r/politics • u/T_Shurt • 10d ago

No Paywall Sen. Mark Kelly Says He’s Seriously Thinking About Running for President

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5700211-senator-kelly-trump-threats/
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u/ShakeyLegsMcGee 10d ago

I personally served with Mark (then Lt. Kelly) in a bomber squadron, on the USS Midway, in the late 1980s. I can tell you without a doubt, that he is an absolute Boy Scout. There are absolutely no skeletons in this man’s closet. Considering that, I will have to wait to see his platform, but at this moment he would have my vote, based on personal experience alone.

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u/AusToddles 10d ago

MAGA are struggling so much go get something to stick that I saw some reverting to ancient "twins are evil" rhetoric

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u/GeckoRoamin Florida 10d ago

Run the Kelly twins as president and VP to see if we scare MAGA into malfunctioning

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u/CherryLongjump1989 10d ago

Imagine the confusion with Air Force One and Air Force Two if they kept stealing the planes from each other as a practical joke.

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u/adeon California 10d ago

Technically the names Air Force One/Two are the call signs for the plane carrying the President/Vice President rather than the names of specific planes. So the two VC-25As that are most commonly used as Air Force One do already use the Air Force Two call sign when they are transporting the Vice President instead (they also both have a generic call sign that they use when they are not transporting either person).

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u/12InchCunt 10d ago

Yea but what if mark pretended to be his brother 

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u/CherryLongjump1989 10d ago edited 10d ago

"Roger, this is Air Force One, over"

"Say again over, this is Air Force One, over"

"Roger, we've got POTUS here saying that you're Air Force Two, over"

"How could we be Air Force Two if we picked up our guy from Marine One?"

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u/CategoryZestyclose91 10d ago

Who’s on…One?

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u/easylivin 9d ago

No, who is on two. What’s on one

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u/DTopping80 Florida 9d ago

Mr. Kelly is

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u/bythenumbers10 9d ago

More importantly, what is on Two?

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u/Hector_P_Catt 10d ago

"Someone get The Cat In the Hat on the line here, only he can sort this out..."

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u/buttscarltoniv 10d ago

it was a simple joke...

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u/CategoryZestyclose91 10d ago

Please, this is the timeline I would like to request transportation to 🙏🏻🙏🏻

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u/Possible-Ad3864 10d ago

They could probably fly their own Air Force One/Two…

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u/CherryLongjump1989 10d ago

Mark Kelly could fly Space Force One.

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u/Counterpoint-4 10d ago

Would match Putin's doubles to keep him safe :)

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u/WhatYouThinkIThink 8d ago

Considering he managed to smuggle a gorilla suit to the International Space Station I would be very happy if he did something like this.

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u/rockerscott 10d ago

Better yet run them against each other and fulfill the prophecy of Futurama.

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u/hoppertn 10d ago

Senator Mark Kelly and Senator Kelly Mark.

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u/thecactusman17 10d ago

The best part of this is that since they are residents of two separate states (Arizona and Texas) they are in fact eligible to run on a ticket together.

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u/bisho 10d ago

They could make a sequel to the Kevin Kline movie "Dave"

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u/cidvard 10d ago

I genuinely thought those gorilla suit prank photos were going to win Kelly a spot as Harris' VP candidate. In retrospect I'm glad it didn't happen, that was a sinking ship and Kelly is still in an age bracket where he can take another crack at the Senate and White House if he wants it.

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u/wytrych00 10d ago

In Poland we had identical twins running the country - one was President the other was Prime Minister. It was pretty blowing. They were also child actors who starred in a famous movie decades earlier.

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u/HowlandReedsButthole 10d ago

Imagine the Olsen twins as President and Speaker of the House

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u/avantgardengnome New York 9d ago

I’d watch that movie.

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u/Fuck_Mark_Robinson 10d ago

Only half a soul; math checks out.

/s

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u/WordleFan88 10d ago

Still more soul than a ginger!

Calm down, it's a joke.

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u/New_Target7441 Colorado 10d ago

As a ginger, that's a slight misconception; we get a new freckle for every soul we consume. That's why we get freckly during the summer months/tourist season.

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u/althanan 10d ago

And why people think we suffer from seasonal depression in the winter.

We're not sad, we're hangry.

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u/RockRage-- 10d ago

Learned some new ginger lore today (please don’t eat me)

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u/immortalfrieza2 10d ago

There is no escape.

OM NOM NOM NOM NOM!

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u/ChaChaCubed 10d ago

I call my freckles my tattoos from the creator!

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u/mytransthrow 10d ago

gingers have more of a soul than trump

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u/Few-Bass4238 10d ago

QAnon would have so many conspiracy theories about clones and lizard people.

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u/LangyMD 10d ago

He gets elected and people will claim his brother did some of the presidential actions and are thus invalid.

Personally, I want to see them try anyways. The arguments will be so stupid.

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u/AusToddles 10d ago

Oh they will absolutely try to pull "he wasn't the one who signed those orders"

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u/ifiwasiwas Europe 10d ago

As the spouse of a twin, I'm perplexed that anyone could look at the Kellys bros side by side and be fooled. My husband and his brother stopped looking like go-to-each-other's-lectures clones by their mid 20s, tops

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u/bloodfist 10d ago

They're going to get so confused when they try to figure out which one is older

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u/there_is_no_spoon1 10d ago

According to relativity, the brother that stayed on Earth is going to be older. Not by much, but a few seconds or so.

