Comments by "possumverde" (@possumverde) on "The Humanist Report" channel.

  1. The primaries (national or local) are not a good indicator of the strongest candidate. Moderates as well as centrists are far less likely to bother voting in them than progressives and left leaning independents don't even have the option. That's why Bernie tends to do significantly better in the primaries than he does in polls concerning which Democratic candidate has the best chance of defeating the Republican candidate. (His poor showing in the latter being the reason he will never be allowed to win the Democratic nomination.) As for your suggestion that progressive candidates should run a write in campaign if they lose the primary, you're overlooking the significance of there being no Republican candidate on the ballot. They would indeed be sore losers were they to attempt such a campaign in an election containing a Republican opponent as it would only serve to sabotage their party's chances out of spite by splitting the vote. In the Buffalo race however, a moderate/centrist Democratic candidate on the final ballot offered conservative and other non far left voters who would have otherwise had little to no representation in the race, at least some sort of option to give their voices relevance. An elected official represents everyone, not just those who share the same views. By saying that it should have been her seat, you're essentially saying that she deserved to be Mayor regardless of whether or not the majority of the people agreed with her views. That's not a very democratic position to take.
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  2. You'll have to go after rural Dems as well since they're not fond of the progressive side either.
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  3. Grow up
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  4. Primary results aren't necessarilly a good representation of a candidates overall support. For one, you have to be a registered Democrat to vote in the Democratic primary so the voices of Republicans, Independents, etc. go unheard until the actual election. Also, moderate and centrist Dems don't tend to have the high turnout that progressives do when it comes to primaries. So, the results within the party can be a little misleading as well. A "write in" campaign works pretty much like it's name implies. When you vote, you are not limited to the names on the ballot. If you choose you can request a "write in" ballot and name whoever you wish (within reason.) Anyone (who is legally eligible to hold the office in question) can simply just go around asking for people to write them in. It bypasses the need to meet certain requirements in order to be on the ballot and whether or not one belongs to a party doesn't matter. (Edit: It's a special case where one is running as a "write in" rather than as a member of any party they might belong to.) In the case of the Buffalo election where there was no Republican on the ballot, Brown, being a centrist, was able to get conservative votes as well. Which was enough to give him the win.
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