MSNBC reported Thursday that “Fifty percent of Democrats say President Biden gives the party the best chance in 2024, according to new Marist College polling.” Are these people totally cut off from the outside world except for what the Democratic National Committee feeds them through the establishment media? Are they in their right mind? Never mind, we know the answer to that one already: they aren’t. They’re Leftists.

There are, however, rumblings of dissent. Back on Feb. 6, the Associated Press reported that “a majority of Democrats now think one term is plenty for President Joe Biden, despite his insistence that he plans to seek reelection in 2024. That’s according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research that shows just 37% of Democrats say they want him to seek a second term, down from 52% in the weeks before last year’s midterm elections.” If both the AP poll and the Marist College poll are accurate, there has been a significant upswing in support for Old Joe in the last few weeks. It’s more likely that these polls are as worthless and biased as the “news organizations” that conduct and publish them, but one thing is clear: despite the dumpster-fire character of his presidency over the last two years, Biden still enjoys significant support among Democrats.

Some Democrats, meanwhile, support Old Joe not because they really think the doddering corruptocrat is doing a good job, but because they fear the alternative. On Feb. 16, Politico reported that “high-level Democrats are rallying to President Biden’s reelection, not because they think it’s in the best interest of the country to have an 82-year-old start a second term but because they fear the potential alternative: the nomination of Kamala Harris and election of Donald Trump.” Of course! Since when did high-level Democrats have any concern for the best interest of the country? They’re just afraid that a Kamala Harris presidency will make the electoral landscape even worse for them, and that will pave the way for the return of the man they consider the focus of evil in the modern world, one Donald J. Trump.

It’s unclear why they’re worried. Gerrymandering, mail-in ballots, and ballot harvesting will likely pull off all manner of new upsets for them in 2024, and could even get their candidate, however incompetent or corrupt or both, into the White House, but nonetheless, at least some Democrat kingmakers and powerbrokers are worried. Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) explained: “Nobody wants to be the one to do something that would undermine the chances of a Democratic victory in 2024. Yet in quiet rooms the conversation is just the opposite — we could be at a higher risk if this path is cleared.”

Phillips, according to Politico, was “one of the few lawmakers last year to say his party should turn to a new generation in the next presidential race.” Yet “since the Democrats’ unexpectedly strong midterm performance, scarcely few have followed suit, while every potential Biden successor has fallen in line behind his yet-to-be-announced candidacy.” Now, why might that be? What does it say about America that its dominant majority party is so reluctant to nominate a younger candidate? Why won’t the old folks get out of the way?

The unmistakable answer is that the “public service” in the United States today is so comfortable and lucrative that people can’t bring themselves to surrender the reins of power once they get them. The reason why America is turning into a gerontocracy is the same reason why six of the fifteen richest counties in the country are in Virginia and Maryland, right outside Washington, D.C. Public service in the United States has become a lucrative exercise in mutual back-slapping, with numerous well-heeled lobbies eager to pay elected officials outlandish speaker’s fees after he or she gets them what they want on the legislative floor. Once you’ve climbed aboard the gravy train, it’s hard to get off.

Nonetheless, Politico says that “private conversations about the wisdom of nominating an octogenarian and despair over who could take Biden’s place have hardly subsided.” Rep. Phillips opines that “it’s fear, plain and simple. People are focused on self-preservation and their aspirations.” That’s not to say, however, that Phillips is a man of any discernment. He told Politico, apparently with a straight face, that Old Joe is “a president of great competence and success, I admire the heck out of President Biden.” Well, I like tapioca pudding, too, but I can’t say that I admire it. Phillips plows on: “And if he were 15-20 years younger it would be a no-brainer to nominate him, but considering his age it’s absurd we’re not promoting competition but trying to extinguish it.”

Yes it is. But what about the Democrat party today is not absurd? Dean Phillips is talking about absurdity while calling a man who can barely utter a coherent sentence, has relentlessly demonized half of the population of the country he had promised to “unify,” and whose weakness and incapacity have emboldened our enemies worldwide a “president of great competence and success.” Sure, buddy, and I’m Nancy Pelosi. But the Democrats, however uneasily, at least at this point seem determined to ride the Biden train until it derails, which, given the state of the man who is allegedly driving it, could happen at any moment.