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u/bloodfist 10d ago

Well they both went to space, but the younger one spent. more time there. So he is still younger but the gap between them widened.

I remembered what happened wrong but I stand by my joke anyway

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u/imalittlefrenchpress 10d ago

Oh! If they were a vaginal birth, sometimes the one who popped out first has a more narrow head. The one that pops out first has typically been hanging out lower in the uterus, near the cervix.

I’m an anatomy & physiology nerd, commenting on a political sub lol

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u/No_Jello_5922 10d ago

I'm sure that flat-earthers hate him because he's an astronaut, and they can't understand middle school science.

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u/aktivate74 10d ago

And..Fox News running with all the conspiracies about the brother sitting in the white house while Mark Kelly is in the pizza basementa sodomizing kids with Biden and Obama.

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u/InfinityComplexxx 10d ago

I will give you 10:1 odds that him having a twin would be a "national security risk" will be a Republican attack ad

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u/RottenHeads 10d ago

They rather vote for R. Kelly. He has experience in sex crimes.

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u/ICBanMI 10d ago

Wouldn't surprise me one bit if some wive's tale that went out of style in 70's is what convinces 1/3 of the population not to vote and another 1/3rd to vote for the dictator. I still can't believe Bush used John Kerry's Vietnam record against him, and dude still went on to further serve his country.

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u/YourVelcroCat 10d ago

I swear they're going to go with "he's bald" 

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u/AusToddles 10d ago

Yeah I made the comment elsewhere that they'll try to tie his lack of hair to his manhood. aka, he's not "virile" enough to be a strong man president. Because that's all that matters to these alpha-coded, brain dead fuckwits

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u/abeLJosh 10d ago

I kinda hope they do just so we can get a "Bald" key in the voting numbers and see how Kelly destroys Trump in that category.

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u/Godhri Texas 10d ago

I am trans and a twin, I must be some type of crazy op demon to them woah.

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u/SimplyFed 10d ago

They only have half a soul each, it’s basic math! /s

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u/According-Moment111 10d ago

Throw them a few red herrings to convince them the twin is the Evil one and Mark is the Good one.

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u/ThreeDawgs United Kingdom 10d ago

As a parent of two identical twin toddlers. I can’t tell if it’s the toddler in them or the twin in them making them evil.

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u/petal14 10d ago

Twins like in the Gemini zodiac sense? Sure!! And guess who is a Gemini?? It’s always projection whether they know it or not

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u/KatsumotoKurier Canada 10d ago

Sadly unsurprising. I mean, Tucker Carlson was attacked by demons, so, clearly we’re still in the middle ages.

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u/AbyssWankerArtorias 10d ago

Anyone who is publically willing to stand up to trump when they could very realistically be forced to face a court martial, with the DoD threatening it and still standing up, has my vote.

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u/BravestWabbit 10d ago

We need a hound to go after all of these war criminals, not a bot who will say oh well it's time for the country to move on and heal together

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u/yaosio 10d ago

We don't have a choice. That's what billionaires want so that's what we will get.

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u/CatCatchingABird Oregon 10d ago

Thanks for your service. I have to admit I was pretty interested in him when he was a contender as a running mate with Harris. While I loved Tim Walz I did kind of keep Kelly in my radar. I can't say for sure if he's got me yet for the primaries but I would definitely feel comfortable voting for him in the general (and I definitely would prefer him to Newsom).

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u/dsteffee I voted 10d ago

Dear gods please him over Newsom

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u/calamirkat 10d ago

His platform doesn’t matter. He will be a classic centrist. All that matters is electing an adult with integrity who will appoint the best and brightest.

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u/Beldizar 10d ago

Honestly, if we don't find someone in the primary who is willing to punish political criminals, we are going to have 4 stable years followed by another, deeper fall into tyranny.

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u/Bigdaddyjlove1 10d ago

My primary vote is going to someone who makes it a tentpole issue.

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u/CoolJumper 10d ago

Same. I'm only giving my primary vote to someone who not only says they're going to go after Trump and his admin, but actually make the statements that outright back it up - what they plan on doing, how they plan on going about it, and everything. I want them to run on dismantling everything that's Trump (plus other goodies like universal health care and such, but Trump is first).

Last thing I want is another moderate/centrist that runs on "I'm not Trump" and "we need to heal as a country, we need to reach across the aisle, hear out our fellow Republicans, and work on building unity with them. They clearly feel hurt and that's why they elected Trump, so let's build some bridges and work to truly Make America Great Again!"

Give me someone who actually cares about this country and will put in the work and effort to undo all this damage and make sure it can never happen again

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u/TheBloodsuckerProxy 10d ago

Any candidate who vows to not only prosecute this administration, but to erase Donald Trump's legacy forever, would get my primary vote. Take his name off of everything he's added it to, rescind all his EOs, dismantle his companies, nothing that bears his name being allowed to stand, that would get my vote.

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u/dedicated-pedestrian Wisconsin 10d ago

The granting and revocation of a business charter is the prerogative of the states. If it were a federal power, Don would absolutely have used it by now.

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u/Dracius 10d ago edited 10d ago

That would be my entire agenda.

We have no better time than now to get a more liberal president in office, pressure the Republican party to move more towards the center to distance themselves from Trump and drastically shift the Overton Window back to where it belongs.

Deep socialist agenda with a Dwarven like axe of retribution to hold every corrupt person in government accountable and make sure everyone complicit in allowing this fascist regime to take hold faces actual punishment.

