There was something novelistic about the Supreme Court rolling out one alarming decision after another on Friday morning, all driven by the Trump majority — diminishing the sway of federal regulators in areas like the environment and public health one moment, and then undermining the ability of the government to charge the lunatics in the Jan. 6 insurrection in another.
This after one of the most stunning nights in modern political history, when it seemed that a scammer and his elderly victim came face to face in a debate that was embarrassing for this whole nation. Donald Trump, smirking, sneering, lying, walked out with every one of Joe Biden’s account numbers, and Biden can’t explain how it happened.
I’ll confess that my initial sympathy for Biden as he searched for thoughts that he couldn’t find while mumbling things that weren’t actually relevant, quickly turned into flat-out fury. This debate was his idea. He had weeks to prepare to do exactly one job. All he had to do, the one and only thing that he needed to achieve, was to show some level of command.
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There is no shame in getting old. Age comes for everyone fortunate enough to achieve it, often in different ways. And it’s been said countless times since the merciful end of last night’s debate that Biden is a good man, even a good president, who deserves credit for navigating this country through a uniquely tumultuous time with a uniquely old-world sense of empathy.
There is, though, shame, in not knowing when to leave. There is shame in the hubris of believing that you are indispensable, in the way that Ruth Bader Ginsburg did. Which is really where the fury comes in. How dare that Joe Biden, that Jill Biden, that all the people around them clinging to the intoxicating power of the White House, believe that he, that they, are the only thing standing between this nation and the destruction of our democratic system. In that isn’t shame, but disgrace.
This administration has had months, years, to plan a succession. They had all this time to convince the president himself that the most patriotic act that he could commit at the end of his distinguished career is knowing exactly when that distinguished career should end. To know when it’s time to leave is in many ways to enforce the virtues of the job he did for his entire first term.
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As an aside, the administration’s criticisms of The New York Times and, more recently, The Wall Street Journal, for focusing on Biden’s age and capacity is reprehensible, little better than Trump’s moronic exhortations of fake news.
The man that we saw on Thursday night is simply not capable of being the president for another four years. We might, in fact, be fortunate to get another four months. Again, that is not a shot at him. He is, in fact, an 81-year-old man. The shot at him is having the vanity to believe that he alone can stop a second Trump term, which will be exponentially more chaotic and destructive than the first.
Millions of words have been written already on how Biden must step aside. Yes. Maybe it’s his own clarifying realization after Thursday night’s catastrophe that he is no longer capable of facing adversaries and adversarial situations — a must in this current world. Maybe his wife will help him get there. Many analysts have said that the duo of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama need to prevail on Biden to step aside. Maybe, but Biden’s relationship with the latter, while episodically strong, has forever been tortured.
Who’s next? It doesn’t matter — Gavin Newsom, Gina Raimondo, Gretchen Whitmer, J.B. Pritzker, Kamala Harris, even Joe Manchin. Any of them has a better chance of defeating Trump than Joe Biden, and all of them can bring more clarity to the years ahead.
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First, Biden has to make the dignified announcement that he’s decided the best course of action for himself, his party, and his country is to decline the nomination. It will be complicated. But he must do it, then let the delegates and party leaders figure it out. Two months of chaos will be far more palatable than four years of revenge.
Again, there’s no shame in growing old. In fact, for the luckiest among us, there is wisdom and grace. Joe Biden, one more time, must find the wisdom and the grace to serve his country well.
Brian McGrory is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at brian.mcgrory@globe.com.
