With pair of Dem oldsters, VP pick is more critical than ever

The sport of politics used to pit the "Stupid Party" against the "Evil Party" in each election.

In 2020, however, the Democratic Party itself has become this entire game, pitting "evil" socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., against former Vice President Joe Biden, who seems mentally coherent only part of the time.

The globalist establishment favors Joe as the only remaining candidate who will preserve their wealth and power from the radicalism of Sanders or populism of a reelected President Trump.

But to win, the wealthy globalist oligarchs in politics and media must hide or minimize Biden's flaws until he is installed as their sock puppet. If the voters look carefully at Biden, he will lose.

The Democratic Party has long promoted itself as the party of minorities and single women. Now it offers Americans a choice between two white men. As one veteran Democratic operative said, their candidate is chosen by the party, not the people.

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The Democratic Party has long promoted itself as the party of the young, but the youngest likely 2020 candidate will be baby boomer Donald Trump, born in 1946. Sanders, 78, or Biden, 77, would be older on the day either became president than Ronald Reagan was on the final day of his second term.

The Democratic Party calls itself a progressive party of fresh, innovative ideas. But Sanders favors historically discredited socialism – not Scandinavian welfarism, but outright "Fidel Castro had good ideas" socialism-Marxism. Most Democrats know that this differs only in degree, not kind, from their own ideology of class-warfare envy and ever-increasing welfare vote-buying. They secretly agree with Sanders, but know that he is too honest about his leftist zealotry to get elected.

Joe Biden has also embraced far-left ideas such as gun confiscation and socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's "Green New Deal," which her own chief of staff admitted was "more about redistributing wealth" than climate.

But Biden is hidin' his stealth radicalism under the traditional camouflage of being a self-serving, corrupt politician who has used his influence to make five members of his family rich. A dishonest politician demanding bribes will not kill the capitalists on whom he preys, because he wants them alive to be shaken down year after year.

Whoever emerges victorious between Killer Bees Bernie and Biden must soon pick a vice presidential running mate. A 2019 study by the American Federation for Aging Research noted that Sanders' age and gender give him a 76.8 percent likelihood of living out his first presidential term – nearly one chance in four of dying. And this was calculated before Sanders survived a heart attack late in 2019. Like Mike Bloomberg, Sanders has two implanted stents from cardiovascular problems.

Biden, the study estimated, has a 79.2 percent chance of surviving his first presidential term. This does not factor Biden's two prior aneurysms, one of which was a stroke, a ruptured blood vessel in the speech side of his brain. Biden, the study estimated, has worse than a one-in-five risk of dying during his first term.

The running mate of either Sanders or Biden, therefore, is more than a "spare tire" destined to spend four or eight years inquiring daily about the president's health – but who will never replace him. The Democratic Party VP nominee has a Russian roulette likelihood of taking over as president, should Biden or Sanders be elected in November.

This choice is more important than usual and must be thought of as potentially the next president. This choice is also a window into what Sanders or Biden really want to succeed them … and what the Democratic Party wants as well.

The Constitution requires that a president and vice president come from different states, so that one state does not dominate the White House in our federal system. (It does not, however, prohibit a vice presidential candidate from the president's state from renting an "official residence" in the state next door.)

Traditionally, the vice president "balances" a ticket, becoming a Southern running mate to a Northern candidate, a racial or gender minority youngster to an older white heterosexual male, or a feistier partisan to a more moderate, "statesmanlike" presidential candidate.

But in 2020, Sanders supporters may not accept a "moderate" running mate, and Biden supporters may not accept a socialist running mate who would attract Sanders voters. Ironically, Biden historically may be the last racial token chosen as vice president, because he was too dull and dim-witted to outshine the presidential candidate who picked him.

Lowell Ponte is a former Reader's Digest Roving Editor. His articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and other major publications. His latest paper co-authored with Craig R. Smith, "China's Top Secret War," shows how to rethink several areas of investment to protect and grow your savings against the little-known economic threats the People's Republic of China poses. For a free, postpaid copy, call toll-free 800-630-1492.