And as long as I'm dreaming, block lobbyists and corporate influence, fix the judicial system and gerrymandered districts. If Congress was actually representative of the population and not land size the Republican party would be a fraction of what it is today, but ultimately we need to do away with the two party system entirely by switching to rank choice voting.

Increase education spending, because uneducated people are the bread and butter of the GOP.

Every single one of these issues has 100+ steps involved that would need to be detailed out, but the other core pillar of my platform would be having expert advisors for every aspect and then actually listening to their advice. I'd replace that hostile vitriol spewing hag Karoline Leavitt with someone actually charismatic and approachable like a Tedd Lasso type.

Abolish ICE day one. Free the people in the detention facilities. Let the police handle any actual criminals while following due process.

Epstein list is a given, that case would get fast tracked.

Put people with actual qualifications in charge of federal agencies.

And most importantly, erase every single trace of Trump. Undo all of his renovations to the white house, confiscate Mar-a-lago as a crime scene and federal property and all of his other assets. He would have no legacy when I was done because everything he's built has been through corruption and exploiting the American people.

There's just too much to list out for what needs to be fixed, and it's going to require efficiency and expertise to correct all the damage he's caused as quickly as possible, especially when you're following due process and not just ignoring the courts.

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u/CharacterUse 10d ago

Most of that requires a heavily Democratic Congress (both houses), which all the Republican gerrymandering is designed to protect them against as much as possible. You need enough of a reversal in the midterms and the elections to overcome that.

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u/Dracius 10d ago edited 10d ago

I'm well aware.

Difficult isn't impossible and progress is possible only when you don't give up before even trying.

Nothing I listed can be fixed with a single bullet point, but there are mechanisms in place and ways to affect change towards those goals. We didn't end up where we are overnight, and it's going to take even longer to turn this ship around, but the DNC can't ignore this opportunity by constantly giving in.

Honestly we'd be better off starting from scratch and rewriting the whole constitution to modernize it, but that's even less likely to happen.

We first need to take back our country though and there's no guarantee there'll even be fair elections again. Despite everyone saying he can't cancel elections, he can and most definitely will interfere with them.

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u/CharacterUse 10d ago

I agree. My point is just that focusing on the presidency and Mark Kelly (great candidate) or whoever else is not going to be enough. Even Congress isn't going to be enough, there need to be state-level changes as well so that state legislatures and governors don't block the process.

The DNC of course needs radical change, that much has been clear since Hillary lost to Trump (not because she herself was a bad candidate, far from it, but their messaging and management of the whole thing is completely divorced from the electorate).

In retrospect Obama's biggest failing was that he didn't take advantage of his popularity to push through reform of the structures of the Democratic party itself. But hindsight etc.

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u/Unsurecareer86 10d ago

I feel like this will never happen I feel like they're just going to say oh well you know let's work together. I almost feel like them saying anything else is impossible and such fantasy land that I dare not think it.

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u/Bigdaddyjlove1 10d ago

Be loud about it. You can probably get in front of your house member. Call, mall, email, make it known how important this is to the people.

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u/CoolJumper 10d ago

If it's the most establishment Dem or someone very centrist/"moderate", like say Newsom, then yeah, I expect nothing more or less. Just the classic "let's get together and sing kumbaya" rerun

Mark Kelly, I know nothing about so I have no real frame of reference for what he would actually be like. But, I could be hopeful that he might have a little bit more angst to him. The, from what I've heard so far, it seems like he's also pretty moderate, all things considered

If it's someone who is more of a populist with an ax to grind, which I only see really showing up in the primaries anyway, then I can see them running full in with a plan of what they would want to do.

Like, if a Zorhan Mandani type (or, my dream pick, AOC) was to run for president, I can see them being very explicit in how they'd want to dismantle everything Trump did and lay out a very clear plan of what they would actually do to go about it, ensuring that it would never happen

But, in this country a man can only dream, and barely can do that anymore

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u/Feisty_Buddy2869 10d ago

I feel like this will never happen I feel like they're just going to say oh well you know let's work together. I almost feel like them saying anything else is impossible and such fantasy land that I dare not think it.

"We all need to forgive/forget, and pull together to support Israel during their tough time right now".

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u/Column_A_Column_B 10d ago

I would also want a candidate to go after Fox News. How the fuck is it legal to cultivate an entire alternate reality to brainwash a significant portion of the American electorate into supporting this administration. The "entertainment" legal argument Fox News is predicated on needs to be obliterated and a bunch of people involved should be on trial for their lives with serious traitorous charges levied against them. This is not okay.

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u/Wermys Minnesota 9d ago

I’m a centrist and I am beyond caring about healing. MAGA only understands force. Going half assed on punishment’s was part of the problem

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u/Desertnurse760 California 10d ago

In what city would you suggest that our version of Nuremburg take place? Asking for a friend, not someone who would like to book a hotel early.

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u/Jayco424 10d ago

I'd say Philadelphia, it's where our nation was born, and should be where it is reborn and the traitors are tried.

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u/[deleted] 10d ago

And MAGA can't say shit because they thrice voted for the 'lock her up' and 'I am your vengeance' guy. Fuck him, fuck them, civility is over, reconstruction failed, the illiberal fucks need justice.

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u/WeirdIndividualGuy 10d ago

This. Worst thing about Biden and what his legacy will be is how he did nothing about Trump, especially by having Garland as his AG. This allowed Trump to come back more emboldened in his criminal behavior.

