges being harder to appoint, what else is there?
The governor of California can turn around an interim appointment pretty quickly if he so chooses; there's some static around a prior promise to appoint a Black woman, which most people viewed as effectively a promise to Representative Barbara Lee. She has since declared candidacy for that Senate seat--as Feinstein was not going to run for re-election--and Newsom (understandably, IMO) doesn't want to hand the keys to…
Not my country but Barbara Lee is 77. Newsom could appoint her now and the Democrats look for someone younger for the long term.
Re: Dianne Feinstein has died
#197Earlier quoted context omitted.
You understand that there were years before 2016, right? In some of them, Democrats outnumbered Republicans in Congress. I still remember the plethora of articles about RBG's supercool workout regimen dating back to the early 2010s because she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2009 . The fixation on her health was largely because everyone knew this woman was getting ready to kick the bucket at some point, but s…
This is true, but the same time, she was 79 in 2012, which was also the AVERAGE life expectancy at the time. And you would think the wealthy well connected 'important' members of society have a noticeably longer life expectancy.
Life expectancy is irrelevant given you are already 79. That number bakes in a considerable probability that you will die before then.
Re: Dianne Feinstein has died
#198> Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
Soviet style gerontocracy is a fairly new phenomena.
Re: Dianne Feinstein has died
#199She was mentally unfit to serve for the last couple years. It was a travesty many countries seem to have no mental bar required to serve or even reasonable age limits (Feinstein was 90!) Any decision "she" was made in the last couple years was made by her aids and not her. This is not how democracy is supposed to work. Details: > Four U.S. senators, including three Democrats, as well as three former Feinstein staffer…
I've been really surprised by the conversation around this being centered around age when, in my opinion, the controversy should be about a group of staffers exercising the power of a Senator with the tacit backing of the party. There is video/audio of staffers actively teller her what to say and how to vote. The office appears to have usurped her power. Voters aren't being represented by the person they elected.
Her staff could just finish out her term and nothing would change but that's illegal because she's dead.
Re: Dianne Feinstein has died
#200Earlier quoted context omitted.
Other comments have gotten at the nuts and bolts of administrations, and here's the PR side of it: Do the 'Mom Test' on any candidate and you will see why 9 out of 10 times a challenger to an incumbent fails [0]. The only challengers who succeed beat the 'good enough test' while simultaneously fending off the current administration's inertia (aptly put by paulgb) [0] https://www.momtestbook.com/
what is "the mom test"? the link seems to be an entire marketing campaign selling a book and a brand, with no "test" clearly specified - can you summarize it, please?
“Is it good enough”
It’s running through questions like so: When you have an issue with county government, how do you handle it?
Their answer will tell you many things. Is it actually a concern the county can address? If it is not an issue the county can address, why do they think it is? If it’s a strong held belief, what experiences solidified it (buying a lot and being told one thing by a realtor, for example) - etc. you then use all of that to create a product (a campaign messaging) that aligns with the candidate and public’s opinion / current default mode.