Political heroism is typically framed in terms of the acquisition and retention of power. But the US has a long tradition of celebrating, even venerating, those who have voluntarily given up power to promote the general welfare.
President Joe Biden – who announced on Sunday that, in the interests of the party and the country, he is surrendering the Democratic presidential nomination, which he has earned in the primaries and fully controls – is the latest heir to that noble tradition.
From the founding of the Republic, stepping aside and knowing when to say goodbye has been the quintessence of American political virtue.
Towards the end of the American rebellion, King George III reportedly asked a royal artist who was painting him what George Washington would do if the colonists achieved independence. The artist, a subject from the American colonies, replied that, upon victory, Washington would probably retire to a private situation. His Majesty replied: “If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world.”
On December 23, 1783, Washington did just that. He resigned his commission to the Continental Congress and returned to his plantation (and slaves) at Mount Vernon.
He repeated this gesture in 1796, when he declined to run for president a third time, establishing the two-term, eight-year, norm that was later written into the Constitution. In 1800, his successor, John Adams, fully routinised and normalised the peaceful transfer of power by accepting his defeat at the hands of Thomas Jefferson and stepping aside.
These ethic-establishing acts drew heavily on the almost-entirely classical education of the American founders, with Roman general Cincinnatus (who, legend holds, gave up power to return to his farm) regarded as one of the greatest exemplars of political virtue.
Mr Biden’s genuinely grand gesture of stepping back from power resonates with many aspects of the founding and central tropes of American politics and civic religion. Both Mr Biden and the Democrats have salvaged their reputations, and even carved out a monumental set of distinctions with former US president and convicted felon Donald Trump and his cult-like Republican Party.
It will be said that Mr Biden was hounded off the ticket by Democratic elites, but that’s false. Many party leaders told him bluntly that he probably couldn’t win and might even do damage to Democratic chances for the House and Senate. Still, they could do nothing but try to convince him to go willingly.
Not easy. The President had earned his delegates through the primaries, and he was not going to simply relinquish them because other people at that moment thought he should.
If he cared only about himself, Mr Biden would have remained the Democratic nominee. Instead, he was rationally convinced by his friends, and possibly family, that no matter how painful stepping aside might be, it was essential to maximise the chances of beating Mr Trump in November.
They might as well have asked him to chop off his left hand with a dull and rusty cleaver.
For a scrappy fighter like Mr Biden, who has been counted out throughout his career only to bounce back with unexpected potency – eventually leading to a historically significant first presidential term – stepping aside is anathema. But his intermittent frailty is deteriorating too quickly and publicly to sustain electoral viability at this exceptional, historically significant political crossroads.
It’s extremely unlikely that Mr Biden was mainly seeking to proactively defend his own legacy and reputation, although that would be a typical argument for embracing acts of courageous political virtue. It’s much more likely that he primarily responded to patriotism and arguments that the last, best and most imperative opportunity to defeat Mr Trump and everything he represents cannot be the subject of an experiment regarding ageing during presidential campaigns.
Over the past few weeks, Mr Biden was no doubt reassuring himself that, of course, there was no reason to think he was going to lose badly to Mr Trump. The Democrats had many advantages. He been written off before and generally bounced back. Stepping down went against everything else he believes in, but polling and anecdotal data ultimately painted a grim enough picture that he was willing to swallow his pride, ambitions, ego, hopes and dreams in the national interest.
What a staggering contrast to Mr Trump. Rather than accepting his decisive defeat in the superbly run and entirely clean 2020 election, he sought by numerous extra-constitutional and allegedly unlawful schemes to overturn the result. When none of that worked, he incited and unleashed an angry, violent mob on the Capitol building in an effort to stop ratification of the election results and intimidate members of Congress and, especially, the vice president.
Mr Biden’s position starkly contrasts with Mr Trump’s remarks to his then-chief of staff, Gen John Kelly, that fallen US soldiers were “suckers and losers”. “I don’t understand it,” he reportedly muttered, shaking his head, “what was in it for them?”
Similarly, the Democratic Party has, after a few alarming weeks, re-established itself as firmly rooted in objective reality and disinclined, ultimately, to attempt a colossal gaslighting campaign to obscure and deny the established and objectively verified flaws of their candidate.
In short, Mr Biden did what Mr Trump never would: put others – the party and country – above his own interests. And the Democratic Party did what the Republican Party has organised itself to passionately avoid and reject: acknowledge the flaws of their beloved presumptive nominee, prevail upon him to act with the utmost selflessness and not run for president, and just tell the truth.
Whoever the Democrats nominate, this election will be about more than traditional American democracy versus populist illiberalism. It will also be between a politics based on the real world versus last week’s Republican national convention.
Far beyond the most extreme precedent, the RNC was steeped in phoniness, humbug and an undisguised, unabashed spectacle of simulacra – including a “professional wrestler” pretending in detail to be a champion of legitimate sporting contests.
Mr Biden overwhelmingly won the Democratic primaries. The nomination legitimately belongs to him. But he’s stepping aside because it’s the right thing to do. That is among the most noble and patriotic acts in American history.
Mr Biden will be remembered as a truly great president and great American.