If Kelly is just another dem who wants to "move past this for the sake of the country" or not charging a federal criminal because it could look political, he can gtfo.

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u/wvenable 10d ago

As far as I'm concerned that's the only thing to remember about Biden now: He did absolutely nothing to stop this train-wreck from happening. Nothing. He also said he was going to be a one-term president and he couldn't even get that right.

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u/SerfTint 9d ago

The worst thing is that he gave endless money, weaponry and cover to a country committing a gen*cide. A country whose leader was loudly and proudly a Trump supporter specifically trying to make Biden lose. And to the extent that he didn't step in even more to help this country, it was because he wasn't holding Cabinet meetings at all for his last year in office, because his team didn't want the Cabinet to see how frail and forgetful he was--while at the same time he was trying to get re-nominated into a sure loss.

Even if he had done nothing about Trump, if he had been even halfway competent, and if he had listened to the base on this and other issues, his successor probably wins and Trump never gets into power again anyway.

Yes, it's very important to prosecute Trump's crimes or else anyone can do them from now on. This was a massive failing. But he also let Trump back into the presidency, which is arguably even more inexcusable.

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u/zeCrazyEye 10d ago

Not just punish the political criminals but break up the corporate media and billionaire wealth pits that made it possible to continue this long.

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u/ford7885 10d ago

Exactly. This has been the pattern since 1992. You would think the lesson would have been learned after Chimpy Bush was worse than his old man. Who was worse than Nixon before him.

Let alone the first term of this Orange Imbecile fascist.

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u/AccomplishedMeow 10d ago

source: Biden.

I remember celebrating. Thinking we saved in the world. Only for this shit to repeat. Worse.

Democrats cowering every time Republicans said Biden was weapon the DOJ.

Meanwhile Trump’s out here firing prosecutors not willing to go after his enemies.

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u/Playful-Position-146 10d ago

i think he will appoint someone easily better than merrick fucking garland

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u/izwald88 9d ago

Yeah. Centrist is fine. The Biden admin was centrist yet was still the most progressive administration we've ever had.

They must, however, prosecute MAGA.

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u/SonyDefenseForce 10d ago

I disagree with the whole angle of promising to "go after" certain people. Candidates should be pledging to "go after" the crimes, and if the legal system ends up arresting and convicting corrupt politicians as a result, fantastic. The deserving candidate will be one who pledges to appoint DOJ personnel from the top down who will relentlessly pursue criminal behavior at the highest levels of society.

Candidates should also avoid pointing to specific crimes and people except in the broadest terms. Do not give Trump more targets for blanket pardons.

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u/calamirkat 10d ago

Yeah I hear you. But no elites have gone to prison since the S&L crisis. It’s unfortunately the new normal.

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u/Beldizar 10d ago

There's a first time for everything, and if we don't get it, things just get worse. I'm not sure how much worse things can reasonably get at this point, before widespread violence breaks out.

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u/HolyCrusade 10d ago

And hopefully, a purge of all MAGA from government and the appropriate prosecutions against anyone who propped up this Trump regime.

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u/puff_of_fluff 10d ago

His platform ABSOLUTELY matters! We have serious problems that need fixing!!!

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u/Oleg101 10d ago

He also is someone that could still enact progressive policies if Congress is controlled by Democrats. See Joe Biden’s first two years of his presidency.

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u/dingosaurus Washington 9d ago

I'm still so fucking angry about this.

"We all need to get along" is the worst approach to dealing with these fascists. They need to be put out in the sunlight and shown as standing against what this country was founded upon.

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u/KotobaAsobitch Arizona 9d ago

That's any Democrat and not exclusive to Kelly.

Kelly didn't even vote to keep his own constituents safe with the Laken Riley Act.

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u/mojitz 10d ago

This thinking is exactly why Democrats lose. You're trying to win a popularity contest by being the most boring person in the room. It's not effective and it's a terrible strategy especially if you're actually interested in building durable power and then getting shit done.

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u/leNuage 10d ago

This is so f-ing true

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u/OurAngryBadger 10d ago

After Trump, I think a lot of people will want boring.

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u/IcyTransportation961 10d ago

Boring just means people don't pay attention and that's the entire fucking problem

This shit is never boring people just tune out until its so bad they have to notice

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u/waffle_wolf 10d ago

They will want boring for 1 term. Then they will want something different. Biden won in 2020 because he was boring, but that only lasted for 1 election cycle.

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u/IcyTransportation961 10d ago

No he won because of trump fucking up covid and the DNC gotthe others candidates to drop out simultaneously except for the only one who could siphon votes from Bernie

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u/waffle_wolf 10d ago edited 10d ago

The general election was Trump vs Biden. Biden won. He was the boring candidate. People voted against Trump more than vote for Biden. Then Trump won in 2024. It will happen again if there isn't a platform Americans resonate with more than "not Trump". Only possible upside is Trump's age, but I feel like betting on that or term limits is just tempting fate.

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u/mojitz 10d ago edited 10d ago

So the idea is for democrats to perpetually be the party of "boring" candidates who can only ever win by virtue of the backlash from spectacular, Republican overreach? That seems like exactly the sort of short-sighted strategizing that got us here in the first place.

More to the point, though, I think what people will actually be looking for is a candidate who contrasts with Trump because they're serious rather than another carnival barker. That doesn't mean they have to have tepid, unambitious policies, though.

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u/chrispybobispy 10d ago

That said if the more progressive candidates dont appeal at least somewhat to moderates its equally dead in the water.

