What the Democrat Party needs is a Donald Trump.
It needs a leader who can pick the party up off the ground after its great fall and give it meaning. It needs someone who stands for something
The party is in such disarray that only a strong leader like Trump could, like Humpty Dumpty, put the party together again– even though he is the man who wrecked the Democrat Party in the first place.
Trump has come a long way from the man who descended the golden escalator in the atrium at Trump Towers on June 16, 2015, to brashly announce that he was running for president.
He was roundly ridiculed and mocked by both Democrats and Republicans who thought he was nothing more than a brassy showman in search of a headline or two. Maybe he was.
But now, with one hundred days as president under his belt in his second term, he is proving to be the most consequential president of the modern era who is not only running the country but the world as well.
He thinks big and he acts big. Witness the latest rare earth mineral deal he just signed with Ukraine under the nose of Vladimir Putin.
Had Trump been around it would have been him, not President Thomas Jefferson, who doubled the size of the country with the $27 million Louisiana Purchase in1803.
It would have been him, not President Andrew Johnson, who bought Alaska from Russia in 1867 for the bargain price of $7.2 million.,
Now, along those lines, all Trump has left to do is convince Canada to become the 51’s state and bring Greenland under the umbrella of the United States.
That coupled with ending he illegal immigrant invasion of the country, restoring law and order by deporting illegal immigrant criminals, cutting taxes, as well as government waste, fraud and abuse, revitalizing the miliary, staring down China and restoring a booming economy, will make him the most significant president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
So, Trump will be a hard act to follow in 2028, whether it is by a fellow Republican Vice President JD Vance, another Republican or a Democrat.
The problem for Democrats is that they not only do not have a Donald Trump-type with his energy and charisma to come off the bench, they do not even have a bench.
Instead, they have a bunch of middle-aged Democrats talking tough but proposing little outside of staged media events attacking Trump for things they wish they could do, like making the country proud.
The uninspiring potential Democrat presidential candidates testing the waters are headed by Kamala Harris, who has shown no signs of improvement as a leader, let alone a presidential candidate.
Neither has her buffoonish former vice-presidential running mate Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota.
Other uninspiring potential Democrats include Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Josh Shapiro, governor of Pennsylvania, Pete Buttigieg, Biden’s former transportation secretary, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, governor of Michigan, and so on.
The list is so ordinary that it ought to include Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey. Healey could at least distinguish herself by being the first openly gay governor of Massachusetts—and potentially the first lesbian to be nominated for national office.
All of this ordinariness, except for Healey, benefits Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the New York Congresswoman who has emerged as a star.
Whatever one thinks of her radical left wing stands on the issues, there is little doubt that AOC has emerged as a popular and enthusiastic political leader who can provide the energy the party desperately needs.
Her “Fighting Oligarchy Tour” with left wing loony Sen. Bernie Sanders has drawn hundreds of thousands of voters at Trump-like rallies across the country, something none of the others have even come close to doing.
Doubters have mocked her just the way they mocked Trump.
But she could do for the Democrats what Trump did for the Republicans.
And that is to throw them a lifeline.
What have they got to lose?
Veteran political reporter Peter Lucas can be reached at: peter.lucas@bostonherald.com
