There is no other way to say it – the Democratic Party is a profound disappointment.
It took a worldwide epidemic for the Democrats to win the White House, dumb luck for them to take back control of the Senate, and then even more dumb luck for them to avoid losing control of the House.
The Democratic Party has given us a president whose best years are clearly behind him, a vice-president who seems to be all image and no substance, a speaker of the House who excels at fund raising and fails at leadership, and a Senate majority leader who has neither vision nor a majority.
The Democrats have a press secretary who is left defending one bad decision and one failed policy after another and has been forced to spend her time putting lipstick on the pig that is this administration instead of speaking about its accomplishments, because there have not been any.
There are no true leaders in the Democratic Party, no statesmen to listen to, no one with words of wisdom and thoughtfulness. There are 50 Democratic/Independent senators, 220 Democratic representatives, and 23 Democratic governors. Where are they? Where have they been?
We hear from two Democratic senators who are steadfastly holding the line on a proposed spending bill that is a pork-filled wish list of progressive excesses. We hear from two or three Democratic representatives who are aggressively promoting a socialist anti-police racist agenda that very few Americans support. We hear from no one else. Why is that?
The near-term 2022 future for the Democratic Party is going to be disastrous. Loss of the House, loss of the Senate, no chance for any moderate Supreme Court justices. And then in 2024, the return of President Trump will complete the humiliation of the Democratic Party, which is self-destructing before our eyes.
Who knows what the second Trump administration will bring us beyond a strong and decisive leader who will feel personally vindicated and free to exact retribution from all who have opposed him?
Probably additional tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, a weakening of the social safety net for those who need it the most, an increase in commercial exploitation of federal lands and national parks, an expansion of state-based laws to expand gun rights and restrict reproductive rights, a furthering of the class-based system where workers can be further exploited by businesses, and the nation’s wealth owned and controlled by fewer and fewer people – that sort of thing.
And things could become worse. Once the Republican Party has a 2/3 majority in the Senate and the House, they would be free to propose any constitutional amendment that they choose.
Imagine that Republican-controlled state legislatures pass laws that give them the authority to review the results of elections and determine that the outcomes are fraudulent, and then select the candidates that they want instead of the candidates that the voters have chosen.
It would take 38 Republican-controlled states to ratify a constitutional amendment that would allow President Trump to become president for life. We are only 8 states away from this outcome. Does anyone believe that President Trump would not eagerly accept this mandate?
And all of this would be blessed by the Republican-controlled Supreme Court.
The political collapse of the Democratic Party may be seen as a desirable outcome by many people but having a system based on a single party that appears more than willing to follow the above-described scenario means that this country would then be a democracy in name and memory only.
Taking it one step further, we could then see right-wing militias and religious police roaming the streets eliminating dissent and imposing moral order.
Given what has been transpiring in our politics and our society over the past few years, this is not as far-fetched a future as one would think. Power seduces, power corrupts, power brings with it its own sense of morality and ethical behavior. Combine this with blind patriotism and religious conviction, and we might as well burn the Constitution for all the good it will do.
This is why it is so important for moderate Democrats of substance to speak up and confront the disaster that is their party. The Democratic brand is one of incompetence, radical activism, and actions taken based upon ideology without regard to reality. This must be addressed before 2022. The electorate must be convinced that not all Democrats are inept, spineless, socialist fools, which is how they are being portrayed.
The Biden Administration has been a failure up to this point. A Democratic alternative to Biden-Harris must be found before the next presidential election because they have little chance of being re-elected. Independent voters are the key to presidential elections, and as much as they did not like President Trump, President Biden and his team of woke and opportunistic advisors have been a disaster that shows no signs of abating. Voter’s remorse is strong and becoming stronger by the day.
Replacing an incumbent president and vice president to deny them a second term is nearly unprecedented, and it is unlikely that the Democratic Party would do so willingly. However, there is a mechanism already in place to accomplish this – the primaries. A Democratic outsider such as a Tulsi Gabbard would have an excellent chance of obtaining the nomination. Intelligent, a moderate, a veteran, clear-eyed, strong-willed, focused, determined – Joe Biden would have no chance against a candidate who possesses these attributes.
It would serve the country and the Democratic Party well to have more Democrats like Joe Manchin, Kyrsten Sinema, and Seth Moulton who have all been willing to speak their own moderate, reasonable, and resolute minds despite incurring the wrath of their party’s leaders.
The question is – are there any more Democrats like them out there?