The dumbest thing the Democrats could do is put up someone clearly more wacky than Trump.... someone SO far left as to not be American.... and I think that's exactly what they will do. The socialist/communist/wackos have taken control of the Democrat Party.
In 2016, I lost track of the number of people I knew who voted for Trump only because he wasn't Hilary. CLEARLY, that election was AT LEAST a rejection of Hilary as it was an embrace of Trump. What to do about that? Find someone much worse than her to run against him..... That's what the Dems will do, I suspect.
This reminds me of when John McCain nominated Sarah Palin to be his running mate in 2008. The party faithful cheered, but the party faithful are often the ones who would vote for a turnip if it wore the right colored rosette. The trouble was she didn't seem to be overly attractive to the swing voters or moderate Democrats who may have been uncertain about the (then) somewhat low-profile Senator Obama.
The hardcore Democrats, like the hardcore Republicans, will vote for whoever wins the ticket. They probably won't even look at the name on the ballot, they'll just tick the box for a straight party-ticket vote and move on.
With everybody clamoring to offer more Free Stuff it's a great time to be voting, if you're blissfully unaware that voting yourself free stuff is great until you find the system ran out of suckers to pay for it, and all the free stuff you now can't live without just went away, or you find that you're now the sucker expected to pay for Free Stuff for everybody else while not qualifying for any of it yourself.
I suspect the Democrats will finally put up a candidate who is not a straight white male. That way they can pull the same tired stunt they've pulled before and claim that the only reason not to vote for their candidate is racism/sexism/homophobia/whatever. You know, just like the only reason not to vote for Hillary Clinton was sexism but you could vote for someone other than Sarah Palin without being a sexist. Bonus points if they find a black lesbian to run and then they can claim extra discrimination if she doesn't win.
Something else I suspect will come into play next year: Many (including me) didn't vote for Trump because we feared him (maybe too strong a word) - his inexperience, his temperment, his lack of a tract record (and of course, his personal life). We've lived with him and found he ain't that bad. Personally,he's behaved himself better than most presidents (infinitely better than Bill Clinton)... he's proved himself able to get SOME stuff done... we're more at peace than ever in the world.... the economy is doing extremely well.... his Supreme Court nominations ALONE may warrant reelection. And frankly, the ABSURD attacks and personal hatred from the radical left have probably helped Trump. And of course, unlike 4 years ago, there's no on challenging him in his party this time, this time it's the Dems ripping each other apart. I think Trump may have an easier time this time around. Heck, I may vote for him this time (NO WAY I'd vote for ANY of the Dems running,but then last time I voted for no one).
I think the increasingly unhinged anti-Trump rhetoric compared to the simple observation that the country hasn't made the descent into tinpot banana republic status people said would happen if Trump got elected is a good reason to ignore much of what comes from the left these days. Whether the economy is doing well or not very much depends on where you're coming from and your perspective - the stock market is doing well but that doesn't help the people at the lower end of the economic spectrum, we saw the recent yield curve inversion (which may be due to some extent to the government trying to fix the market), precious metals rising sharply suggesting reduced confidence in the dollar as a currency, and so on. If you're someone who owns property and stocks things have been pretty good for the last few years. If you're someone working two jobs and still struggling to make ends meet things aren't so good.
The Supreme Court nominations are something of a sticking point. For people who believe in rule by the Constitution and people with a general conservative leaning they are good nominations. For people with a more liberal leaning, people less worried about what the Constitution says and more worried about what they think it should mean, and the people who want to get guns out of the hands of the people by whatever means it takes, the nominations don't look so good. It shouldn't be surprising that conservatives would widely approve of nominations by a Republican president and liberals would widely disapprove.
I suspect the Democrats will finish their howling and wailing with a candidate who promises the world to everyone, the ultra-woke left will take to social media and howl about how unfair it all is and how the world needs the Democrat candidate to win, and then the silent majority who know they would be left to pick up the tab for it all will reject them. And then the moaning about the Electoral College doing exactly what it was designed to do can start all over again.
