Democrats are reeling from self-inflicted wounds that are imperiling their upcoming 2020 Democratic campaigns for: retention of control in the House of Representatives, hopes for retaking the U.S. Senate, defeating Trump for the Presidency, uniting and turning out large numbers of people of color in the upcoming elections, and rallying teachers and public education supporters as solid voting blocs in their efforts to change the political direction of the nation. These events are occurring at the state and national levels, and are rapidly escalating in red and blue states across the country.

In New Jersey, Gov. Phil Murphy’s failed attempt to pass a law to legalize recreational marijuana, after a two-year campaign, in a state where Democrats control all three branches of government was so significant that its negative spillover caused its neighbor, New York, to drop it from the state budget in March. In addition, Murphy called his marijuana initiative a social justice imperative for African Americans, often referencing the civil rights struggles of Dr. Martin Luther King, which enabled him to surround himself with a large group of black ministers, the NJ NAACP President, black mayors, and civic and grassroots leaders.

Nonetheless, after his defeat, Murphy, at the behest of cannabis industry lobbyists, who backed him for Governor, has de-coupled expungement regulations from the original bill, in a proposed last ditch attempt to pass the new bill by the end of May. De-criminalization, which has been embraced by his opponents, is not even a part of the discussion. The result is that the ills of the legalization of recreational marijuana will be borne by low-income minority cities and towns while white communities are busily passing laws to keep marijuana dispensaries out their neighborhoods if the bill ever passes. The negative impact of legalized recreational marijuana on majority-minority public schools and school districts is not even being considered.

Meanwhile, former Congressman and 2020 presidential candidate, Beto O’Rourke, has quietly aligned himself with America’s major corporate charter school organizations, along with Sen. Cory Booker. Beto’s wife Amy is the point person for public school privatization in El Paso, while he masquerades as a political lion for the people. Beto’s ascent to public office was funded by his wealthy father and Amy’s father, a real estate magnate, who corralled his fellow multi-millionaire oil and gas industry buddies to launch his political career. It started with Beto’s election to the El Paso City Council on a slate they controlled. They then orchestrated his successful first run for Congress, defeating multi-term Representative Silvestre Reyes in a Democratic primary. On the campaign trail so far, Beto has been strangely silent on public education, while his wife Amy, a former principal of a charter school, continues in her in role as a promoter for charter management organizations (CMOs) in Texas.

In his plaid shirt and jeans, Beto jumps on table tops, chairs, and any other available surface as a he endeavors to present himself as a political everyman. Many teachers and other public educators have been drawn to him as if he were a pied piper for the salvation of our public schools and the teaching profession.

But a rising and more vexing issue for Democrats is women coming forward to complain about the tactile actions of former Vice President Joe Biden. They have accused him of inappropriate touching--rubbing, kissing, nose-to-nose encounters, and other invasions of their personal spaces. This is compounded by his earlier opposition to busing for school desegregation, his orchestration of the public verbal assault on Atty. Anita Hill when she testified before the Judiciary Committee in 1991, which Biden then chaired, about her sexual harassment by then U.S. Supreme Court nominee, Clarence Thomas, when Democrats controlled both the House and the Senate.

Uncle Joe has never apologized directly to Atty. Hill for his abysmal performance as the committee’s leader when he allowed his Republican and Democratic colleagues to viscerally attack her and then refused to allow the testimony of other African American women who worked in Thomas’s office while the harassment occurred. Some of these women were also victims of his sexual innuendos. Nearly 30 years later, Biden now says, “I’m sorry I couldn’t have stopped the kind of attacks that came to you,” an inane and ridiculous statement, given that he had the absolute power to preside over a hearing that could have been more respectful, humane, and less racist.

Finally, New York’s 14^th District Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), joined by fellow freshman Rep Ayanna Pressley (D-CT), two acknowledged progressive stars, have pushed back hard against the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). DCCC Chair, Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-IL), has developed a policy to blacklist any Democratic firms, campaign consultants, strategists, etc. who work with a primary challenger against a sitting member of Congress (a policy that would have prevented both AOC and Pressley from challenging and defeating two ten-term incumbents in their first runs for office in 2018).

AOC and Pressley have urged Democratic donors to contribute directly to swing candidates themselves, bypassing the DCCC. Both have stated that this rule will have an alarming effect on the future of the Democratic Party and its diversity. It is causing a rift between progressive and more moderate Democrats. Rep. Ro Kahana (D-CA) has stepped in to mediate a compromise between the two camps, but no deal has yet been reached as strong feelings are held among both groups. Those moderate Democrats who prevailed in long-held Republican districts to gain their seats in 2018 are concerned that the lack of incumbent protection against a primary opponent increases their vulnerability for defeat in their 2020 elections.

Collectively, the aforementioned political realities are problematic as Democrats seek to forge unity around a set of coherent issues nationally and across the states and to remain bonded to the constituents who returned them to power in the House of Representatives. Presently, there are too many fissures within the Democratic Party for it to win the Presidency or to regain the Senate. It appears to be experiencing a self-induced implosion.

On the other hand, Trump and the Republicans, whatever their disagreements, have been able to largely remain unified on key Republican issues which have kept them in control of three branches of government—the Senate, the Office of President, and the U.S. Supreme Court—after previously presiding over all four. With the release of the Mueller Report which, to date, is favorable to Trump, he is poised to defeat any of the more than a dozen of his Democratic rivals and continue to wreak havoc on American institutions.

Democrats are in a quandary as they try to reconcile the disparate elements of their Party. The question is whether their efforts will be fruitful prior to the upcoming elections. New Jersey, a traditionally blue state in U.S. Senate and Presidential elections, and a major contributor to the Democrats reclaiming the House in 2018, could unexpectedly return seats to Republicans in 2020. Its recent marijuana debacle could be setting the stage for the reversal.