Biden Made a Courageous Choice. Democrats Must Seize the Opportunity.
July 21, 2024 9:20 pm | 5 min read
Photo: Damon Winter via NYT | Columbia
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By
NYT Editorial Board
President Biden’s decision to exit the 2024 presidential election is a fitting coda for a man whose life has been devoted to public service. Mr. Biden has served the nation well as its president. By agreeing to step down when his term ends in January, he is greatly increasing the chance that his party is able to protect the nation from the dangers of returning Donald Trump to the presidency.
Majorities of Americans have consistently said they did not believe Mr. Biden could lead the nation for another term, citing longstanding fears about his age and fitness that have only grown in recent months. Had he remained at the top of the ticket, he would have greatly increased the likelihood of Mr. Trump retaking the presidency and potentially controlling both houses of Congress as well. Mr. Biden himself has consistently warned that specter presents a profound threat to the nation and its democratic traditions.
Mr. Biden has now done what Mr. Trump never will: He has placed the national interest above his own pride and ambition.
Mr. Biden’s departure gives Democrats an opportunity to refocus public attention from questions about the president’s fitness to the manifest moral and temperamental unfitness of Mr. Trump — and to the dangers of rearming him with the considerable powers of the presidency.
Mr. Trump is a felon who flouts the law and the Constitution, an inveterate liar beholden to no higher cause than his self-interest and a reckless policymaker indifferent to the well-being of the American people. His term in office did lasting damage to the people and the project of America and to its reputation around the world. In a second term he would operate with fewer restraints and more willing enablers, and he and his emboldened advisers have made clear they intend to exercise power ruthlessly.
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Yet it’s not enough to describe all the harm Mr. Trump would do to this country: The Democratic Party needs to offer the American people a road map to a better future. The new presidential and vice-presidential nominees will represent a fresh chance to remind voters of longstanding differences between the two parties.
This election will determine whether the United States, as it has under Mr. Biden, stands up to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. It will determine whether the federal government keeps fighting to protect the reproductive rights of women and continues the Biden administration’s nascent, urgently necessary work to address climate change by shifting the economy to renewable energy. Under Mr. Biden, economic inequality has begun to decline, and this election will help to determine whether workers are able to maintain a claim on a larger share of the nation’s prosperity.
In a letter to the nation announcing his decision, Mr. Biden was correct in saying the nation has made great progress since his term began, particularly in areas such as foreign policy, climate, infrastructure and the welfare of American workers. His campaign has also described plans that the new Democratic nominee ought to adopt and build on. While the president is personally unpopular, his proposals to further these goals enjoy broad public support.
In other areas, Mr. Biden’s departure offers a fresh chance to address voters’ concerns with better policies.
The next Democratic nominee should acknowledge and offer solutions for the pain and disruptions caused by uncontrolled immigration. America needs immigrants. The nation also needs better policies for controlling their flow into the country.
Voters are angry about the cost of living. Democrats particularly need to offer better ideas for addressing the biggest line item in most household budgets: the high cost of housing.
And Mr. Biden’s successor needs to engage with the American people. Mr. Biden has had fewer unscripted interactions with the public and the news media than any other president in recent decades, often leaving voters with a sense that he was hiding from the public. A new presidential candidate should demonstrate exactly the opposite tendency, showing both a willingness to be open about plans for the future and a real interest in what voters have to say in return.
In a social media post on Sunday afternoon, Mr. Biden said he was endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris to take his place at the top of the ticket. She is an accomplished leader and a forceful and eloquent campaigner and is likely to be a far more persuasive candidate than Mr. Biden. She would hold Mr. Trump to account for his lies and destructive policies in a way that Mr. Biden’s infirmities have left him unable to do.
Choosing Ms. Harris would be a reasonable path for Democrats to take; she has been Mr. Biden’s running mate, and while no votes were cast for her as a presidential candidate in primaries, the president’s voters expected her to be on the ticket in November.
Nonetheless, party delegates should have a voice in a decision of this consequence. There are other qualified Democrats who could take on Mr. Trump and win, and picking a candidate without a real contest is how the party got into a position of anointing a standard-bearer that large majorities of Democrats and independents had profound concerns about. While the hour is late, there is still time to put leading candidates through a process of public scrutiny before the party’s nominating convention begins on Aug. 19, to inform the choice of a nominee and to build public support.
Whether the party chooses Ms. Harris or another Democrat, the nominee should convince voters that he or she will emulate Mr. Biden’s approach to working with Congress. In an era of intense polarization, Mr. Biden eschewed the satisfactions of principled stands in favor of the compromises necessary to make tangible progress. He engaged respectfully and honorably with Republicans.
The resulting victories included major investments in improving infrastructure and reducing inequality, as well as laws addressing gun violence, modernizing the air traffic control system, protecting same-sex marriage and investing in semiconductor manufacturing. Similar compromises are needed to rewrite the nation’s immigration laws, to craft an equitable replacement for Mr. Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and to pass laws helping working parents.
Most of all, as president, Mr. Biden has stood on the side of the values that have long defined America: a commitment to freedom, a respect for the rule of law and a belief that pluralism is a fundamental source of the nation’s strength. His administration, the most diverse in American history, embodies those values. It has worked to improve the lives of all Americans and to give Americans the opportunity to build better lives.
When Mr. Biden began his campaign in 2019, he told supporters that Mr. Trump would be defeated and that history would come to regard Mr. Trump’s four years in office as an “aberrant moment.” Mr. Biden has played his part, but the democratic project is never complete. That work now passes to the next generation of political leaders and to the American people.
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