Putting country first

Joe Biden didn’t come to his decision to abandon his bid for re-election as President of the United States easily. It took considerable soul-searching and a gentle shove from members of his own party. Yet, in the end, after assessing his prospects, Joe Biden opted to put the interests of the country first and allow the Democrats to select a new nominee, which as of this week appears almost certain to be Vice President Kamala Harris.
Joe Biden has presided over a remarkably successful administration, that passed more major legislation in his four years than any president in decades. If present trends continue, Biden will have overseen the creation of nearly three times as many jobs as former president Trump, and that’s before COVID wiped out all of the jobs created during the Trump years.
The U.S. has seen faster economic growth and lower unemployment across the board than under the previous administration. The U.S. is even producing more oil and gas than at any time in history. Biden, to no surprise, was eager to run on his record and under different circumstances, he likely would have won a second term.
Joe Biden has overcome much in his life, from a childhood stutter to the tragic death of his first wife and daughter, and the later loss of his beloved son Beau, but he couldn’t overcome the relentlessness of time and the inevitability of aging. And his increasingly apparent lapses had threatened to hand the White House back to the only president in America’s history who sought to overturn a free and fair election through illegal means.
Being president is challenging enough for an elderly man. But the rigors of running a presidential campaign, particularly one as critical to our nation’s future as the one we face this year, were simply too much. In the end, Biden made the right decision for his family, his legacy, his party, and the country.
In this election, the alternative to the eventual Democratic nominee is unthinkable. But don’t take our word for it. Dozens of Trump’s former White House staff, former Cabinet members, and even his former Vice President, say that Donald Trump is not fit to serve. These are conservatives all, who witnessed firsthand Trump’s unhinged demeanor, his cruelty, his lack of principle, and his ignorance of our own history and they recognize that another four years could be disastrous.
To understand the mind of Donald Trump, just consider his comment this past Sunday, moments after Biden announced he was abandoning his candidacy.
“Crooked Joe Biden was not fit to run for President, and is certainly not fit to serve — And never was!” Trump posted.
Never mind the falsity of Trump’s statement, since Biden has always been more qualified than Trump to serve as president. If ever there was a time for graciousness, this was it. In announcing his decision, Joe Biden was engaged in a very human moment, acknowledging his vulnerability as an elderly man and the reality that his time on the stage was soon coming to an end. Just days earlier, Trump had claimed he wanted to unify the country, and this was the perfect opportunity to demonstrate that with words that set aside the cudgel of the campaign and, as a 78-year-old man, showed a little humility, perhaps even some decency.
A man who was truly interested in unifying the country would have used words designed to summon our better angels. He would have thanked Joe Biden for his years in public service and offered empathy for the losses he has suffered in his family life. He would have wished him well in his coming retirement. Instead, without any evidence whatsoever, he called him a “crook.”
Yet his words no longer shock our collective conscience because we have grown used to Donald Trump’s desperate need to belittle others. Donald Trump has so debased our politics that we’ve come to believe that our politics has always been this way— that every politician puts only themselves first, without regard for the country or its future. That every politician is as mendacious as Donald Trump.
Thankfully for America that has never been true and it isn’t true today. Sometimes, politicians stand up and do the right thing. Mike Pence did that on Jan. 6, 2021. And Joe Biden did that this past Sunday. They put country before self. That’s something Donald Trump will never understand.