This weekend has seen names that should have Democrats shaking their heads running to declare themselves as presidential candidates for the 2020 election, or be right on the verge of it. It’s a free-for-all in the Democratic party! And you thought the 2016 Republican primary was bad.

The new names who have tossed themselves formally into the mix are Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, and former HUD secretary Julian Castro of Texas. Neither has a chance at the seat behind the desk in 2020. What they are angling for is the VP slot, in my cynical opinion, or a spot in a Democrat cabinet, as neither has ever been elected in a statewide campaign.

Apparently, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has also said privately that she is running, and Senator Kamala Harris is just waiting for Martin Luther King Day to announce her candidacy, according to reports. Governor Jay Inslee of Washington state, a man with the same climate change platform as Al Gore, but with only a quarter of Gore’s personal charisma, is spending this weekend in Nevada, trying to see if he can con anyone there into voting for him.

And these aren’t even the big names on the Democrats’ radar!

Even though Joe Biden is sitting on top of the current polls for the 2020 election, Bernie Sanders failed to get any attention last week when he gave his opinion on President Trump’s Oval Office address. But you know who did?

You know how fast this all changed. Bernie Sanders also gave a response and almost zero journos tweeted it out. They are all sending out the FB live link to Beto. It’s over grandpa.

— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) January 9, 2019

Yes, Betomania is going to keep being a thing. Though he can’t stop copying Ted Cruz, apparently.

Wow Ted Cruz also beat Beto at beards pic.twitter.com/y0RheELIxg

— William Steakin (@wsteaks) January 9, 2019

You know how Beto is going to keep being a thing? He’s getting the Oprah Winfrey treatment with an upcoming interview. If the Democrats were smart, they wouldn’t put Beto at the top of the ticket. They’d hand him the VP slot under Biden, which would most likely be a formidable ticket for Donald Trump to contend with. But the Democrats are not smart, and they are going to let all of their crazy hang out for all to see during this extensively long primary season.

Every single name on the Democrats’ list is going to come with baggage. Tulsi Gabbard has just had her social media sifted by Huffington Post and declared a homophobe. Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders both have #MeToo incidents in their previous campaigns that will not play well. Kirsten Gillibrand is still blamed for Al Franken’s resignation. And let’s not even get into Joe Biden’s penchant for being “handsy.”

The Democrats are on the verge of a split between the moderate liberal faction (as represented by the “old guard” and led by Biden) and the socialist progressives (which was Bernie, but is now being seized by younger names like Beto). But in the 2020 election season, the split is likely to produce a third-party candidate. Hillary Clinton was seen as a sure bet, which is why Bernie and his progressive wing swallowed their pride and backed her, despite the obvious problems with the primary. This time, they won’t be as forgiving.

Featured image via Pixabay, cropped, Pixabay License free for commercial use