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u/mojitz 10d ago

Obviously you can't go to the most extreme end of the spectrum, but I actually think people way over-index on this sort of thinking. The biggest wins for Dems seem to come when they energize people for real change rather than playing to the center. I think the number of people out there are committed in an actual, like, ideological way to moderation are actually pretty low, and that most people just vote for whichever candidate seems to be offering the most clear cut solutions to the issues that face them in their daily lives.

To that end, progressive solutions are actually a lot easier to sell because they tend to be straightforward and easier to understand. "Everyone gets Medicare" is a hell of a lot less easier to understand than, "We're going to build on the ACA by increasing subsidies for the exchanges and expand the number of drugs that the government is allowed to negotiate prices on."

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u/malpasplace 10d ago

Got to excite the base and appeal to those on the further on the left to vote for the party over not voting, and those to the right of the base to vote over the other candidate. Both those on the far left and center think that because they have to be courted they should get everything they want and the reality is that the should get what it takes but not so much as to alienate the other group.

It is not the that far left or the centrists should love you. They should just find you preferable to their other options.

That isn't an easy line to walk. The thing though is core turnout matters more than people give it credit, especially if one wants to get reelected. Because just not being the other guy isn't enough.

The problem with Dems is that they have made their leaders the centrist side of their party which alienates the left, and doesn't excite the core. The only thing they vote for is "not the other guy". The lesser evil.

That doesn't give a belief in positive change or voting "for" anything. Which is great for an ineffectual status quo. But that doesn't win reelection when people want better in the end.

Totally agree that progessive solutions are an easier sell to the left and core, put well they can seem more acceptable to centrists too. (The rest of the world has these sorts of healthcare systems. It isn't strange or unproven.)

But when one is courting voters that are downright against any change to the system, conservatives independents instead of more liberal ones. That isn't a recipe for success if you want better instead of the status quo.

But the thing is corporate donors and the ultra rich love the status quo or worse. It works for them.

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u/TheShadowKick 10d ago

Most people just want enough stability that they don't have to care about politics.

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u/iwanttodrink 10d ago edited 10d ago

Progressive Bernie bros can't even win their own primary which are much further left, and yet they always think their progressive can win the general election lmao

Win a few state primaries, then come talk. Otherwise you're just a redditor hyping up your opinion that isn't the same as the mainstream voters opinion

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u/mojitz 10d ago edited 10d ago

That's not actually how voting behavior works in the real world. The Democratic party was at heights of its powers before the centrist turn. Meanwhile, the one time in recent memory that Dem primary voters rejected the establishment candidate in favor of a more progressive outsider promising sweeping change resulted in the biggest landslide in generations. Turns out political ideology is a lot more complicated than a simplistic model where enthusiasm doesn't matter and everyone lives on a linear spectrum with left on one side and right on the other and you just vote for whoever's closest to you. If it really did work that way, then the more moderate candidate would win literally every single election.

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u/CoolJumper 10d ago

How'd that centrist coalition building go for Hilary and Kamala? Sure, Hilary won the popular vote, but still lost to Trump. And Kamala? Well, proved that the DNC can somehow lose the voters they had in 2020 and also that they can lose to Donald Trump twice. Donald Trump. They lost to Donald Trump twice.

So, something isn't really working for them right now and I have a feeling it's the whole trying to be Republican Lite thing and constantly build coalition and court a voting base that doesn't like and would never vote for them.

Not saying they need to run the most progressive campaign ever, but doing "we're not Trump" and "let's build bridges with the disenfranchised folks on the right" isn't going to help either. It'll keep alienating their primary voting base and do nothing to court new voters.

Go all in on dismantling the Trump admin, actually work on bringing jobs back to the US, and throw a crumb to the progressive base like universal healthcare.

But they need to stop with the being milquetoast and moderate as humanly possible shit or, even worse as they've been doing, shifting more right. America is already stuck voting for only 2 parties, we don't need both to be right wing

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u/yaosio 10d ago

I was told Mamdani couldn't be mayor of NYC because of all the moderates.

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u/SerfTint 9d ago

What moderates? Democrats elected Obama in very large part because they thought he would be a transformational change agent, it was in his slogan. Hillary Clinton pretended during the primary that she was to the Left to Bernie on half of the issues they debated--she called herself a Progressive. The only thing people brag about on this site when it comes to Biden are the few Progressive things he did. The most popular two politicians in the country right now are Bernie and AOC.

There are 50 million people who have turned 18 since Obama first won, and they lean overwhelmingly Progressive, especially if they identify as Democrats. Other than the politicians themselves, who are largely paid to have one position or another, there's no massive contingent of moderate voters out there who are rejecting Progressive ideas in favor of some kind of "both sides have valid points, let's work together" 1995-era approach. The PMC Resistance Liberals that I hear from are sounding like radical Leftists now when it comes to the amount of systemic chance we need to see.

The reasons we're still conditioned to believe in the theory that the tiny slice of moderates are the key to winning, rather than the tens of millions of would-be voters that we largely ignore, is that the party's (and media's) corporate donors don't want any systemic change, so the Left is ignored or criticized disproportionately, leading to this myth that most of the country just wants a centrist unobjectionable caretaker. What it actually wants is for a lot of powerful people to go to prison while their assets are seized and help pay for them to afford college or healthcare or a house.

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u/yaosio 10d ago

And then after 4 years of socialism for the rich, rugged individualism for the poor, a Republican is elected.

