The Democrats in 2020, will they once again snatch Defeat from the Jaws of Victory?
Is this the best the Dems have to offer?
Another Veritas Omnia Vincit essay, exploring the possibility the Democrats are their own worst enemy. I’m good with that. Looking at the field of declared candidates with Bolshevik Bill de Blasio the latest to throw his hat in the ring, there is not a dimes difference between the lot of them. All pushing left as hard as they can. Read on:
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 possibly 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
Thanks, V, for another thought provoking essay.
There’s much more in the thundering herd behind Bernie and Biden, like partial (or complete!) birth abortion, open borders, more taxes, draconian gun laws, overseas appeasement, the list goes on. Look for a race to the center by whichever Dem candidate wins the primary, as they well know these far left positions are untenable.
Category: Guest Link, Politics
I don’t think Bernie or Biden will be the nominee.
Though the economy will likely be in that tank by then which will be good for Bernie’s chances.
People are more excited by Kamala Harris and surprisingly Warren is gaining momentum. Kamala has the establishment and Warren is gaining support among the justice democrats.
Also, Tulsi Gabbard can be expected to gain momentum now that she has made the debate stage.
You could have just stopped with the first three words and saved us all a lot of time.
Based on what? With the exception of a couple fear-mongers, the economists I’ve heard say the economy is strong and there is no sign of recession.
The Balance
He’s prayed to the ghosts of CNN’s Past for his Christmas wish of American ruin to come true. Poor economy would be great for the country because it’d get rid of Orange Man Bad. Doesn’t matter how many lives and families are ruined, the end of getting rid of the hated Trump is all that matters.
The ruined lives and families would just be deplorable collaborators anyway, so who cares?
Tulsi should be at the forefront, but she’s far to reasonable and centrist to ever come close to the nomination.
Kamala and Harris have both showed they are enormously virtue signalling morons willing to say and do anything (or anyone) to get ahead.
It’ll come down to Creepy Uncle Joe and Crazy Grandpa Bernie for the nom. Neither will be good for the DNC’s prospects of actually winning the WH back in 2020.
Commissar, I’ll be needing some empirical data for that “in the tank” bullshit.
Oh, he doubtless has it readily available. But it’s not worth his time to provide documentation backing up his claims, so we’ll have to take his word for it.
I hope the sarcasm above is self-evident – regarding the first sentence, anyway. The second sentence is not in any way intended to be sarcastic.
Understood it exactly as you intended.
The explanation wasn’t really for you, amigo; I figured you’d “get it”. I provided it for the benefit of someone who has proven himself both somewhat humor-challenged and reading-comprehension-challenged in addition to being unwilling to document claims. (smile)
My TALISMAN OF TRUTH is all that I need to back up my statements!
You just HAD to call for him to whip his Empirical Evidence out, didn’t ya?
I’ve heard what Harris is called behind her back, have you? For those who haven’t been paying attention to this most recent California lightweight it’s “heels”, because she made her way in the world with her heels in the air. It says a lot that the Dems are excited about a candidate (almost certainly for entirely superficial reasons) who is essentially a whore.
She was Wee Willie Brown’s “personal” Admin Assistant in the Commiefornia Legislature. Willie was a lawer for whores and pimps in San Fransicko as his real job before he became a professional pol.
Essentially? If she’s exchanging appointments and favors for sex, she’s a literal whore.
Now Biden is an admitted whore:
What a dumbass.
Save it for the coffee shop talk dumbass.
Just buy the goodest Orville Redenbacher you can buy, sit back and enjoy the show.
The one thing that will be the most fun to watch is how President Trump trolls them sooooo easily !!!
Alfred E Neuman !!!!!
Famous last words, “I had to Google him”…
BWAHAHAHAHAHA !!!!!
Bernie and his warped ideas are an existential threat to the corporate masters and political schemers of the Democrat party. They will ensure his defeat, even if it is simply “he is not really a democrat, so not eligible”.
If he gets in, the whole dem power structure, all of it, goes out the airlock door.
And -that- means, if they go there, that his voters will likely again sit out the election, or go third party, or vote Mickey Mouse.
I suspect that the ruling cabal of the Dems would rather have four more years of Trump, than be out on their asses. We see similar behavior in the “Never Trump” Republicans. They preferred -Clinton- to losing absolute control of a second place Republican Party. They would rather sort-of rule in Hell, than not rule in anything else. The Dems are fundamentally less rational, and more party-ruthless, so I expect they will have a stronger “never Bernie”, but one far less vocal and -far- more ruthless
He is quite old. If he has a major health crisis, or worse, many of his supporters are going to go paranoid-apeshit. If Clinton tries to run, even half-assed just to harvest “donations”, and Bernie has any negative events at all, his hard-core followers could go nuts.
Popcorn?
The ruling class also understands it’s a long game. Being in the minority deprives you of the power (temporarily), but operating as a shadow government lets you cast blame for everything on those in power.
