U.S. President Joe Biden gestures as he departs a press conference during NATO's 75th anniversary summit, in Washington, on July 11.Yves Herman/Reuters
In the end, President Joe Biden did the thing that was called for by the times. His announcement on Sunday that he won’t accept the Democratic Party nomination for the upcoming election, followed by his immediate endorsement of his vice-president, Kamala Harris, has given American democracy a much-needed defibrillation.
It was the selfless act of a decent man, and the right thing to do for his party and his country. What matters now is whether the Democrats can seize the opportunity. If they do, they will cement Mr. Biden’s legacy; if they don’t, they will have squandered it.
Mr. Biden, who has served his country his whole life, is doing so again at the end of his career by lowering the odds that Donald Trump will win the election in November.
A second term for Mr. Trump would be a disaster. It would pose a threat to the democratic world and to the global economy. Among other bad things, it would allow him to wield power ruthlessly in the service of his vindictive agenda, to weaken the NATO alliance on behalf of Russia, to arbitrarily impose tariffs on imports, and to impose horrific policies such as his plan to use the military to round up and deport millions of immigrants.
By taking his name off the ballot, Mr. Biden has made moot concerns about his physical fitness to run for re-election. Voters were justifiably worried after his disastrous debate performance against Mr. Trump last month; now they no longer have to factor that into their decision about whether to vote Democrat.
Mr. Biden, perhaps inadvertently but perhaps not, also helped his party by waiting to announce his decision after the Republican National Convention of last week. By doing so, he let the Republicans waste a lot of their fire at the convention on him, instead of on Ms. Harris or another Democratic nominee.
Mr. Biden has also made it inevitable that the Democratic candidate will be much younger than Mr. Trump, who at 78 is now officially the oldest presidential nominee in history. There was concern last week that one of the two candidates was too old for the job; that concern still exists this week but for Mr. Trump. Someone like Ms. Harris will be able to exploit that.
To avoid squandering Mr. Biden’s gift to them, the Democrats need to demonstrate a singular dedication to ensuring that Mr. Trump loses.
That will take unity. So far so good. An impressive number of high-ranking Democrats and governors, including some who could have vied for the nomination against Ms. Harris, are standing down and backing her. By Monday afternoon, more than half the delegates she needs to win the nomination had committed to her, according to the Associated Press.
The speed at which Ms. Harris is locking up support means the Democratic convention in August will likely end with a display of unity and produce a burst of interest in her heading into the fall.
The differences between the two candidates would be oceanic: an aging convicted criminal who boasts of overturning the federal right to an abortion, who was found liable for the sexual abuse of a woman, and who cozies up to dictators, against an accomplished woman who supports reproductive rights, who put criminals in jail when she served as a district attorney, and whose former boss, Mr. Biden, embodied respect for the rule of law and for American democracy.
Even then, however, nothing would be guaranteed, because the problem remains that voters’ concerns with Mr. Biden weren’t limited to his age.
The quandary the Democrats face is the same one faced by incumbent governments everywhere, Canada included: voters have seen their spending power drop, their housing become too expensive, and their faith in government go unrewarded.
Voters want change when times are hard, and when that desire for change takes hold in an electorate, it can develop a momentum that is difficult to stop.
But if support for her continues to grow rapidly, Ms. Harris can make the case for herself and her party, and the case against Mr. Trump, while being the only candidate unencumbered by questions about their fitness for office.
Last week, America’s future was murky. This week brings a note of optimism. Mr. Biden has done his part. The rest is in the hands of Ms. Harris and other Democrats.