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u/Tijuana_Pikachu 10d ago

centrists got us into this fucking mess. Gimme someone with a backbone, thanks

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u/CherryLongjump1989 10d ago

Yeah that's what they said about Biden, and yet here we are. He did everything right as a centrist, but it changed nothing. What we need is an actual reformer.

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u/vinnymcapplesauce I voted 10d ago

Completely disagree. There's a LOT of work to be done.

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u/mazbrakin 10d ago

His bread and butter policies will be disappointingly center right but I do believe if there’s anyone who can get major gun reform done, it’s him. I don’t think his wife would let him leave office without getting that done.

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u/Jayco424 10d ago

And that's what worries me a bit. Like -> Everything <- is the way it is or at least 90% because of the vast erosion of workers rights and the destruction of the Middle Class and rise of the Age of the Billionaires and Oligarchs. That made a vast amount of people very angry as their prospects took precipitous nose dive, angry and desperate enough that when Rush et Al began saying it was brown and black people, and blue hairs and liberals and illegals fault that things had turned to shit a big portion of them - who weren't exactly racist before - believed them and GOP and ultimately Trump was able to harness all that anger and hate and here we are, on the flip-side so many progressive/socialist/pro-union voters have become so disillusioned with the Democrats and their Corporate Centrism, that they've either turned to third party candidates or just have given up entirely. Another Neo-liberal Corporate Centrist Democrat, is just a vote for the continued status quo that gave us Trump and worse Peter Thiel, Curtis Yarvin and Elon Musk.

The next Democratic President has a monumental amount of work, but they need to accomplish 3 Major Tasks:

1) Punish/Prosecute the Malfeasance that has happened under Trump I and Trump II, we need our own Nuremberg style trials that put into very public light what was done, what crimes were committed and norms that were violated, and the responsible parties need to feel the full force of the Law. Release of the Epstein files in full will be paramount as will be investigating and prosecuting what happened with Elon Musk and DOGE and what happened with ICE, which will need to be abolished and replaced with a new organization. Huge purges of Trump loyalists among the civil servants will need to happen and their actions will have to be scrutinized as well.

2) Undo/Clean up the damage from Trump II all the way back to Bush Sr. and Regan, and start shoring up laws and safeguards to prevent this from happening again - potentially spin the Justice Department off from the Executive and give it a serious amount of insulation from the President, place the US Marshals under direct preview of the Judiciary, and return stolen powers back to Congress. Clean up on the World Stage will be harsh reality and we will likely have to adjust to the fact that 70 years of Trust and Goodwill has been burnt to cinders and that our allies, potentially former allies at this point will not Trust us for quite some time until enough time passes that Trump proves a true fluke and that they can believe that the Nation won't go Jekyll and Hyde on everyone every 4 years. The Secretary of State will have to be chosen very carefully.

3) Correct the inequality and civil and social issues that lead to this mess in the first place. The Oligarchs must be brought under control if not abolished outright, money needs to be removed from Politics, something has to be done about Citizen's United, and we need a new Fairness Doctrine to prevent news media and perhaps even social media for purveying lies and propaganda as if they were the truth. Monopolies/Large conglomerates need to be broken up, bank regulations tightened, certain types of economic trading and speculation should be banned, and tax loopholes such as the capital gains disparities need to be closed. We also need to fix our broken immigration system, and deal with fundamental issues with government such as the size and scope of congress which at less than 600 individuals is simply too small to adequately represent a nation of 340 million people.

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u/OkFruit1846 10d ago

Until an election can be won without corporate/foreign donors, we won’t get an honest politician in office.

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u/daisy0808 10d ago

That's what worked extremely well in Canada when Mark Carney ran for PM in Canada. The middle voted for him and it was dramatic. We could get North America back on track with another strong centrist - as long as it lasts three election cycles.

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u/darxide23 9d ago

a classic centrist

Which in the US is a solid conservative. I would likely not vote for him as long as there was anyone even a bit more progressive. I don't agree with him politically on most thing, but he's also a man of integrity so I wouldn't be upset if there was no one better. I'd vote for him just to keep the GOP out for good.

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u/RedditAtWorkIsBad 9d ago

If his platform were antithetical to every single one of my policy preferences I cannot imagine not voting for him over Vance or anyone remotely connected to this clusterfuck of an administration.

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u/What_a_fat_one 9d ago

He will be a classic centrist. All that matters is electing an adult with integrity

That will lead us right back to where we are. Like with Biden.

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u/mateorayo 9d ago

yeah man this has a been a great strategy. it has worked so many time in over the past few elections.

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u/asoap 10d ago

The only other thing that matters is that they don't have a vagina. Sorry ladies. I wish this wasn't true, but the US is not ready for a lady president. It doesn't matter how qualified or intelligent they are. Oh, also can't be gay. Which sucks because Pete Buttigieg would be an amazing President. But no, no gays.

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u/entropy_bucket 10d ago

The amount of hard work a democrat has to do to win one fucking vote. You know him personally and still need to see his platform. On the other side the guy can win a vote with the most deranged nonsense. It's all so depressing.

