By Rich Lowry
Monday,
January 08, 2024
Joe
Biden went to Valley Forge on Friday to tell us how much he cares about
defending democracy against the threat represented by Donald Trump.
How
much does President Biden care? Enough to give a speech defending democracy,
one of what’s sure to be many if Trump is his opponent.
Biden’s
alarm about the precariousness of the American system, though, will never
translate into actions he wouldn’t otherwise want to take.
To
wit, if Joe Biden were, as a matter of principle, devoted to defending
democracy at all costs, obviously the first thing he would do would be to step
aside for some younger, more capable, less radioactive Democrat with a much
better chance of beating Trump.
Biden
taking this step would be a politically electric moment, underlying how
seriously he takes Trump’s challenge to the republic and perhaps proving to
some skeptics that his rhetoric about defending democracy is more than simply
rhetoric.
Biden
made much in his hackneyed speech — it probably could have been written by a
precocious eighth grader in an AP government class — of a painting in the U.S.
Capitol of George Washington resigning his commission.
Biden
correctly calls it a sublime act, because Washington, who could have been
tempted to leverage his position after the Revolution for personal and
political gain, gives up power in the service of his ideals instead.
Biden
makes the contrast between the statesmanship depicted in the painting and
January 6, which is fair enough.
It
probably doesn’t even occur to him, though, that if a supremely talented
military and political leader in his prime could step aside for the good of the
whole, it should be much easier for a hack politician who is increasingly
rickety and unpopular to make a selfless sacrifice for his party and, as he
sees it, his country.
No?
No. Of course, not.
Biden’s
defense of democracy has to end with him in the White House again, not some
other Democrat who might vanquish Trump easily. (Granted, Kamala Harris would
complicate a Biden-stepping-aside scenario, but if the republic is at risk,
perhaps Democrats could be also honest about how dreadful Harris is and
nominate someone else — although now we are really entering the realm of
fantasy.)
Okay,
so Biden isn’t voluntarily going anywhere. But if the stakes this November are
so world-historical, surely the defense of democracy should include some
moderation on progressive causes that are easy political targets for Trump?
Consider
the chaos at the border, which, if Trump makes it back to the White House, will
be one of the major reasons.
Would
saving the republic make it worth going beyond whatever border deal might be in
the offing with congressional Republicans and admitting that the Trump policies
worked and should be restored immediately? Or is allowing millions of illegal
immigrants into the country more important than increasing the odds that
democracy itself survives beyond 2024?
Finally,
if substantive concessions are too painful, there’s always the possibility of
staking out some genuinely new ground in the democracy debate itself. Imagine
if Biden said that democracy is so important that no one should be striking his
probable opponent from the ballot. Or if he said he now realizes that he, too,
let down the constitutional order by undertaking executive orders that exceeded
his authority and that, on second thought, he needs to lead by example in
complete faithfulness to the system.
Would
that kill him? Evidently, yes.
Biden’s
position is that democracy is under such a threat that he — the man with
abysmal approval ratings who most Americans believe can’t possibly serve a
second term — needs to run again to eke out a narrow, no-margin-for-error
victory against the man who embodies the threat.
Faith
in our system of government, patriotism itself, supposedly demands nothing
else. And if Biden flubs it, which is a real possibility? Then, I guess it’s,
“Oh, well, democracy can always be saved again in the 2026 midterms.”
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