Jerry Shenk

Because an internal struggle for power and influence among left-wing, further-left and openly-socialist Democrats has gone public, the party faces some difficult decisions.

For all practical purposes, Bill and Hillary Clinton dominated the party apparatus throughout Barack Obama’s anomalous presidency. Obama’s ego-driven media gluttony, the Clinton’s tight party control and Hillary’s 2016 “inevitability” all factor into their party’s current predicament: Democrats developed no bench of viable national candidates.

Hillary was considered inevitable for so long that the party never imagined it needed a bench. Now, party leaders are old, white, out of ideas, and none are manifestly moderate.

Purportedly “electable,” gaffe-tastic former VP Joe Biden (77-years old in 2020) tops Democratic 2020 polling. Of their other candidates, only deafening socialist Bernie Sanders (79 next year) and nearly-translucent “Native American” Elizabeth Warren (71 in June) hit double digits.

There are no young, moderate, talented, tested, genuinely-accomplished, nationally-recognized, high stature Democrats. Friendly media can make lesser-known Democrats “celebrities,” but cannot bestow stature, credibility or accomplishments. In fact, Warren and Sanders have accomplished little to nothing of substance during their government tenures, and, although he’s running hard-left to attract them, practically nothing in Biden’s legislative record remains palatable to younger Democrats.

Democrats seem oblivious to evidence that Americans understand that the party’s primary goal is to reorganize society to solidify Democrats’ power and influence, and that, with but one exception, voters have been rejecting that goal since 2010.

Won in 2018, Democrats’ U.S. House majority has been hijacked – to the party’s detriment – by four incendiary, publicity-seeking, intellectually-dishonest, out-of-the-mainstream, arguably anti-American and anti-Semitic socialist ideologues who cannot deliver coherent messages even with help from a fawning national media.

Attentive outsiders have a much clearer understanding of the party’s fault lines than do the Democratic party operatives who, even though it was only theirs, still call President Donald Trump’s election a national calamity. The party’s message today bears little resemblance to the one delivered by Barack Obama just eleven, or even seven years ago. A failure to face facts, reassess and adjust could doom Democrats’ prospects outside mostly-coastal liberal enclaves for decades.

A few smart Democrats worry that the party has abandoned its historical base by focusing on open borders and indulging urban, cultural and social interests, while ignoring working class voters in areas and states that Trump turned or won handily. Concerned that Democrats no longer speak to America’s working class, but concentrate instead on racial, gender and other ideological/tribal sub-groups and special interests, some insightful Democrats fear their party has no unifying message. The most common response to those concerns has been that the party’s future and “the country's salvation” lie in the insulting, highly-divisive identity politics relentlessly practiced by its über-liberal wing.

Democrats appear unconcerned that, although Donald Trump wasn’t the first or even second choice of many Republican primary voters, in November, 2016 they – and enough others – considered Trump the only acceptable one.

Their dilemma: Democrats must choose their 2020 nominee from a roster of weak options. Call it Clinton/Obama karma.

Jerry Shenk is a retired central Pennsylvania sales/marketing professional with political campaign experience. Contact him at jshenk2010@gmail.com.