Dems Nervous That Ex-Starbucks CEO Could Get Trump Re-Elected

The man largely responsible for Starbucks’ explosive success story is mulling an independent bid for the presidency in 2020, and Democrats are practically begging him to reconsider. If former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, who leans far more to the left than he does the right, joins the race, Democrats are concerned that he could split the vote and cause the re-election of Donald Trump.

Shall we start printing some Go, Howard, Go bumper stickers?

Schultz thinks there is room in the race for someone who can bridge the gap between the far-left attitudes of the modern Democratic Party and the hard-right ideology of President Trump. We wouldn’t necessarily disagree with that assessment, but it’s difficult to name Schultz as the man to provide that bridge. Over the past year, he has proven himself to be nothing if not a Social Justice Warrior of the highest order, embarrassing himself and his company with a stunt shutdown in which employees were re-trained in how to deal with minority customers. He was also behind the initiative to allow anyone and everyone to use Starbucks bathrooms without paying for a drink, a terrible idea that has led to the company’s Seattle-area bathrooms being littered with needles and other drug paraphernalia.

“We have a broken political system with both parties basically in business to preserve their own ideology without a recognition and responsibility to represent the interests of the American people,” Schultz told The New York Times. “Republicans and Democrats alike — who no longer see themselves as part of the far extreme of the far right and the far left — are looking for a home. The word ‘independent,’ for me, is simply a designation on the ballot.”

All of this makes Democrat partisans extremely nervous. For as much as Schultz may like to talk about his politically-neutral leanings, he is unlikely to inspire much excitement among Republican voters or independents who lean conservative. If he is to make any mark whatsoever in the 2020 general election, therefore, his votes will almost certainly have to be drawn from the left-leaning side of the aisle. And that means exactly what Democrats are afraid of – fewer votes for their nominee and a wider chance for Trump to nab himself a second term in the White House.

“The only good news @realDonaldTrump received in an otherwise dismal week:  The prospect of a well-funded independent candidate to dilute the opposition in 2020,” wrote a bitter David Axelrod on Twitter.

Heh, no wonder the Democrats are so desperately hoping for Mueller to come up with something. It may be the only chance they have of actually regaining power.