The Case for Gratitude That Joe Biden Stepped Down

Earlier this week Stephen F. Hayes of The Dispatch made a kind of Kantian moral argument that Biden doesn’t deserve much credit for resigning his place on the Democratic Party presidential ticket, because he didn’t do it for the right reasons. He had to be cajoled into doing so by fellow party elites and Democratic donors. All of this is true, but he should be praised anyway.

“You don’t get credit for doing the right thing if you’re forced to do the right thing.”@stephenfhayes on President Biden’s decision to withdraw: pic.twitter.com/4bWsTF09H0

— The Dispatch (@thedispatch) July 22, 2024

The presidency tends to select for god complexes. It selects for someone with hubris. It selects for people who seek the approval and confidence of tens of millions of people. And it selects for people who believe in themselves and their ability to wield great power. This is the reason why quiet, shy, unassuming presidents tend to be rare. Silent Cal is the exception that proves the rule.

It is enormously difficult to convince this kind of person to give up power. They feel called to it, entitled to it. Biden himself sought the Democratic nomination twice before he finally got it. And a theoretical third run in 2016 was aborted due to a combination of the tragic death of Biden’s eldest son Beau, and prodding from then President Obama, who favored his former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The fact that Biden was ultimately persuaded at all to give up the Democratic nomination is highly unusual. And coming off Trump, who refused, and continues to refuse, to acknowledge election results he does not like, who refused to give up power, even when the voters and institutions of America had deemed him unfit for future office, and who even fomented a putsch to hold onto power…Biden’s resignation from the ticket is even *more* significant.

Of course, Biden needed to be convinced to decline the Democratic party nomination. Of course he resisted the calls for resignation. It’s in the nature of the beast to do so. But he was moved to. And not by an election. He wasn’t forced by a vote of the people, he was willed out by the institution we call the Democratic Party.

Compare that to our other great political institution, the Republican Party. It is not controversial to say that it is now the Trump Party. He makes its policy, such as that is, he chooses its leaders, among whom he has placed his own family, and he commands the loyalty of its base of voters, who terrify Republican office holders with the threat of primaries. And nothing on heaven or earth could stop Trump from giving up that power. Trump’s grip on the GOP will continue until his dying days.

If you care about parties as strong institutions, and think they should play a more active part in politics, yesterday was a triumph. An oft repeated subject on The Remnant, a Dispatch podcast hosted by Hayes’ colleague @JonahDispatch, is how party weaknesses have given rise to so much of our current dysfunction. The answer to the question of “Why don’t we have better candidates to choose from?” is often “Because a winning primary candidate is a losing or inferior general election candidate.” But look, the organs of the Democratic Party got together, stood up and said “No, you’re not the guy.” The smoke filled rooms yet live.

In light of this unlikely turn of history, it seems to me Stephen Hayes’ position is too jaundiced. If we want good things to happen, we must show gratitude for them when they do happen, as often as we criticize and show disdain for bad things (which is all too easy). The problem with so much of our politics is that the incentives are bad, or lead to bad outcomes. You aren’t necessarily rewarded for doing the right thing. You’re rewarded for doubling down, or putting your head down, or hanging in there until some other scandal or breaking news story arrives to save you. But the right thing happened here. A party made a decision about what was right instead of a personality cult determining the result.

Would it have been better for Biden to step down earlier? Yes. Better if he’d never run for re-election? Yeah, that much is obvious now. Is this transition as graceful or honorable as we all might’ve hoped? Well, we’ll see, but probably not. But be grateful for what was achieved. A man swallowed his pride and stood down, and a party stood up to its nominee, leader, and sitting president. And before it was too late. Before the ballots were printed and votes were cast. Before we were irretrievably stuck with two candidates Hayes frequently described as, not just bad, but unfit. Hayes’ misgivings about Biden, and the manner in which he was forced out of the nomination, are not wrong per se. But we should nonetheless applaud these events. Applaud them, and applaud Biden. Incentivize the behavior you want to see, don’t just use them as another springboard to complain more about how it ought to be. Or, to use a tired aphorism, don’t make the perfect the enemy of the good.