During President Barack Obama’s two terms, Democrats took a drubbing. The party lost more than 1,000 seats in Congress, state houses, and local governments nationwide. Obama was personally popular, but Americans did not like his policies. He was also very good at getting himself elected, but his personal popularity never transferred to the candidates he stumped for. That means his recent activity on the campaign trail is likely counterproductive.
However, his tenure wiped out many Gen X up-and-comers who should be populating the Democrat tickets today. It also explains the gaping hole in the party. You have the elders in the party, like the House majority leadership team, and young know-nothings like the Squad. There are very few members in between, and anyone Pelosi and Schumer might have groomed to lead likely churned out in the Obama-era carnage.
The Democrat bench was thin in 2016. That is how you got “Her Turn” Hillary, a Socialist senior citizen, and Martin O’Malley to choose from in a primary. Then it got thinner. It explains how a cringeworthy monotone like Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) thought a presidential run was in her future. And why a mayor from South Bend, Ind., whose most significant accomplishments were being openly gay and filling potholes, thought he should run for the leader of the free world.
Now the bench is going to be a wasteland. If all goes as expected, Democrats’ self-appointed future leaders in Generation X are going down in flames. For more than four years, they have tried to shove Stacey Abrams and Beto O’Rourke down the nation’s collective throat. All indications are that their incumbent opponents will soundly defeat them in their contests on November 8.
Abrams will probably go back to a non-profit career calling her fellow Georgians racists if the Biden administration does not offer her an advisor’s slot somewhere. That is how they handled failed Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. Bottoms was a candidate for Biden’s vice president for about five minutes in the summer of 2020 because of a viral speech. Then her spineless race-baiting caused the death of an eight-year-old girl. Now, as the White House’s Senior Advisor for Public Engagement, she occasionally calls Republicans terrorists on MSNBC.
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Abrams could easily transition to calling all Americans racist for the White House, and very few Georgians would miss her. Far more of Abrams’s donations came from California and other liberal hellholes than from Georgia. Still, she will not win a statewide race in Georgia any time soon. Preemptively blaming black men for her loss this year will only decrease the likelihood of future electoral success. It also appears her claims of voter suppression will go down in flames as record turnout have persisted through Election Day in Georgia.
Beto O’Rourke has not found electoral success outside a single blue district in the House. Since then, he has tried two statewide races in Texas and a run for the Democratic nomination in 2020. It is good that he married well so he could pick up the hobby of being a perennial candidate. However, the third strike will be this year’s loss in the Texas gubernatorial race. It is not clear that wealthy coastal donors will continue giving him millions in donations. O’Rourke may go down as a has-been at 50.
Even if Katie Hobbs succeeds in stealing the Arizona gubernatorial race thanks to the dumpster fire going down in Maricopa County, she is a terrible retail candidate. She could not muster up the moxie to debate her Republican opponent Kari Lake and comes off about as likable as a young Hillary Clinton. Voters like Vice President Kamala Harris a lot less than she likes Venn Diagrams. Other Democrats like Reps. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) and Abigail Spannberger (D-Va.) are also at risk in Tuesday’s election. A lot of purplish districts are leaning red.
Democrats still have a bunch of Vichy Millennial Communists like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) from deep blue districts. While the mainstream media loves them, even the progressive base is tired of them. The Progressive Caucus is receiving criticism for backing the war in Ukraine. When they retracted a letter to the president calling for a diplomatic solution, it did not help. Activists have shown up at town halls with withering criticism for AOC, calling her an establishment shill.
That leaves Gov. Gavin “Hair Gel” Newsom in California. Clearly, America’s version of Justin Trudeau has every intention of running in 2024. Precisely how Democrats will exit Harris from the stage remains a mystery. However, the Biden presidency was a test run for many of California’s environmental policies on a national scale, and Americans hate them. If Newsom’s environmental record is on the ballot, it is hard to see his national appeal.
Should the predicted electorate shift among working and middle-class minority voters materialize, the lack of a likable bench that includes candidates with national appeal is catastrophic for Democrats heading into 2024. The party of youth and diversity is looking more and more like it did in 2020: the party of the white guy left standing.
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