It’s astonishing to believe that in a nation of more than 334 million people, the 2024 presidential election could very well boil down to a redux of 2020, with both Joe Biden and Donald Trump facing serious obstacles neither of them likely even dreamed about the last time around. Still, here we find ourselves.

In this case, we’ll focus on the clearly-declining Biden, his incoherence, multitudinous scandals, more than seven out of 10 Americans believing the country is headed in the wrong direction, and Kamala Harris waiting in the wings. In other words, incredibly so, Biden continues to hang on — if even by a mere thread.

As Biden’s troubles continue to compound, concern among Democrat strategies and party leaders continues to rise — including among those who refuse to say so publicly.

One Democrat strategist who’s not afraid to address his concerns publicly is former senior advisor to then-President Barack Obama, David Axelrod. Now a CNN political commentator, Axelrod believes third-party candidates — Green Party presidential candidate Cornel West, in particular — could very well sink Biden’s bid for a second term.

Axelrod doesn’t understand why “alarm bells aren’t going off” in the Democrat Party about West’s candidacy.

This is going to sneak up on people. I don’t know why alarm bells aren’t going off now, and they should be at a steady drumbeat from now until the election.

West, a political philosopher — and consummate agitator — has been attacking Biden from the far left, describing the embattled president’s administration as simply a  “postponement of fascism.”

In addition, West continues to make a clear and effective race-based argument against the Democrat Party, correctly — in my not-so-humble opinion, accusing the party establishment of treating the Black electorate like “a plantation where you got ownership status in terms of which way you vote.”

Spoiler: West’s argument is not only correct, it has been correct for six decades, beginning with President Lyndon Johnson’s disastrous 1965 War of Poverty and continuing downhill ever since.

Pennsylvania Democratic Lt. Gov. Austin Davis also said the party should be concerned with West’s candidacy:

We should be concerned. I don’t think time’s necessarily on our side. The longer these things hang out there, the worse it tends to get. We should try to deal with it rather quickly if we can.

“Deal with it”? How? Like the DNC circled the wagons around Hillary in 2016 and Biden in 2020 — both times because party leaders were terrified that self-declared socialist Bernie Sanders was on the verge of wresting the nomination away from Hillary and Joe?

Anyway, among Democrats who are ringing the alarm bell, of utmost concern is West’s targeting of Biden on numerous specific issues in recent weeks. Earlier in July, West told Fox News his third-party bid is as “serious as a heart attack,” as he doubled down on his belief that Biden lacks compassion for the Black community.

Meanwhile, befuddled Biden continues to fiddle, tilt, and windmills that don’t exist, and wander off stage in the middle of yet another incoherent speech.

Also, as my colleague Joe Cunningham recently reported, while West Virginian Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin was a pain in Biden’s posterior in 2023, the Democrat Party fears the renegade lawmaker might follow through with his “threat” to mount a third-party effort, as well.

He has praised Kevin McCarthy while blasting Joe Biden. And he’s also started touring Iowa to tout his record of being a straight-shootin’ common sense guy.

As of last week, he was doing the same thing in New Hampshire, at an event held by the “No Labels” movement that’s started growing.

But, hey — as it relates to the “the big guy,” he lives in his pretend world where his crackhead son is “the smartest man he knows,” consistently lies about stuff that’s demonstrably false, and thinks half of Americans are “semi-fascists.” So, Joe will be just fine, regardless of the state of the Democrat Party when he’s finally left the stage for good.

And the state of the Republican Party? We’ll save that for another time.