Let me add my words of gratitude to Joe Biden for doing something Donald Trump is incapable of doing — putting his country over ego, ambition, and pride.
Biden bowed out with grace and dignity.
It would have been better had he done so three weeks ago, after the debate revealed him to be much frailer and weaker than most of America had assumed. Or better yet, had he not sought a second term to begin with.
But ultimately, Biden made the right decision.
Presidents don’t want to bow out. Both Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson had to be shoved out of office. After his affair with Monica Lewinsky became a late-night joke, and he was impeached in the House and on the verge of impeachment in the Senate, Bill refused to go.
Joe Biden was not forced out. He did nothing wrong. His problem is that he’s old and is losing some of the capacities that dwindle with old age.
Even among people who are not president, old age inevitably triggers denial. How many elderly people do you know who accept that they can’t do the things they used to do, or think they should be able to do? How many willingly give up the keys to their car?
So it’s not surprising that he resisted. Yet Joe Biden cares about this country and is aware of the damage a second Trump administration could do to America. So his patriotism and his good sense won out over any denial or wounded pride or false sense of infallibility or paranoia.
Trump is nothing but denial, pride, conceit, and paranoia. Trump could never have pulled off what Joe Biden did today.
Tomorrow I want to talk about where we go from here. Today, I simply want to express my gratitude.
Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/.
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