Biden Can’t Fight and Unite

Joe Biden should not be a candidate for president of the United States.

I write this not as a partisan strategist who wants to increase one party or the other’s chances of winning in November. Nor do I write this as an advocate for another candidate who I would prefer to see in office. My impression is that Vice President Harris would gain the Democrats some votes among young people and other progressives but cost them support among the Rust Belt working-class voters who elected Donald Trump in 2016. And it’s an open question whether there is a Democratic governor, Senator or cabinet member who would more effectively represent their party in the fall.

This is not about Biden’s diminished physical and emotional vigor. Over the last few weeks, the nation has been obsessed by a necessary but ghoulish effort to calculate the current health and future trajectory of our octogenarian leader. But it’s simply not possible to ascertain what Biden’s physical or mental state will be in four weeks, four months or four years.

Biden should not withdraw from the race because he had a singularly bad night on a debate stage last month or because of a more gradual decline that has visibly slowed and weakened him. He should step aside because of the political moment created by the attempted assassination of his opponent. 

Our politics has become increasingly polarized over the years and our society has become increasingly fractured. The nastiness and ugliness of the political discourse has empowered the extremes, eliminated the center and alienated Americans of all ideological stripes. When Biden ran in 2020, he decried these divisions and promised a return to normalcy. But whether you happen to blame the president or his antagonists, the fights have become even more confrontational and even more toxic over the last four years. 

But the attempt on Trump’s life seems to have struck a chord in the body politic and with the country’s voters in a way that other recent instances of political violence did not. In the hours after the shooting, Biden and Trump voiced similarly uplifting appeals for civility and peaceful disagreement. But in the days that followed, the sheer improbability of either party maintaining that tone throughout the closing weeks of a high-stakes presidential election has become clear.

Biden’s own media appearances have demonstrated the difficulty of balancing between high-minded unity and the practicalities of a competitive political campaign. The night before the shooting, Biden harshly attacked Trump before a partisan audience in the key swing state of Michigan. In an Oval Office address the following day, he called for the country to come together and rise above our differences. Then in a television interview on the first day of the Republican convention, he toggled between both messages and managed to undermine them both in the process.

Biden’s own media appearances have demonstrated the difficulty of balancing between high-minded unity and the practicalities of a competitive political campaign. 

This is not a criticism of Biden. No politician can simultaneously deliver these two contradictory messages and hope that either can effectively be heard. Fifty-plus years ago, another Democratic president faced a similar predicament. Lyndon Johnson was trying – and failing – to heal the country in the midst of wrenching social and cultural divisions at the same time that he was making his own case for reelection. Johnson recognized that he could not accomplish both goals at the same time and ended his reelection campaign so he could fully concentrate his efforts on the nation’s formidable challenges.

Johnson was unable to bring the country together by election day and he left office under a cloud. But over the decades he has received considerable recognition for his domestic policy achievements, to the point where observers used his Great Society as a standard against which to measure Biden’s work.

Biden should announce his retirement not from a position of weakness under pressure from supporters nervous about the fading skills of an elderly president. Rather, he can depart from a position of strength as a leader who put his country’s unity over his own political ambition. His selfless and admirable decision would be judged kindly by history.

Dan Schnur is the U.S. Politics Editor for the Jewish Journal. He teaches courses in politics, communications, and leadership at UC Berkeley, USC and Pepperdine. He hosts the monthly webinar “The Dan Schnur Political Report” for the Los Angeles World Affairs Council & Town Hall. Follow Dan’s work at www.danschnurpolitics.com.