Spot on VoV. Us sick minds do think alike. I hope the demon craps continue to stack more and more candidates into the field. They split hell out of the ticket in 1860 and we all know how that worked out for them and the Country. Hundreds of thousands dead, millions of $ spent, and decades before they got the Presidency back. I would NOT like to see a return to that type of tragedy, but I honestly believe that some of them would like to have another Civil War.
They are fielding a group of known liars, cheats, true enemies of our Republic, whores, back stabbing, low life, self centered ne’r-do-wells, of which, a goodly number should either be in prison or driven in disgrace from public office.
Trump won because there was enough of the working people that are totally fed up with Sodom on the Potomac, got off their collective asses, and went to vote. Here’s to hoping it happens again.
I think we are beginning to see a positive shift in America. Because I believe the Progressives would not be acting like this if they were not desperate.
As George Jones said “The race is on”
“Pride in the back stretch”;”and the winner loses all”.
The fact that Biden has polled so highly immediately after jumping in has to send a message to the Demo power brokers that the party’s sharp swerve to the left is not going down well with a very large segment of their adult base. It’s probably scaring the hell out of them because Joe Biden is the only candidate they have who isn’t trying to out-marx Marx.
And the problem with that is, ol’ Joe is as crooked as a pig’s dick and they all know it. Biden’s most visible albatross is his dope-head son, Hunter, who is a walking disaster, just waiting for Trump’s oppo-research teams to dig up the dirt for the pre-election exposés. The biggest potential threat to Biden is if any of those hundreds of millions Hunter “made” in Ukraine, China and who knows elsewhere while daddy was making nice with their political leaders, can be traced to Joe’s bank accounts.
And as we all know, Trump won’t hesitate to pound “Crooked Joe” with every unearthed scandal.The stories are already coming out, most probably being fed to the media by other Dem candidates. The latest is Hunter leaving all his drug paraphernalia in a turned-in rental car, but then walking on any charges because of who daddy is. There’s also a quote out there from Hunter’s ex saying he spent much of their income on drugs and hookers.
Those Biden’s would make a nice first family, hmm?
Hey, the kid only has a little coke problem, cheated on his wife with his brother’s widow (who he then shacked up with), was kicked out of the Navy (after Daddy pulled strings to get him in), and has done extremely shady, big money deals with China and Ukrainian business interests.
Aside from all that, he’s a pretty good guy. During an interview last week Uncle Joe said, “I have great confidence in my son. He’s a man of great integrity.”
BTW – the brother’s widow dumped him recently
https://www.nickiswift.com/152135/the-real-reason-hunter-biden-split-from-beaus-widow/
I saw that. Such a shame to see that happen to such a stand up guy.
As if family events weren’t awkward enough for him already.
Biden will be the dumbocrap nominee.
Bernie will stick with his usual FSFA schtick. Why? Because Bernie wants the top spot, not the ‘someone’s shadow’ spot. Bernie will draw votes by numbskulls away from Biden, enough to make a differnce.
And the GOP will will again.
In a perfect world ( For Repulicans) Bernie Runs as Third Party Candidate and shatters the Dem Base.
We should encourage write-ins by the frustrated Left.
“Write in Bernie! Stick it to the machine!”
Paper over campuses with posters calling to “vote the -real- people’s candidate! write in Bernie!” “Don’t throw your vote away! Write in Bernie!” adorned with suitable logos.
Popcorn?
From a purely “structural” standpoint, it’s really tough to unseat an incumbent president no matter how “unpopular” he is, so in essence whoever the dems choose is likely to be a “sacrifice play” anyway. Think about this: Since the 22nd amendment was passed (Which limited the president to 2 terms) how many times has a sitting president who sought reelection NOT been reelected? The answer is: Two. Carter in 1980 and Bush SR. in 1992. Every other time an incumbent president ran for a 2nd term he got it. 7 out of 9 is a tough stat to beat. In the case of Carter, there was a confluence of events that doomed him: A moribund economy, international humiliation (the Iran hostage crisis, the Russian invasion of Afghanisan), and a general mistrust of Washington DC left over from Watergate and Vietnam. In the case of Bush Sr, he was a weak candidate to begin with and only got elected by riding on Reagan’s coattails. Not saying he was a bad guy, just that he was never a “strong” candidate (VP’s generally are weaker than their running mates. Presidents don’t choose VP’s who will outshine them, which is bad news for Biden.) The combination of Bush Sr’s lackluster appeal and a mild recession was enough to get the brash young Clinton elected in 1992. Clinton, Bush Jr. and Obama all sailed to easy re-elections despite the fact that all had very high “unpopularity” numbers and very loud (and well funded) opposition movements. I expect that unless the economy absolutely craters, Trump will do the same. For Dems, the real race will be in 2024. The structural advantages that work in favor of reelecting an incumbent work against the “incumbent party” in an election where there is no incumbent. Again, looking back to the ratification of the 22nd amendment, since that time the “presidential hat trick” – that is, three successive presidential administrations under one party – has only happened ONCE and that was in 1988 when Bush Jr. rode Reagan’s coattails into office. Every other time a president’s party has served 2… Read more »
Bush Sr got hosed by that fucktard Perot. Who came back again to help Clinton beat Dole. It’s almost like Hilary had dirt on Ross or something.