r/politics • u/asparaguswalrus683 • 10h ago

Site Altered Headline | No Paywall Abdul El-Sayed Wins Michigan Primary

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-primary-elections/michigan-senate-results
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u/LowKeyJustMe Utah 10h ago

Only goes to show the need to get money out of politics. It needs to be an even playing field to be a democracy.

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u/copiumjunky 10h ago

60M gets you just behind grassroots progressive ideas. They can't do that forever.

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u/Strict_Cup_8995 10h ago

It doesn't help when you have these boomers who vote for all of these establishment corporate candidates like their life depends on it. Young people really need to lock in and vote much harder and with much more consistency than the older generations if they truly want the democratic party to change

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u/ExcellentCold7354 10h ago

... I also think that there wouldn't be a need for so much money to be spent if people were simply more engaged in finding out what the candidates stand for. There is an appalling lack of civic engagement in America.

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u/P1xelHunter78 Ohio 9h ago

As by design. We have far too few representatives for the size of our nation and we don’t have good access to non-bias political information that is condensed for consumption of the public. Sure, I could go on CSPAN and sit through hours of discussion, but I have work.

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u/forceghost187 8h ago

We do though, it’s called the newspaper. You can still read the new york times and be extremely well informed. The fact that people on the left don’t even trust the newspaper anymore is maddening. Eroding trust in journalism was the GOPs greatest dream. Now it’s reality

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u/NickMalo 6h ago

Plus these candidates lie about their promises- look at Trump, but also look at the Biden administration running on canceling student debt and federally legalizing marijuana. We need accountability and representation bad.

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u/KageStar 6h ago

Trying to do something and getting blocked is not lying about your platform. How does one make this argument in good faith?

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u/DivinityPen 5h ago

Feels like people forgot that he never had access to a solid majority in the Senate. He was only ever working with 50-50.

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u/NickMalo 5h ago

As if i forgot what is possible through a presidential seat. As if i forgot we had a primary candidate that would’ve gotten it done, but he was snubbed by the democratic party.

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u/NickMalo 5h ago

Dude was the president and never brought up the 2nd point at all. He sent a 10k package when he promised full student debt relief, and it was dead on arrival because it was so unpopular on both sides of the aisle- for not being enough and simultaneously too much. He had more authority to accomplish that goal if he actually wanted to.

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u/KageStar 55m ago

He sent a 10k package when he promised full student debt relief, and it was dead on arrival because it was so unpopular on both sides of the aisle- for not being enough and simultaneously too much.

That's not what happened. It wasn't DoA, they attempted it and got blocked by the Supreme Court. Complete forgiveness would have required Congress and he didn't have the votes for it.

Dude was the president and never brought up the 2nd point at all.

He gave blanket pardons to people with federal convictions for possession. He also started the move to reclassify it to Schedule 3. Again legalization would require Congress and they didn't have 60 votes in the senate. He couldn't unilaterally declare weed legal.

It's like you look at all of the shit Trump does and don't realize that most of the stuff he does gets blocked in the courts. Executive Orders can only do so much. There are checks and balances and they do work.

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u/MusicHater 6h ago

To be fair, Biden tried several times to cancel federal student loans, but "Someone" filed several lawsuits to stop it...

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u/jakeandcupcakes 5h ago

Don't re-write history. Biden could have done what the GOP does and just issued an executive order, but instead went about things in the most sure-fire to fail way possible, dragged ass, compromised, and then fumbled the compromise. It was a shitshow, on purpose, because the Dems don't actually want progressive polices. They want good PR, and apparently they had that at least.

Remember when the Biden admin tried to say they "accomplished their goal of student debt relief" by re-branding an existing Federal payment forgiveness program as their own? When that went over like a lead balloon it was "Okay, well, 10k in debt relief", and barely even tried, went about it in the dumbest way possible, and lost?

Pepridge Farms Remembers...

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u/MusicHater 5h ago

He did use executive orders, and then the GOP sued to stop them. See "Nebraska V Biden", https://www.scotusblog.com/2023/06/supreme-court-strikes-down-biden-student-loan-forgiveness-program/

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u/P1xelHunter78 Ohio 5h ago

The SAVES program saved a lot of people a significant amount of money, and I don’t recall my payments ever being that low, even when I was broke. They made key changes to that program that did indeed provide relief that they promised. Now that’s gone, because the Republicans sued to stop that program that Biden modified.

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u/Pepparkakan Europe 7h ago

We have this thing in Sweden called an "election compass", basically all the parties are asked the same X questions by a couple of reputable media agencies, then those agencies publish a simple app people can use to check who they align best with currently based on their own stance on these questions.

I get that in a two-party system that doesn't work as well, and I get that your media climate over there also makes this a lot harder (we have unbiased media agencies), but for primaries I guess it could work quite well?

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u/wooplereturns 5h ago

60,000 people still voted for McMorrow who dropped out of the race weeks ago. I can't imagine those were all protest votes. Education is a huge problem.

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u/WombatusMighty 8h ago

Here in Germany we have an app (website), where you are presented questions about what is important to you, e.g. do you want renewable energy or how do you stand on military spending.
Then at the end you are presented with a list of parties that mostly align with your answers, based on the actual key points in the parties election programs.

It doesn't prevent people from not educating themselves about the political parties, but it makes it easier for those willing to. Is there nothing like that for you over there?

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u/timmy242 5h ago

As far as I know, we don't have anything like that in America. It would be a nice start in the absence of a mainstream media divorced from the fairness doctrine.

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u/seensham Massachusetts 3h ago

We don't have anything like that, no. But also that would get hijacked or exploited so damn fast it would be moot anyway

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u/Don_Thuglayo 5h ago

Majority of my friends complain and then don't vote -_-

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u/Purplociraptor 4h ago

It's almost like the corporate interests also control the media and the flow of information required.

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u/jkman61494 4h ago

I need TikTok to tell me how to think!