Exactly? This certainly does not put him in the progressive wing of the party, to say the least.

Again, I got no problem with Beto in Texas, but acting like he's some sort of progressive hero with extremely liberal policies is flat out fiction.

I learned my lesson in 2016.

so obviously that's a gauge of how often each candidate votes with or against the president in legislative initiatives, and whatever, but if you click and look at his actual voting record sorted by bill/issue-

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com.../beto-orourke/

i didn't go through it in meticulous detail but i definitely didn't just skim it either. the stuff i'm seeing him vote "with trump" on is stuff that isn't really objectionable/highly contentious in a partisan sense, so they're not reflective of "centrist" policy positions on his part. these vote averaging metrics don't really work imo.

and i'm making this defense of him while having been severely turned off and maybe even disqualifying him by his AIPAC tweet the other day

you're not interpreting the data correctly tho because you're glossing over the substance of every piece of legislation that they happen to both "support" and assuming they are all partisan bills/issues, which they are not.

Scrolled through and read the ones where he's voted with Trump and majority of Republicans.

He voted for some sketchy HSA stuff, he's voted repeatedly for Republican appropriations bills (including multiple defense bills), and he voted to expand the death penalty for people who target cops.

Again, the majority of Democrats are opposing these bills, including known progressives. He isn't.

I'm sure there are worse Democrats, but that's not the point. The point is that he is not the beacon of progressive liberalism everyone makes him out to be.

I mean just compare him to people like Barbara Lee or John Lewis, both of whom voted with Trump less than 10% of the time. They didn't vote for those bills that Beto did, and that matters. You can't just hand wave that away.

Corporatist is a better description than centrist for some people and that donor list of him at the top above 10 Republicans in oil and gas money is not a great sign.

His environmental record is good, but on some FF specific stuff where is he on things like

https://350.org/press-release/us-hou...e-ground-bill/

If that's as progressive as you can be in Texas then maybe he should stay in Texas.

the only "sketchy HSA stuff" i saw was a bill that had this text-

doesn't seem all that sketchy? idk

voting "no" on a defense spending bill that is destined to pass in the lead-up to a hotly contested senate race is probably a non-starter in texas.

death penalty stuff for cop killers is ****ed up, maybe he felt pressure from his constituency, idk. definitely a point against him there.

with all that said, i don't think these are votes that necessarily disqualify him from the "progressive" label, and i haven't seen any progressive legislation that he's tried to torpedo

Voting for the death penalty and then openly lying and campaigning against the death penalty should absolutely be disqualifying.

Opposing the death penalty should absolutely be a requirement for any Democrat, let alone any progressive.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/new...s-13174122.php

Here's Beto saying he opposes the death penalty, but no mention of his vote in favor:

Also, HSAs are for rich people to avoid paying taxes btw.

McConnell has been speaker for all of Beto's tenure? Either him or Boehner. There's been little or no chance to actually vote progressive. Depending on the Speaker going forward we'll see where he draws his lines for what's too progressive as opposed to what he's afraid to vote 'no' on.

yea i think that's bull**** on his part, for sure- removal of the death penalty is an integral part of criminal justice reform and i don't see anything else in that bill that he voted for which would have indicated he had any other reason to support it.

i can see where you're coming from (and that specific example says a lot more than any sort of vote support averaging metric)

micro,

you mean paul ryan? agree w your general sentiment tho

Sounds like Clinton and Obama. Mostly good sure, but a fair amount of we assume they support aid to the needy, gay marriage, renewable energy and then applaud their political savvy while we get welfare reform, don't ask don't tell, clean coal etc.

Rep,

Oh yeah. House, not Senate.

Well, Beto gave up his seat to run for Senate so we won't have that chance, actually.

Whatever. There's no reason to bash him. He just seems a little in competition with AOC around here and I'm def team AOC.

I'll keep quiet about Beto now.

just continuous unforced errors

that isn't an unforced error, nancy pelosi and george bush are on the same team

Minor but potentially related, Pelosi's daughter got her start as a documentary filmmaker when she got a ton of inside access to the George W. Bush campaign, the result of which is Journeys With George and still worth watching.

beto for prez? r u kidding? you folks all know that the main responsibility of being the prez is to keep all CITIZENS safe. he is the commander in chief of it all. now you want beto to be the man? i find this horribly amusing.

shut the **** up why are you even still here

Go away Hitlerfan88

What is Beto proposing to make people less safe?

Clearly becky Heil Hitler thinks that Beto is gonna let MS-13 and secret Muslims over the Mexico-U.S. border to form an underground Islamic caliphate from within.

Here's a good article written.... by Maureen Dowd? And recommended by Glenn Greenwald? about Clintons sad political reunion tour




https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/01/o...nton-tour.html

Your 'opinion' is about as welcome as Sklansky's. You are nothing more than an ignorant troll that has proven time and time again in these forums to know absolutely nothing about the issues. Buzz off.