Poor Bernie Sanders. Like the late comedian Rodney Dangerfield, he "don't get no respect."
The Vermont United States senator, officially an independent but a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, is now one of several handfuls of politicians declaring themselves Democratic candidates for the presidency in 2020.
Unfortunately, he's four years too late for his own socialist banquet.
Four years ago, Sanders tapped into what Donald Trump had seen - an electorate that felt powerless, a middle class bottoming out and a government without a vision.
Obviously, the two took what they'd seen in different directions.
Trump sensed an America-first desire, a reclamation of what made America great, a government that did what its people wanted. Sanders wanted to give the country a utopian paradise - anything it couldn't afford, but should.
Millions unexpectedly flocked to both candidates in the primaries while more traditional candidates and their lackeys stood on the sidelines and laughed. In due time, it was serious.
Trump, like it or not, became the Republican nominee because he managed to get more Republicans to vote for him. Sanders did not become the Democratic candidate because Democrats had the fix in for Hillary Clinton.
Fast forward four years.
Democrats, misunderstanding that the Sanders phenomenon meant the electorate had moved left, all rushed to be Bernie. Bernie Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie O'Rourke, Bernie Booker, Bernie Harris, Bernie Warren, Bernie Gillibrand, Bernie Klobachar and a cast of numerous others yet to declare their Bernie intentions.
They have embraced total government-run health care, tagged as Medicare for all. They have cooed over free college. They have felt the Green New Deal, dispensing with gasoline- and oil-run vehicles and providing everyone a job, among other concepts, was ideal.
But the real Bernie was late to the party. And many of those who felt the bern four years ago have lost their enthusiasm for the man, though he raised nearly $6 million in the first 24 hours after declaring his candidacy.
Among the comments on one Facebook post:
"I'm an old white man, and I'm tired of old white men."
"I'm a Bernie fan, and I think it's a big mistake for him to run."
"I want someone younger than I am."
"I just can't."
We don't imagine - remembering the lack of Obama vetting - today's Democrats actually took a hard look at Sanders, who would be 79 if he were inaugurated as president in 2021. Prior to his 2016 run, he was a back-bencher in the Senate and had been the primary sponsor on only seven bills that had become law, including five that dealt only with Vermont (including the renaming of two post offices).
No, we think the Democrat electorate simply believes, despite its fringe-left politics, a woman, a minority or a younger white man with Kennedy-family looks (O'Rourke) is poised to be the right Bernie for 2020.
The only problem is, with only four months until the first Democratic debate (really!), they keep tripping over their own words.
On the front burner, Sens. Kamala Harris, D-California, and Cory Booker, D-New Jersey, were among those to rush to judgment about the alleged Trump-supporter attacks on actor Jussie Smollett, which are now in doubt.
Harris also has the public embarrassment of her father ripping her for her use of marijuana stereotypes "in pursuit of identity politics."
Meanwhile, former U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke of Texas is walking back remarks about a completely open Southern border.
Maybe, he said on second thought, "there is a role for physical borders in some places."
Elsewhere, while Booker was categorizing the astronomical prices of retrofitting every building with green technology as "a lie," the Senate minority's No. 2 man, Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Illinois, said the phantasmic Green New Deal is but "a resolution aspiration." And Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, may have scared off the moderates she will need to be elected when she said her administration could consider national emergencies for issues such as climate change and gun violence.
Then there's Sanders, who pulled out a line he might ought to have left upstairs when asked what would happen to consumers in the private insurance market with Medicare for all.
"They will continue to go to the doctors they want, the hospitals they want," he said.
It's only been 10 years since former President Barack Obama's infamous utterances of "if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan."
People haven't forgotten, and we don't believe they're ready to buy into a socialist utopia, be it led by its 2016 champion or any other Bernies-come-lately.