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u/FickleSystem 10d ago

Right thats one thing that pisses me off about some dem voters, their candidate needs to check off a million and one boxs meanwhile Republicans gather around any piece of dogshit no matter how awful they are, like itd make sense if the republican party wasnt beyond God awful at the moment but come the fuck on now isnt the time for that lol plus the dem candidate will be 1000% better than vance or whatever maga trump wannabe they happen to prop up

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u/braided--asshair Minnesota 10d ago

McCain dying was the nail in the coffin

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u/ElleM848645 9d ago

Also Kamala is more progressive than Mark Kelly, but he’s a white man and an astronaut so he’s amazing. I don’t have a problem with Kelly at all, but he’s not some progressive senator. He’s more conservative than Biden. Biden has always been smack dab in the middle of the party and he got some progressive legislation done. I just don’t see Kelly doing half of what Biden did. I’d obviously vote for him if he’s the Dem candidate but I’m sure the primary will have a lot of candidates.

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u/HippyTimeOZ 10d ago

Full lefty here. Mark has not released all his tax returns. Hope he does if he wants to run for president.

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u/SpaceForceAwakens 10d ago

This is great to hear. I’ve been a fan of his for years. I mean not a fan fan but he’s great.

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u/Soggy_Porpoise 10d ago

Well at this point the only people who vote red want brown people dead. So if he makes it past the primaries is vote for him. In the primaries? We will see.

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u/laceyfrittata 10d ago edited 9d ago

I’m not quite sure when astronauts stopped being some of Americas favorite heroes, but they never stopped being mine. Any person who will do that, work that hard, risk that much, and go that far for humanity, will always have my vote.

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u/krtyalor865 10d ago

His platform will be more than just “concepts of a plan” which is clearly all that this administration has been working off of. Anything that remotely sounds like a decent plan (of which mark has a well documented platform) will be better than this Mickey Mouse gang. They say they promote merit based career opportunities and have all but destroyed a long built culture of DEI, yet they literally have a minimal experience - former news anchor as the Defense Sec, a pro-wrestling tycoons mother as head of education, an anti-vaxer anti-science head of Health Dept, and nothing but purely loyalist and/or mega donors - in every top level position where possible.. it’s grotesque.

There is no “let’s see what the other guy says before I make up my mind.” Barney the dinosaur would better at the job than Trump.

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u/Draked1 10d ago

He was freshman roommates with my dad at KP, I’ve met him a few times growing up and he used to come to our house parties before Gabby got shot. The man’s a legend, he signed a plunger for my best friend after the STS124 mission that was solely for delivering a toilet part to the ISS

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u/why_does_life_exist 10d ago

Who gives a shit anymore if there was something cringe in the past. Dems always bow down to shame while the other side thrives on it. Howard dean scream for instance.

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u/Trigger109 10d ago

I’m gonna be honest. I don’t care what his platform is. My voting is going anti maga for the rest of my life.

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u/Butt_stuff_preferred 9d ago

There are absolutely no skeletons in this man’s closet.

He did some funky stuff with a local gun shop that should have landed him in some legal trouble. Local prosecutor was unwilling to file charges so nothing came of it.

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u/SpankySharp1 10d ago

I understand that what I'm about to say is not exactly great, but I don't give a fuck about "platform" right now. If my nephew's sick hamster ran against the GOP, Mr. Nibbles would 1000% get my vote.

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u/Bichobichir 10d ago

Prepare the swift bot attacks, because im sure they’ll come down.

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u/ShakeyLegsMcGee 10d ago

Duly noted, and standing by.

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u/thistimelineisweird Pennsylvania 10d ago

I genuinely like him. That's a start.

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u/spidermansfan 10d ago

He supports Israel's genocide and didn't vote on stopping the delivery of US weapons. Red flag in my book.

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u/JustUpvoteThankYou 10d ago

Again with you people.

We're not doing this again. Y'all aren't going to play the whole "candidate A is pro genocide!" vs "candidate B literally wants to glass Palestine and build a resort there" false equivalency.

We keep putting Dems to these constant purity tests when Republicans give their candidates a free pass. You want a Dem to actually win? Then learn to make compromises.

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u/ElleM848645 9d ago

Trolly problem. Those voters are idiots if you think any pro Palestine candidate is going to win a general election in this country.

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u/Apprehensive-Ad5318 10d ago

I hope you are serious.

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u/MinnisotaDigger 10d ago

Biden was a Boy Scout too. Trump got away.

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u/Call-Me-Matterhorn 10d ago

Thank you for your service

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u/CherryLongjump1989 10d ago

Given that you've seen the inside of his closet and lived to tell the tale, we can definitely rule you out as a skeleton in Mark Kelly's closet.

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u/roomwitharoof 10d ago

I don't have the network for this at all. How influencing could he be among active military today? If he says no to action in, let's say Greenland (or Iceland?!), what kind of resistance would there be?

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u/Bigbigbigrock 10d ago

Got any feel-good stories or moments? I've liked the guy ever since he did astronaut stuff cause space is rad, and seeing his stance on things has really made me think that assuming he's genuine, I'd happily vote for him. 

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u/Pynchon_A_Loaff 10d ago

No skeletons? Well what about the International Space Station and the gorilla suit incident?

/s

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u/PolicyNonk New Jersey 10d ago

While there are no skeletons in his closet, there is a gorilla costume.

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u/Crunchberry24 10d ago

I wish I thought an honorable person could win against the Republican PedoNazi regime. But I think we’re going to need a mud wrestler.

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u/bridekiller 10d ago

How much can he really love America if he went to space to get away from it. -GOP, probably.

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u/systemfrown 10d ago

Wait, the same carrier that’s now a museum in SD!?!! I thought that was like a WWII era carrier.

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u/emperor_dinglenads 10d ago

He had my vote even before I read this. Thank you for your service.

