President Joe Biden stepped up to save American democracy in 2019. He’s done a tremendous job stabilizing the ship of state over the past 3.5 years and returned decency to the White House.
I love Joe Biden. He was my boss when I served as Deputy Staff Director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee a quarter century ago. He is a man of almost unparalleled decency, integrity, and patriotism who has dedicated his life to public service. But our Democracy is at stake and the presidency cannot be a reward for past contributions but an investment in future ones.
For the sake of America, the country he so deeply loves, President Biden must immediately announce that he will not accept the Democratic Party’s nomination for the presidency. Although the mechanics for choosing a replacement can be executed at the Democratic convention in Chicago this August, a competitive and open process for determining who might be the next candidate must begin immediately.
Perhaps the most essential purpose of democratic governance is to solve the problem of succession. For millennia, states and civilizations have fallen because civil wars so often broke out when leaders died. That’s why Donald Trump is such a threat to our democracy and is unfit for the presidency. Although we should all hold former president Trump accountable for his lies, betrayals, and severe lack of respect for American ideals, laws, alliances, and even interests, the most important indictment Trump is that he has attacked the process of democratic succession and, quite literally, contributed to an attack our capital itself. Our democratic norms and structures can only exist if we treasure and protect them. Donald Trump has betrayed that trust. To ensure Trump does not return to power and to protect and promote American democracy, values, and interests, the Democratic Party must find a new candidate.
Biden must make his announcement immediately because the only outcome worse for the Democrats than Biden staying on as our presidential candidate would be his ceding party leadership and the candidacy to Kamala Harris. Vice President Harris is a good and decent person, but given her extreme unpopularity there is no conceivable Republican candidate who she could defeat in a Presidential election.
The Democratic Party has other potential candidates who could potentially step forward to meet this moment. These include Gretchen Whitmer, Gavin Newsom, Andy Beshear, Roy Cooper, Cory Booker, and, I am sure, others. Kamala Harris could even throw her hat in the ring if she so chooses. None of these candidates could defeat Trump were the election held today, but we have around 40 days (due to Ohio’s electoral laws) in which to coalesce around a candidate. There is not a moment to spare.
This type of process could include a weekly series of debates, regular town halls, and a return to old-fashioned retail politics at scale. We’ll need to condense a lot of process into a short period of time, but it’s conceivable a candidate with sufficient momentum could emerge in time for the August convention so the ultimate selection — through the convention process and according to existing party bylaws — can seem like a popular choice rather than a back room deal negotiated by insiders.
Because democracy at home and the defense of liberty around the world are on the ballot, the Democratic Party must put forward a candidate who can win in November and remain at the height of his or her powers for the next four years of a very demanding presidency. I have unlimited respect for Joe Biden and deep gratitude for his tremendous service and inherent decency, but he is not that person.
As his last and perhaps greatest act of patriotism and for the good of the country and world, President Biden must announce he will not accept the Democratic Party’s nomination for the presidency.
I say this with sadness and a heavy heart but, at least in my view, it must be said.