Talk about failing upward. Recent reports that everyone’s favorite Vice President is about to enjoy a major career enhancement should remove any doubt of a divine power intent upon intervening on America’s behalf. Nixon had his Ford insurance policy to shield against impeachment. The thought of that dummy becoming president was supposed to shield against Nixon’s enemies defenestrating him. How well did that work out? Saint Kamala of California was supposed to be Biden’s Ford. It is beginning to look like this analogy is becoming more true than anyone could have anticipated.

Kamala is electoral poison. She was the first candidate in the 2020 Democrat presidential primary to withdraw. She did not make it past December 3, 2019, when the cash ran out. This was reminiscent of Biden in the 1988 presidential race when he was forced to withdraw in September 1987 after evidence of his plagiarism and lying surfaced. (No Bill Clinton, Biden has always been, at best, an extraordinarily mediocre liar.) Or his 2008 withdrawal in January, after the Iowa caucus when he only obtained 0.9%, 23 delegate equivalents, second only to Ted Kennedy’s waitress sandwich buddy Chris Dodd (Harvey Weinstein’s favorite politician), who wound up with a single delegate. Obama led the pack, with 940 delegates. Twelve years later, Biden appointed Dodd to head up his VP search committee. Look at how well that worked out. The choice was considered particularly hypocritical at the time because of Tara Reade’s sexual assault allegation against Biden. Reade is now in exile in Russia, in fear for her safety.

The thinking has been that bypassing Kamala to replace Biden would be Democrat political suicide due to antagonizing the black female base essential to the party’s success. She could only be replaced by a similar make and model. When no one meeting that description came forward, and with Obama and Rep. James Clyburn taking her back, voila. Here we are.

In many ways it makes sense, especially financial sense. Kamala is the only one legally positioned to inherit the millions sitting in Biden’s war chest. Unlike a Newsom or a Whitmer, she brings no COVID tyranny/hypocrisy baggage with her. No French Laundry dining while the peasants are locked down, no sneaking off to Florida while a travel ban is in place at home.

Ironically, Kamala is most vulnerable among the sorts of folks still remaining in the rapidly depopulating Democrat camp. As a local prosecutor in San Francisco, she made a career of incarcerating as many criminals as possible, of all races, genders, and ethnicities. Which does not earn her points with today’s progressives. Vice President Harris is the author of the 2009 Smart on Crime: A Career Prosecutor's Plan to Make Us Safer. Dusty copies may soon fly off the shelves, snapped up by Republican opposition researchers. No weak-kneed George Gascon, she was the real deal. “She presents practical solutions for making the criminal justice system truly -- not just rhetorically -- tough.” J. Edgar Hoover in drag. She can probably forget about the defund the police vote.

Kamala is more of an old-school Democrat, the type actually opposed to crime and not rabidly anti-Semitic. She even married a Jew. Scratch the Hamas, Code Pink, and Ivy League vote. No point checking the mail for Roger Waters’ contribution. Will modern progressives and Squad members grit their teeth and vote for a throwback to an ancient era? Or will they sit this one out in protest? Are climatistas sufficient to win an election while the lower and middle classes are caught in an economic vise and a border invasion is active? Did it matter which deck chair anyone was seated in when the Titanic sank? Let’s not forget who was supposed to be the point person on fixing the invasion and its “root causes” south of the border.

A century ago, H.L. Mencken made relevant observations on a perfected democracy. He used ‘democracy’ as a pejorative, viewing that system not altogether different from how our Founders considered it. They bequeathed us a republic instead.

It is not often, in these later days of the democratic enlightenment, that positive merit lands a man in elective office in the United States; much more often it is a negative merit that gets him there... all the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre -- the man who can most adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum.

The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron. July 26, 1920

Talk about prescient. It took a while, probably longer than he thought it would, but Mencken would undoubtedly agree that our democracy has been perfected under Biden to a degree even he would have considered impossible. Incompetence he could envision. But not lechery, treason, or -- wait for it -- defecation. Biden combines so much in a single package. The question is whether further perfection could be attained under a Harris administration. If anyone could exceed Biden, she possesses the best résumé. Alas, we may never know because of her profound ability to repel voters. But we can still dream. Assuming Biden does a Nixon, that means Trump would become the 48^th president. Something to consider before investing in Trump 47 merchandise.

Douglas Schwartz blogs about history, politics, and economics at The Great Class War.

Image: U.S. Government