‘The problem facing the Democrats has echoes of the Corbynista disaster’
IN REMARKABLE developments across the Atlantic, ‘Sleepy’ Joe Biden transformed himself into the Comeback Kid in the race to take on Donald Trump for the keys to the White House.
Just a week ago Biden’s campaign was written off as dead in the water after he performed poorly in the three early contests in the primaries and caucuses the Democratic Party uses to choose its nominee.
But in this week’s Super Tuesday contests the former Vice President to Barack Obama put in a stellar performance to win ten of the available states, including the key battleground of Texas.
The contest is now considered pretty much a two-horse race between Biden and the avowedly socialist Bernie Sanders, who had been the hot favourite until this week’s developments.
There is a rich irony in that in a leftwing party that is absolutely obsessed with identity politics, the choice of presidential nominee is going to be between two comparatively old, rich, middle-class, white men.
All the women, the openly gay candidate and the people of colour have been tossed aside. So much for diversity!
And despite their many policy differences there is one thing Biden and Sanders have in common – their advanced years. They make Donald Trump look like a comparative youngster!
On Inauguration Day in 2017 Trump, then 70, became the oldest president in US history to take office. But both Biden, 77, and Sanders, 78, would eclipse that record if they were elected in November.
I’ve seen men of a certain age – who perhaps should know better – walking around in T-shirts bearing the slogan “Old Guys Rule!” Well, at least in the US Presidential race, that is certainly true.
One interesting footnote to the current race is the fate of another oldster, Michael Bloomberg, who is 78. The billionaire former mayor of New
York entered the race at a late stage and ploughed an astonishing £300m-plus of his own money to win the Democratic nomination, only to face total humiliation before dropping out.
Don’t worry, though. He won’t starve. Even such lavish spending won’t put a dent in his estimated £50bn fortune. Money can’t buy you love, and we should be thankful that in a democracy it can’t always buy you votes either.
If, as seems increasingly likely, the field narrows to a straight Biden vs Sanders contest we can expect an exceptionally bitter and dirty fight.
Biden’s triumph on Super Tuesday was achieved largely thanks to the backing of older voters along with black and latino Americans who seem to prefer his moderate strand of the Democratic Party’s tradition.
The more radical Sanders attracts the woke generation of younger, collegeeducated millennials who tend to be concentrated in the big cities.
Bernie’s ‘Sandernistas’ are still furious because they believe the Democratic Party establishment robbed them of the nomination back in 2016 when Sanders squared up against Hillary Clinton, who eventually lost out to Trump.
If they suspect another establishment stitch up to deny Sanders the nomination in favour of Biden, you can expect a shrieking, unhinged meltdown without comparison.
Whoever the Democratic candidate is, there is plenty for the famously combative Trump to get his teeth into.
Biden is a veritable gaffe machine and sometimes appears confused on the campaign trail. This week, for example, he mixed up his sister and his wife. Supporters say it has nothing to do with his age – he has always been like that!
But there is little doubt Trump would much prefer to face Sanders come November. The calculation will be that the Vermont Senator’s massive spending plans and past praise for failed communist dictatorships will terrify middle America and make Trump’s path to a second term much easier.
The problem facing the Democrats has echoes of the Corbynista disaster that overwhelmed Labour here. Many of its radical supporters would rather lose the election with an ideologically pure candidate, such as Sanders, than sully their political virtue by supporting someone, like Biden, who might win.
Either way it is fascinating watching the world’s most powerful democracy in action. And in the wake of the UK election and Brexit it makes current British politics look benign in comparison.