As Biden smashes Sanders’ socialist revolution, Democrats may play a surprise hand in July to fight Trump

The former vice president continues his winning streak, knocking Bernie Sanders almost straight out of the ring in Tuesday’s primaries. Yet the nagging question remains: what happens the next time Biden opens his mouth?

Braving the viral winds that have been sweeping the nation and globe, Democrats came out in full force to support Joe Biden, the former vice president whose wildly fluctuating performance has given political pundits whiplash of late. Coming off early victories in Mississippi and Missouri, the Biden juggernaut went on to capture Michigan, the main prize of the contest and the one Midwestern state Sanders had been expected to win. Biden also claimed Idaho, while Sanders walked away from the septuagenarian brawl with Washington and North Dakota under his belt.

In other words, not exactly the ‘Bern’ that Sanders’ campaign had been hoping for.

In the 2016 Democratic primaries, Sanders pulled off a major upset over Hillary Clinton in Michigan, leading observers to conclude that the Great Lakes state, long hobbled by a case of ‘industrial flight’ to foreign shores, was an easy win for the democratic socialist. Biden’s victory suggests that the plight of Michigan’s workforce is no longer so desperate that it requires a socialist revolution.

Sanders’ failure to emerge victorious in the mighty ‘3-M’ states, with their higher delegate counts, plus Idaho, has the rumor mill proclaiming that the diehard socialist will be hoisting up the white flag as early as this week. Not only would that clear the road for Biden to the promised land of the Democratic National Convention in July, it will save the Democratic Party – yet again – from the invasive shoots of socialism growing like kudzu inside of its ranks.

Here it should be briefly mentioned that the Democratic Party is at pains to prove that there is not some sort of inside conspiracy to keep Sanders in political purgatory. After all, it is no secret, thanks to revelations by Wikileaks, that the Vermont senator was deliberately sidelined by the Democratic National Committee during his 2016 showdown against Hillary Clinton. Now, in the current nomination process, which included the mysterious vote-tallying disaster in Iowa, together with this week’s reports of voter irregularities, it is a bit easier to understand how otherwise normal people get infected with conspiracy theories.

Although there are certainly millions of Democrats who would love to see the Democratic nomination go to Sanders, even Alexandria-Ocasio-Cortez, the outspoken freshman House lawmaker agitating for a socialist America, has declared she would support the Democratic nominee “no matter who it is.” The question, however, is whether Biden can carry water for the team.

Will the Democrats stay loyal to Biden (plot spoiler: doubtful)?

Catapulted to the front of the pack thanks to heavy endorsements from fallen fellow Democrats – namely Pete Buttigieg, Mike Bloomberg and Amy Klobuchar – Biden is now winning over pockets of blue collar areas, even in those parts of Michigan, for example, where Hillary Clinton under-performed against Donald Trump. This must be of some concern to the Republican leader.

It should be remembered that in the 2016 presidential election, Trump flipped the former Democrat strongholds of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, industrial states devastated by globalization that helped the former real estate developer win the much-coveted Oval Office. Since the economy under Trump has been roaring, with the exception of this week’s massive crash due to falling oil prices and the coronavirus, logic would indicate that Trump should sweep the Rust Belt once again.

Very little, however, has been logical and rational inside of Washington, DC ever since 2016 when Trump Derangement Syndrome went nationwide. Indeed, absolute madness has reigned supreme. Thus, despite robust economic indicators, the Trump campaign must be wondering to what extent – if any – the Democrats and their compliant media industrial complex, with their past Russiagate and impeachment efforts, have damaged the Trump brand.

Perhaps the more important question, however, at least for the Democratic Party, is how much Joe Biden himself – with his litany of gaffes, outbursts and micro-aggressions against his own constituency – damaged the Biden brand. The top Democratic contender has unleashed so many self-inflicting utterances over the course of the nomination process that there now seems to be a conscious effort to actually reduce the amount of time he opens his mouth on the campaign trail.  

The obvious point here is that a man who cannot be trusted to open his mouth in public certainly cannot be trusted to win any debate, especially against the veritable rhetorical cannon monster known as Donald Trump, who is every bit as formidable in person as he is over Twitter. Of course, the Democrats fully understand this, and this is where it seems absolutely safe to wade waist-deep into the grass of speculation.

As argued in a past column, there seems to be a not-so-subtle effort on the part of the establishment to promote two females, one of whom could be handed the presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention instead of Joe Biden, who, for whatever reason, cannot stop himself from blurting out very un-presidential utterances. Those two potential candidates-in-waiting are Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama – both of whom, incidentally, were just named in Time’s 100 Women of the Century list.

Both of these high-achieving females have acquired celebrity-like cult status inside of the Democratic ranks. And while consistently denying they would consider a(nother) shot at the White House, such denials were also uttered by the Republican president currently holding down the fort on Pennsylvania Avenue. In fact, people are arguably more likely to throw their support behind an individual who demonstrates, at least in public, that he or she has no political ambitions.

As things now stand with the Democratic Party, Joe Biden’s victory on Super Tuesday II does not translate into a Democratic victory in November. In fact, unless Biden can get a grip on his tongue before then, it almost guarantees defeat. He will fall the wayside like so many presidential pretenders before him – the Buttigiegs, Bloombergs and Klobuchars – while some brand new contender will be unveiled, while inheriting all of those accumulated voters.

Yes, the Democrats may have some tricks left up their sleeve to usurp Trump, and those tricks could involve the two most influential brand names in the Democratic franchise, bar none.

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