The Democrats in 2020, will they once again snatch Defeat from the Jaws of Victory?

Our friend Veritas Omnia Vincit is back, this time with an essay that doesn’t require Venn charts. He opines that even though Trump is vulnerable for re-election, the odds are pretty good the Dems will dick-step their way to defeat in 2020. See what you think:

Veritas Omnia Vincit

Beating Trump in 2020 should be a gimme for the Democrats, Trump’s narrow margins in a couple of states only need to be turned around and his four years in the Oval Office will be over as quickly as they started. You might think differently about his chances, but if the Democrats mount any sort of real campaign in depth instead of the superficial nonsense that the Clinton crowd did in 2016 Trump’s chances drop dramatically.

Having said that, the Democrats seem more than capable of sabotaging themselves with their own general election voters without any outside influence, Russian or Republican.

As most of you know by now I’m not one to keep my oddball perspectives to myself nor am I afraid to be criticized for having those perspectives. The current huge Democratic field is a motley group of people all trying to grab some headlines to create a little “buzz” around themselves to grab a few percentage points and make some headway against the current presumptive leaders in the Democratic race. Those two leaders are a couple of old white guys who could not be more different with respect to their vision for America or their personalities. One of them isn’t even really a Democrat he just has no viable third or fourth party option a campaign vehicle to challenge the two sides of the same coin politics we currently possess here in the United States.

Biden is a Hillary Clinton style corporatist hack of the right of center perspective in practice if not in how he expresses himself. Obama wasn’t a progressive either, no matter how revisionists try to paint his presidency for good or ill. When Forbes indicates you did more for the 1% than the Republicans before you it’s a safe bet you’re not really a proletariat progressive representative of the people. He’s being touted by the Democrats as the guy to defeat Trump largely because the one thing the Democratic leadership might hate more than Trump is being labeled a bunch of socialists, or worse commies. Biden is a known entity who says the right words but can be counted on to support the right businesses and their ownership should he get elected to 1600 PA Avenue in 2020. Biden is the presumptive front runner to date largely due to name recognition not because he engenders any sort of grass roots excitement across the country. Biden also eases the concerns of the DNC leadership that they have surrounding the electability of the 18 other candidates who most people don’t know and don’t much care to know even among Democrats. He is their tried and true status quo candidate and his record shows that they can trust him to carry the water in not only the approved containers but also the approved fashion.

The other true Democrats in the race (I’ll get to Sanders in a moment) are a collection of has-beens or never weres all hoping to distinguish themselves somehow as having a unique voice. Consequently they all need to voice something different than their DNC leadership, and in so doing they are all voicing a uniquely, albeit collective, progressive set of unrealistic ideals that are in fact nothing more than Bernie Sanders’ 2016 (and to be fair to Bernie, his whole life’s) perspectives and positions. I’ve never heard Democrats so uniformly in a primary season voicing support for a narrow “progressive” platform of free shit for everyone. Free college, free debt forgiveness, free health care, guaranteed minimum wages for every entry level no skill position across the nation, and best of all some sort of basic income guarantee for every American who is willing (or even unwilling if the Green New Deal’s original bullet points are to be believed…) to work.

None of them has any actual idea how to pay for this beyond increasing taxes on the rich, no one knows how they’ll get such measures through a largely corporately owned Congress but hey those are only minor details as none of these people really believe their own bullshit they are just saying the things they hope the progressives who turnout to primary elections want to hear. Their general election positions will be slightly different, tamped down by a National Convention that is designed to water down just about everything the left side of the Party ever says or does.

Consequently, unless something dramatic happens with one of the 18-20 other unknowns, I don’t see a lot of upward mobility today for any of them. Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, and Liz Warren and Robert Francis (“Beto”) O’Rourke are polling between 6-9% well behind the top two contenders. At this time they aren’t really serious contenders. That could change certainly as the weaker elements fade away and you whittle the group down to six or fewer finalists.

Which brings me to everybody’s favorite old socialist Bernie Sanders. I’m going to posit a theory here that may or may not sit well with some folks, but it seems to have some merit in my view. It’s my opinion that Bernie is the Democrats version of Trump. Not in their political affiliations of course but in their ability to come in as outsiders to the status quo and create a buzz and some loyal base of voters. The difference between them is that the Republicans held a far more equitable and fair primary which makes it possible for outsiders to win than the Democrats do. Bernie was starting to build some serious momentum with voters, but not with the Democratic Super Delegates who actually control 40% of the votes that matter at the Convention. The DNC screwed Bernie so dishonestly that Wasserman-Schultz had to resign in disgrace after being exposed for being a liar and a co-conspirator in derailing Bernie’s primary run. Those actions by the DNC affected the Bernie voters to negatively they stayed home and refused to vote for Ms. Clinton and Trump reaped that benefit.

Whether you love or hate Sanders one thing is still true about his candidacy. He’s an outsider to the mainstream Democrats, he’s an outsider to their leadership and he’s viewed nationally as someone who is not part of the Democratic Party but represents the best version of their progressive wing. His consistency over the decades is well known and it makes those who supported Hillary four years ago now seem like pale imitations of Sanders as they mouth rather insincerely his positions from the last four years and his entire life. Bernie is quite possible far more electable than Biden because of the simple fact he energizes younger voters. The Democrats in the boomer generation will vote for whatever candidate the Democrats put out there, not so their younger counterparts. If Biden or any of the others actually defeats Sanders in what is perceived to be a fair process this time around, the Democrats might retain some of those young voters. If there is a hint of the same nonsense as last time those voters will once again pack it up and watch the Democrats fulfill my headline.

The only real thing I see today that can hurt Sanders is Sanders himself and his idiotic views on who should be allowed to vote. Thinking that Tsarnaev should be allowed to vote after purposely putting a bomb next to a child will be an albatross he’ll be unable to rid himself of during the general campaign should he win the nomination and the Republicans will pound him on it at every turn knowing middle America won’t tolerate such stupidity.

I really think as I did four years ago, that defeating Trump isn’t that hard. I also firmly believe that the Democrats still don’t understand why Trump won and what they could do to change the narrative this time out.

Buckle up because I believe it’s going to be rather interesting over the next 18 months or so leading up to the 2020 national.

Thanks for reading,
VoV

Thank, V, another great post from a different angle. I predict it’s going to get bloody as the Dems winnow their field of candidates for 2020, and one wonders what their platform will be besides pandering to the Free Shit Army (now officially the FSA) and “Orange man bad!” Trump will be out for blood as well*, now the two year debacle has ended, and he has quite the laundry list of successes to point to.
Not a popcorn fan, but nachos and beer…

*Heh. Hell hath no fury like a billionaire scorned.

Category: 2020 Election, Geezer Alert!, Guest Post, Politics, Trump!