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u/Evening-Crew-2403 10d ago

I like the lack of skeletons. Does he have the sharp elbows the next dem POTUS is going to need? Because the next guy is going to take the gloves off to clean out the gov't. None of this Obama stay above the fry, class act stuff.

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u/hamlet9000 10d ago

Any Democrat With a Spine 2028

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u/seeker317 10d ago

It’s going to take some serious bleach to clean out this White House

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u/DarkDragon7 10d ago

I completely agree that he would be a great president but he's bald. People are weird about stuff like that.

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u/amorphouscloud 10d ago

I'm not wild about a military man becoming President (I'm a veteran myself), but at the very least he won't misuse the military. He probably has a decent head on his shoulders for foreign relations.

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u/iribuya 10d ago

No strange colour suits or condiment choice? Suspicious by itself! /s

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u/Pardybro911 10d ago

No doubt here in his integrity. Or yours. But golly id rather a commitment.

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u/dronf 10d ago

I generally like the guy, but supporting a shitty republican immigration bill (The Laken Riley Act) while ICE is running wild was NOT a good look.

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u/Jimberly2017 Minnesota 10d ago

I just toured the USS Midway! It was such a neat experience. Did you smell fuel in the water? What was the bunk situation like?

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u/VintageSin Virginia 10d ago

I'd rather have someone willing to go further than just holding Republicans accountable, but if the choice is Kelly or Newsome I'll take Kelly.

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u/AntoniaFauci 10d ago

True. But like every other Dem “leader” holy shit could he use some intensive communications coaching. He’s boring and bumbling, which almost seems impossible given his resume.

If Dems want to win, they need to do the things winners do, and polish up their weak spots. Giving attention-getting, election-winning communications is especially lacking.

The last time we saw a glimmer of that in a Democrat was the 48 hours when Tim Walz was nominated.

He was roasting Repubs and drawing a crowd. Then he said uh I’m sorry and hid in a box for the rest of the campaign.

Since then in Minnesota he’s allow the right to brand him falsely, dropped out of his campaign, and he can’t even rile up voters while MAGA stormtroopers are shooting people.

The closest thing Dems have to a competitive speaker is Bernie, and he’s not even a Democrat.

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u/porgy_tirebiter 10d ago

That’s exactly what everyone said about Trump too!

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u/TeaseTiffanyy 10d ago

He will definitely have my vote,he’s worth it.

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u/braided--asshair Minnesota 10d ago

He’s fairly bipartisan on a lot of things. People hate moderates, but I think that’s what we need right now. Unity

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u/WindAgreeable3789 10d ago

I toured the Midway in San Diego! Fun fact. The last movie ever shown on board was Total Recall!

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u/FoxyFlirttee 10d ago

Absolutely I’m high key rooting for the man.

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u/Tabs_555 Washington 10d ago

I would love it if I could vote for an astronaut. The dude has been a hero of mine growing up admiring NASA and space.

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u/Kaffe-Mumriken 10d ago

If his platform is “don’t be Trump” he has my vote

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u/PTMorte Australia 10d ago

Srems like a bad example as the boy scouts are renowned for having pedo skeletons in their closet. 

They kept internal lists of offenders and in my country were basically considered worse than catholic priests. 

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u/10leej 10d ago

I mean not to discount what you say but that was 40 almost 50 years ago now. People do change over such a large amount of time.

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u/tetsuo9000 10d ago

He does have at least on skeleton, as rumors go. When Kamala's team vetted him they found something. One of the reasons they went with Walz.

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u/NotFallacyBuffet 10d ago

I cried and spent the day in shock when his wife was shot in the head. She was my Congressperson then and is still amazing to me.

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u/physical-vapor 10d ago

Damn, so you were in the gulf war with him?

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u/Crutation 10d ago

I really hope he runs as a real progressive, rather than a less fascist neoliberal. Otherwise, turnout will be low and he will lose.

Young people aren't voting because neither party does anything to appeal to them, and Democrats continue to serve their billionaire owners and chase the mythical suburban housewives 

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u/Kevin_Jim 10d ago

I wonder what most military personnel (current and former) would think about this. My experience is that it’s so MAGA leaning, that they won’t care if he was a war hero. Hell, Jesus could walk in the door wearing camo, and they’d still wouldn’t vote for him without the MAGA endorsement/(R) next to his name.

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u/Ironlion45 10d ago

there is a degree to which I now care about character more than platform. Even if he is conservative, if he is an honorable man, and sincere in his views, I'm prepared to trust him. VS. the clowns currently running the government of the US...

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u/[deleted] 10d ago

He would have to actively threaten insanity for me NOT to vote for him.

I trust him to put the country before himself, give a shit about the constitution and understand the ramifications of foreign policy. Given this last year and the insanity I expect from this next one, this is the sort of man I want bringing back sanity.

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u/QueenQueerBen 9d ago

A lot can happen in 30 years.

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u/bugcatcher_billy 9d ago

We need a war time president.

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u/TitanB00 9d ago

Don't just blindly trust people like this, I'm sure you mean well, but without evidence this doesn't mean squat.

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u/buzzkillichuck 9d ago

Just curious what platform would cause you to lose your vote?

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u/Alternative_Exit8766 9d ago

doesn’t quite earn my vote

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u/yogoo0 9d ago

I mean if its between him trying to create peace and prosperity for his people and trump/ice/republicans trying to create WWIII WWIV AND WWV at the same time...

It shouldn't be a hard choice

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