Dems, With Only Themselves to Blame for Trump, Need a Candidate and a Plan
THE FXBG ADVANCE WEDNESDAY 9/19/26 MIDDAY READ
By Donnie Johnston, ADVANCE COLUMNIST
I have said this before, but it bears repeating, especially now that time is slipping away.
Democrats are unprepared. As happened two years ago, they are heading into the 2028 presidential election with no candidate and no plan.
This country is in a mess, and Democrats have only themselves to blame for the fact that Donald Trump is tearing America apart.
The American people did not want Trump in 2024, but the Democrats were unorganized and had not cultivated a strong candidate. Trump seemed the better of two bad options.
Now the Democrats seem to be intent on allowing the same thing to happen in 2028, handing the Republicans four more years to laugh at the Constitution and thumb their noses at the rule of law.
Let’s go back to 2024. Although Joe Biden was the presumptive Democratic nominee, no one—not even high-ranking members of his own party—believed that he was physically capable of guiding this country for four more years.
The man was frail, and age and infirmities were catching up with him in a big way. But Democrats went by the old adage that the incumbent makes the strongest candidate and gave Biden the nomination. After the first presidential debate, however, it became obvious that he—and the—were in big trouble.
So, in mid-stream, they convinced Biden to drop out of the race and to endorse his vice-president, Kamala Harris, whose credentials were suspect and her experience lacking.
Donald Trump, who already had a strong base, ate her alive, just as he would have devoured Biden. It quickly became not a question of whether he would win, but how big the margin of victory would be.
In the first place, Harris was a woman. This country has never had a woman president, and in a nation where some evangelical Christians believe a woman has neither the credentials nor the God-given right to even teach Sunday School, Harris was behind the eight-ball from the beginning.
But it goes even deeper than that. In 2020, Biden assured Americans that he would find the most qualified “woman” to serve as his vice-president. Not the most qualified candidate, mind you, but the most qualified woman.
That turned off many voters, and they still held it against Biden—and Harris—in 2024.
What the Democrats never understood is that people must get used to change. If it is forced on them, they resent it. It is like law and order. You must talk yourself into the idea before you accept it.
In 2024, Americans did not have time to digest the idea that a woman might be elected president. The notion was thrust on them too suddenly.
Barack Obama became this country’s first Black president in 2008 primarily because the Democratic Party pushed his background and his credibility for months before his nomination. Americans had time to digest the possibility that a Black man might lead the country. They had time to talk themselves into the idea.
The Democrats need to get moving. It is difficult to get an unknown elected to the highest office in the land. The party must cultivate a candidate, and they must start long before the election year.
We are a little more than two years away from the 2028 presidential election, and the National Democratic Party has no candidate on the radar, no one with a prominent name or a storied career, someone who can bring instant credibility to the campaign.
To make matters worse, Democrats are splintered into a dozen different factions. They have nothing to unite around except their dislike for Trump. That may not be enough.
Did the Democrats learn nothing from 2024? Don’t they understand that preparation is everything?
Hate is not a campaign strategy. You need substance, unification, and a qualified candidate to carry the message.
Maybe a strong candidate will emerge in this year’s mid-term elections. If not, the Democratic Party—and maybe America—is doomed.
Ya gotta have a plan, folks, and a candidate!
And organization!
