As of right now, the Republican Party seems to be primed to take back at least part of Congress in 2022. The Democrats barely have a lead in the House and they must rely on Kamala Harris to break any tie in the Senate. As their legislative proposals continue to get little support from Republicans or the general public, you can all but tell by their demeanor that they’ve accepted it.

The Biden agenda, meanwhile, is just as dead because there is no willingness from his own party to get support from across the aisle. By continuing to talk about reconciliation and blaming Republicans for all the issues they’re having, the Democrats have basically told Americans the Biden administration is done for the 2020 term.

Naturally, it raises the question of whether or not Biden – who continues to struggle with poor mental stamina in public appearances – will even run again in 2024. The Democrats might have thought they had a backup in place, but Vice President Kamala Harris has proven to be a charismatic black hole of a Vice President and has been so awful in her own public interviews and with her job responsibilities that she is practically in hiding 90 percent of the time. The American people are noticing, too.

As new polling shows that Harris’ popularity is officially underwater, Democrats are said to be panicking behind the scenes as their 2020 victory looks more and more like a fluke that they won’t be able to repeat in the near future.

The choice of Harris as Biden’s running mate made theoretical sense leading up to the election. With COVID-19 raging and people starting to notice Biden’s struggle with talking points (and words in general), Harris had a history as a prosecutor to go after Trump and could score points as a strong black woman against someone the Democrats were framing as a racist and as a misogynist.

But much like her own Presidential campaign, Harris faltered with this responsibility and was essentially a non-entity through the election. Her only moments of note were dismissive eye rolls and awkward cackling. It did not endear her to the American public.

So, here we sit in the second half of 2021, Biden’s first full year as President, and his Vice President is again a non-entity. She is the most unpopular Vice President since the 1970s. She badly mishandled an interview with Lester Holt over the immigration process. She has basically been in hiding for months. The American people either don’t know her or don’t like her.

That is a very, very bad sign for the Democrats, who need something if they want to try to mitigate the upcoming midterms. Continuing to harp on January 6, 2021, isn’t helping. Making everything about Trump isn’t helping. The American people are focused on the here and now. COVID-19 is surging again, mask mandates are coming back, and the economy is not recovering as quickly as it should. Those are issues the Democrats have to deal with.

And if by 2024 it isn’t looking good for the Democrats, Biden may have no choice but to bow out for health reasons and leave it to Harris, who is supposed to be the natural successor. But her pride won’t allow her to carry his torch or anyone’s except her own, and other Democrats will see that she can’t win, and it will split the Democrat vote (is it finally Bernie Sanders’ time?!).

The top Democrats are keenly aware of this and, based on the rhetoric we’re seeing right now, they don’t have any idea how to fix it. She is turning out to be a very been tactical error on the Biden team’s part, and now they are stuck with her. They can’t fire her and they can’t pick someone else to run alongside him in 2024. They are too afraid of the sexist and racist finger-pointed their base may throw at them. So they are stuck with her if he decides to run. If he doesn’t, that might be even worse.