It's April and I like both remaining candidates less than I did in January

[Recursion]

And I didn't like either of them very much then.

This has become a fiasco, and I'm sick of it. Anyways. Whoever's nominated, I'm voting for, but if the primary is any indication of how either would handle a national campaign, I'm depressed as hell.

[Joob]

1. Enlighten me on what a perfect candidate would be for you?

[Recursion]

2. I don't care about a "perfect candidate"; I want someone who's not older than my retired parents

Somebody who doesn't send the left into conniptions trying to re-litigate the 1960s and finally prove the "other group" (be they accomodationists or rejectionists) wrong. I don't care. We've managed to find the two candidates who each bring out the absolute worst aspects of our party's coalition, and put them in the Octagon together, and it's depressing as shit.

I supported O'Malley when he was in; before that I supported Schweitzer when he was making noises about running. Neither are perfect, but they reach past the circular firing squad that Clinton and Sanders both seem to bring the left to.

[merrily]

5. Anyone Hillary considered a serious challenge would not have become a target for the

firing squad. If you haven't gotten that by now, you are not who I thought you were.

We don't agree often, but I see you as smart and practical and "policy wonky."

[TheCowsCameHome]

3. Back to "which is the least......"

I hear ya.

[Recursion]

4. Yep.

It is what it is. Fortunately the GOP may be blowing itself up even worse. At least I hope.

[Agschmid]

6. Yup.

[Vinca]

7. This is a horribly depressing election. I agree.

I don't remember anything quite like it before. I think the problem on our side is we really haven't had much of a primary because we had so few candidates. They cleared the field for Hillary so people who might have made a difference sat this one out to let her take it.

[wildeyed]

8. This election is not about nice

or liking a candidate. It is about working out really painful shit like institutional racism and figuring out the boundaries of our own endless consumerist appetites for oil, cheap food, and mindless entertainment.

There has been zero accountability for the economic crisis that was caused by the greed and irresponsibility of the financial sector, but the middle class is still paying and paying for their bullshit.

The consequences of global warming are becoming obvious (visit Houston, but don't forget your boat!).

Domestically, there is armed insurrection on the fringe-right and they used tanks and tear gas to put down the unrest in Ferguson.

Internationally, we are seeing a refugee crisis of Biblical proportions and the Middle East could devolve into the third world war without even trying hard. It could easily be dominos, one weird thing happens and BOOM, we will be all the way into a MAJOR military event, just like WW1.

We had hope and change last time, Dreams of my Father and the most talented, charismatic and intelligent politician of our lifetimes running or office. I really thought he could bring the entire country together, and we could be the UNITED States of America again, and we could skip a bunch of the nasty we are looking at right now. But it became obvious that the GOP would not cooperate, that they would run the country into the ground rather than compromise about anything. Their greed is just STAGGERING. And it brought the inherent racism out of the shadows and now we have to look at it and deal with it and that hurts, too.

So this is an ugly race. This is a race about dealing with our own national character defects, greed and racism. There will be no "good" candidates this time, because we do not need or deserve "good" right now. My personal opinion, what we on the left DO need is a soldier who knows how to fight in the trenches. We need to win the Supreme Court battle and deal with the gerrymandering problem. Nothing gets better until we deal with those two things. But we are right smack dab in the middle of a war already and it is not going to be pretty unless we can score a few more decisive victories.