Last week, a nondescript third-term congressman from Minnesota named Dean Phillips threw his hat into the 2024 presidential ring, and he was immediately greeted with catcalls and opprobrium from the Usual Suspects in the media and political classes.

Why? Because Phillips, whose voting record marks him as 100 percent on board with the Team Biden agenda, is a Democrat. And he’ll be running against Joe Biden in the Democrat primaries next year.

Phillips replaces Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was formerly in the primary race against Biden but has since opted to run as an independent. Essentially, RFK Jr. has been chased out of the Democrat Party.

And rudely so. He was denied — amazingly! — Secret Service protection, despite the fact that his father and uncle were both shot dead by assassins who may or may not have been connected to the same military-intelligence-Deep State cabal that seems to have had a hand in making Joe Biden president.

Yes, that’s a reference to the 51 “intelligence community” sleazeballs who openly lied and alleged that the Hunter Biden laptop story was Russian disinformation back in October of 2020, a lie that had a material effect on the outcome of that election.

Anyway, RFK Jr. just fended off a potential assassination attempt last week using his own private security, which costs him campaign dollars he’d otherwise spend pushing a message that is every bit as left-wing as Biden’s own. He was also attacked last month in an attempt reminiscent of an episode of The Blacklist: The would-be assassin was armed, impersonated a U.S. Marshall, and advertised himself as part of Kennedy’s security team as he demanded to be taken to see the candidate. Local police in Los Angeles scooped him up, and he was charged with misdemeanors.

That’s the extent of what happens when you run against Joe Biden. At least Kennedy wasn’t indicted for … something.

So far, there’s a wide argument over whether RFK Jr. pulls more votes away from Joe Biden or Donald Trump. There are polls showing both possibilities. This is a question that will be settled long before there’s a presidential general election, because any Trump voter now looking at Kennedy simply hasn’t checked out the latter’s platform yet.

And Trump’s campaign will do itself a world of good by simply running ads attacking Kennedy as a left-wing loon.

But not just Kennedy. Team Trump would do itself a world of good touting Cornel West as a left-wing loon, too. After all, there was this:

These pictures are from the UCLA Student Walkout. It’s important to realize that love for the Palestinian people does not imply hatred for Jewish people – only a hatred of Israeli domination and occupation! #TruthJusticeLove #CeaseFireNow #Palestine #Israel pic.twitter.com/fF67R6Bixe

— Cornel West (@CornelWest) October 27, 2023

Rasmussen released a survey Friday that found 78 percent of the American people consider Hamas a terrorist group. It would seem that the other 22 percent are almost certainly Biden voters … but, maybe, since Biden is siding with the 78 percent at least publicly (we know that behind the scenes, Team Biden is less than enthusiastic about the Israeli cause; otherwise the $100 million in “humanitarian aid” for the people of Gaza he’s promising won’t result in rockets, or IEDs would never have been spoken of), the 22 percent can be persuaded into a protest vote.

Besides, Cornel West is a luminary of long standing among left-wing lunatics. And, in particular, he has the kind of credibility in the black community that Biden rightly never had and is apparently hemorrhaging.

So if black voters, and particularly the very militant and radical crowd among their ranks, consider peeling off that doddering old racist in the White House (they gonna put y’all back in chains, dontchaknow), things could go very badly for Team Biden next year. After all, a Fox News poll from earlier this month had Biden up 74–26 on Trump among blacks; Biden needs 85 percent of that vote and to turn it out in droves, or else he’s not getting a second term.

So if Cornel West were to emerge as the protest candidate of choice among not just black voters but also the pro-Pal mob, then, well…

This isn’t just me squirting out crocodile tears for the Democrat machine. After all, just have a listen to one of its currently out-of-favor operatives, James Carville, who is being sidelined for his latest infrequent foray into truth-telling:

Prominent Democratic strategist Jame Carville says that “leading Democrats” have been pressing him to stop talking about how President Joe Biden’s poll numbers are “not good.”

 “Nobody is saying, ‘James, you’re wrong,’” Carville explained, suggesting that while some Democrats agree with him, they find the information upsetting. “They’re saying, ‘James, you can’t say that,’” he added.

Carville referred to the pushback in an interview with The Atlantic about the recent entrance of Minnesota Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips into the presidential race.

“I’m looking at polling data, and I’m looking at all of it,” Carville said. “The president’s numbers are just not good — and they’re not getting any better.”

So, yes — you’ve never heard of Dean Phillips, and you certainly don’t have any reason to take him very seriously as a presidential candidate. And, yes, Carville appears to be attempting to put the old Bill Clinton–New Democrat band back together by urging people not to dismiss Phillips. It’s hardly unlikely that somebody has stroked a check to Carville to sing that tune.

But, hey, kudos to him. Anybody who can force Joe Biden to actually run a campaign, answer questions (which he’ll do badly), and make gaffes (which he’ll do in disqualifying volume), is good stuff.

Even if Dean Phillips isn’t much more compelling a candidate than was Egg McMuffin — er, Evan McMillan — back in 2016.

After all, this is Dean Phillips:

But shouldn’t people have alternatives to Joe Biden? It seems as though the one thing most of us agree on is that he sucks. Well, gosh darn it, that ought to result in some choices. This is America, after all!