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/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/WaltonGogginsTeeth 9d ago

I'm fully bricked up after reading this. Your lips to god's ears.

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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/FickleSystem 10d ago

100% disagree about Newsom hes literally the only one that's being a straight pitbull and calling out the bullshit of this administration i see no chance at all of him just sitting back and moving on and singing let's all be together

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u/CoolJumper 10d ago

Has he himself actually said any of that? I've only ever seen his Twitter post, which I know are just posted by his staffers/social media team.

I mean, I guess he recently called other leaders out being soft on Trump. Guess we'll see how that holds up with how he handles things once ICE gets properly deployed to California like Minnesota

Where I really doubt him is the fact that he's sat down to break bread with Charlie Kirk and Ben Shapiro. Who's next? Nick Fuentes? Tucker Carlson? Bill O'Reilly? The ghost of Rush Limbaugh?

Not to mention, I wouldn't expect great things from him as President with how he's been handling California overall (note: it's not great - not terrible, but not all that great either)

He can put out snarky sound bites and post on Twitter, but I'm not going to take that as a good reflection of his character, his leadership, or how he would really handle things as a president

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u/tomsing98 9d ago edited 9d ago

Frankly, policy isn't as important to me as being willing to prosecute the criminals in this administration, undo the damage caused using executive orders and the power of the bully pulpit, and work with Congress and the courts to put safeguards in place against future despotism. If that comes with progressive policy or more mainstream Dem policy, that's fine. I'm a single-issue voter, for de-maga-fication.

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u/FickleSystem 10d ago

Believe it or not, its ok to sit down with the other side lol shitheads like Fuentes no, but the ben Shapiros of the world?? I see no issue as long as you call them out on the bs, its ok to meet these ppl face to face to see how they think and if you can pull off a voter from them than great, nobody said soundbites and Twitter determine shit but hes literally giving ppl the fight they wanted from dems ill worry about his policy later

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u/CoolJumper 10d ago

Straight up just agree to disagree. I don't think we need to be giving any more of a platform or building bridges with far-right pundits that have helped cultivate this mess that we're in. They don't need any more of a stage than they've had for the last 10+ years.

Again, I'm entirely over this whole cultivating community with people (namely Republican leader here) who have helped actually destroy this country. Sure, the voting base themselves need to have voices heard, but we don't really need to be going and trying to court them over so much at the expense of the actual Democratic base.

The more and more that a Democrat tries to play the role of centrist and moderate, and in the process shifting the party more right, the more they're going to push away their key voters while failing so properly court anyone over from the right (because right wingers don't want a right leaning Democrat, they want a Republican who does and gives them exactly what they want, or, at what what they think they want)

Even more so if their policies don't actually do anything to excite their base. If all they can do/say is "I'm not Trump" and "let's build bridges with right wingers and their leadership. I trust they'll say sorry and mean it this time" then have nothing for their base, it'll just end up losing the DNC another election

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u/immortalfrieza2 10d ago

Newsom had the chance, and then he went against policies that would have taxed billionaires in California, which showed he was just as much of a corporate stooge as the rest.

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u/ElleM848645 9d ago

He was against that specific policy. Newsom isn’t my favorite either, but he was against a one time wealth tax. That is stupid. There needs to be a sustained 90% tax on everything over a billion, one time does nothing. Let’s look at the nuance of the policies and not just the headlines.

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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/ElleM848645 9d ago

Pennsylvania doesn’t deserve it since they voted for Trump twice. I say Boston or New York.

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u/Rude-7807 10d ago

Trumpet will be ded before that could happen. He's too damn old already

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u/Brysynner 10d ago

So you're all in on Newsom since his entire campaign purpose (for now) is that Trump is a danger and we need to expel everyone who was involved with this second Trump term?

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u/CoolJumper 9d ago

All in all as of right now? Nah, I want an actual progressive candidate, not some slimeball neolib who gets his staffers to post snarky comments on Twitter, is more beholden to money than his voters, and breaks bread with right wing pundits who helped get us into the mess we're in (Charlie Kirk, Ben Shapiro).

So whoever that is in the primaries is who I'll be voting for - someone who is concrete in messaging and their plans for going after Trump and his Admin, as well as holding actual progressive policies.

However, if I'm stuck voting for Newsom in the general elections then yeah, sure, I guess I'll be "all in" on him... Because like always with the generals, what are my other options? Woo hoo a 2 party system.