Democrats' Best Chance: Face Trump

At Politico, Jeff Greenfield considers the dilemma the next presidential election poses for the Democrats.

That has been obvious ever since Biden and Harris formed a ticket, you might protest, correctly.

But it's worse for them than you might think, in part due to longstanding tradition and in part thanks to that party's pandering on identity politics:

The Royal we? (Image by Jon Tyson, via Unsplash, license.)

Which brings us to the significance of the second fact with which this piece began. The invocation of a baker's dozen of possible Democratic contenders is fueled by the notion that Kamala Harris cannot be an effective presidential candidate. It may not be fair, but her lower-than-Biden approval numbers and implosion as a 2020 candidate, her detractors say, demand an alternative.

Now let's return to Planet Earth for a moment. What happens if the Democratic Party -- through whatever "leaders" it has or even through a competitive primary -- effectively states: "After 60 years of elevating a sitting vice president, we have decided to break precedent now that the vice president is a Black woman." [bold added]

I think that's a good question, and based on it, one could say that the Democrats have not only painted themselves into a corner, but they have fairly glued themselves there.

Greenfield ends his piece with the following bulleted summary:

• Age will be a serious, legitimate issue if Biden runs again; but he's the only candidate who would preserve party unity.
• If Biden did not run, Harris would enter a presidential race carrying a 747 full of baggage.
• Any attempt to find an alternative to Harris risks fatally alienating the party's most essential voters.

My reply? Should the Republican nominee be Donald Trump:

• Age will be canceled out -- or be a liability only for the GOP;
• Trump has his own planeload of baggage; and
• Trump's incoherent ramblings and pugnaciousness alienated some Republicans and many independents, and rallied voters to the Democrats to the point that he lost the election despite having the second-highest vote tally in American history.

Trump was disgraceful in defeat, to put it mildly, and arguably cost the GOP both Senate seats in Georgia, afterwards.

Whatever problems the horrible Biden-Harris dilemma poses for the Democrats, at least the Democrats seem aware that both candidates are weak sauce.

Not so for the Republicans, who seem either too oblivious to Trump's weakness as a candidate or too frightened to stand up to him -- just as they failed to stand up to (other) Democrats for decades before he decided to run for President.

I am disgusted with either "choice" -- the rematch of 2020 or Trump vs. Harris. I am no Democrat, but I would say that Greenfield could have titled his column, "At Least We'll Face Donald Trump."

This election would be a cinch for any opponent who clearly and articulately presented a coherent, pro-freedom plan to get our country out of its current mess, but we face the spectacle of getting more of the same, thanks to Donald Trump.

-- CAV