Amid widespread predictions of a big Joe Biden win, Jon Levine ponders in the New York Post what will happen if Democrats lose the presidential race.
Progressives, socialists and Bernie Bros are gearing up for war should Joe Biden fall short of his quest to unseat President Trump in Tuesday’s election.
“You would see a complete repudiation of the Democratic establishment as we know it,” said Jabari Brisport, 33, a Democratic Socialist-backed candidate for state Senate expected to easily win a Brooklyn seat next week. “The Democratic establishment is not working for everyday people.”
Brisport said a Biden loss would completely discredit the moderate wing of the party, paving the way for more successful insurgents like himself.
“It’s going to be the mirror image of what happened to the Republican party in the Obama years. You had the tea party, just like progressive insurgents, and then when Obama won a second term the Republican party went haywire on the inside and ate its own,” he said.
Unlike the tea party, a progressive revolution would be “a force for good,” said the true-believer Brisport.
One senior official at a Democratic Political Action Committee was blunter.
“If Biden loses it’s going to be a f–king bloodbath. There’s no other way to put it,” he said. “Heads will roll. It’s going to be ugly.”
Progressives hope that any internal strife would also strengthen the hand of some of their brightest congressional stars, like Reps. Pramila Jayapal and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Sen. Chuck Schumer is up for re-election in 2022 and there have long been whispers that Ocasio-Cortez may seek to oust him in a primary. Schumer, a New York moderate with close Wall Street ties, is the kind of pol that makes AOC’s lefty base salivate.
“Because of how badly they did with the Impeachment Hoax, AOC will primary Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, and win,” Trump predicted in February.
AOC herself has been distinctly coy about the prospect.