Should Joe Biden Step Down?

Spoiler: I don't know. But this has been a very bad week.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Readers, I have to tell you, I am very, very stressed and anxious about the upcoming election — and much more stressed and anxious since the absolute atrocity of a debate last week, followed by one of the most dangerous democracy-compromising Supreme Court decisions in modern history. I think Joe Biden was a good pick for the Democratic presidential nominee in 2020, even though he was far from my top choice. But he is a very, very bad pick in 2024. I think he can still do the job as president. I think he has been, overall, an excellent president who really has delivered for Americans. But I am not sure he can do the job of campaigning. And “he’s done a great job” is not the same as certainty that he will be capable of doing the job of president for the next four years. I believe he is a capable-enough president today. I have deep, deep doubts about whether that will remain true in a year or two or three.

I am also not joking when I say that the Democratic Party could Weekend at Bernies the president and I would vote for his propped-up formaldehyded corpse over Donald Trump, and encourage everyone else to do the same.

But that’s not really the election we deserve, is it? And so I am irate that we’re at this point — that Biden chose to run again, and that everyone around him (all of whom have professional, personal, and financial incentives for him to stay in power) encouraged it. I’m livid that there was no backup plan, and so little effort to groom Kamala Harris (or literally anyone else) as an obvious successor, when every single person on Biden’s team can surely count to 86, the age he’ll be if (big if) he finishes out a second term.

I don’t think Biden should be in this race. I also worry that it will be an even bigger disaster if he drops out.