How Joe Biden Did Democracy Right

Three weeks of punishing, public agony for Democratic officeholders, operatives, and voters came to a stunning and incredible end with President Joseph R. Biden’s decision to step down from his earned role as the party’s nominee for President of the United States. It was an historic choice, unprecedented in U.S. electoral politics. It was a fraught one as well — made after unrelenting public speculation and messy internal dynamics that saw each new attempt to comfort met with increasing doubts. But in spite of the fear and the dismay and the anxiety and the stress, when it comes down to it, President Biden made the right choice.

During the deluge of bad press and worse pressure, Biden’s efforts to comfort skittish voters and donors took on a decidedly troubling tone. It started when both men at the debate spent more time snapping at each other over golf handicaps than articulating coherent abortion policy, but it popped up in subsequent interviews and public appearances as well. Biden had started talking about the campaign as a vehicle for his personal validation. There was a lot of “I” and “me” in facing down Donald Trump, Project 2025, and the extremism of the Republican Party, an insistence that he alone could do what needed to be done. Sitting down with George Stephanopoulos or standing at the NATO summit, President Biden reiterated that he was a singular opponent, that he was the only one who could build the necessary relationships and deploy the essential policies in the office, and that it would be his effort that defined the campaign. It sounded so much like Trump’s rhetoric that I did start wondering if Biden had lost the plot — just not for the reasons everyone else did.

From the time he declared in 2019 to the moment he accepted the nomination in the summer of 2020, I assumed Biden would be committed to serving two terms. No one ever gives up the presidency willingly, not when almost every politician has spent their entire lives trying to attain it. The few who actually succeed have—by custom or statute—aimed to serve at least two terms. Reelection to the White House defines whole legacies. It is the ultimate political achievement. So despite his age, despite his moderation, despite the difficulty in beating Trump once, let alone twice, I thought that Biden would stay focused on keeping himself in power for eight years rather than concede. Almost everyone else would.

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But his decision — to put the party and the country ahead of himself — has demonstrated that President Biden never lost sight of what really matters: the republic. In this existential battle over the future of our nation, President Biden chose to put his needs aside and give Democrats the best chance of pushing back on the tide of hatred and fascism that was so clearly on display last week at the Republican National Convention. It was an act of selflessness that is rarely demonstrated by people in power — prioritizing the needs of the many over the desires of a few. It was, in a way, democracy in action.

With this decision, President Biden has presented an unbelievable testament to true political leadership and demonstrated a contrast between a mindless Republican fealty and an engaged Democratic process. The same time that Republicans offered up every whim, every policy, every option to their new and eternal king, Donald Trump, Joe Biden instead showed that self-government is listening, accepting, and working for the benefit of others. As Republicans talked about consolidating more and more power in themselves, for themselves, without pushback or dissent, President Biden showed capacity for sharing influence and impact, trusting his coalition, and giving space and power to his handpicked successor. And as we enter the fall campaign with one party helmed by one of the most narcissistic, hateful, ignorant, duplicitous men to ever enter national politics, President Biden’s unselfish decision to step aside shows us that the nomination of Donald Trump was also a choice.

We are going to enter this election season with a very clear contrast between a white man who would be king and a team effort, helmed by a woman of color. It won’t be about individual legacies or personal power; it won’t be about a singular savior and their singular wants. This campaign has become about whether we give up our power to a person who wants it all to themselves, or whether we share power together. It is about whether we are consumed by our legacy or we pass it on. And when faced with the choice to pick ourselves or to pick each other on our ballots this November, we will know the consequences and the impact, because President Biden has already shown us what it means.