Want Biden to Withdraw? Speak Up Loudly. And Now.

I asked a friend whether he watched the debate. No, he said, he went to Chicago that night to see a Rolling Stones concert. The Rolling Stones are on a 16-city tour through the U.S. and Canada.

Mick Jagger will be 81 this month.

At 82, Nancy Pelosi defied huge odds by steering a narrowly divided House into passage of the most consequential package of legislative action since the Medicare and civil rights legislation of the 1960s and environmental protection programs of the 1970s.

In his 80s, Mitch McConnell packed the courts with right wing judges and gave the political right a super majority on the Supreme Court.

Age Isn’t the Issue With Biden

Age isn’t the issue with Joe Biden. I say that in my own defense and on behalf of my fellow octogenarians, many of whom are leading reasonably active and productive lives. I’ve published three books in my 80s and I’m well into writing a fourth. I’ve had little trouble writing these opinion columns on a regular basis. Until now. This one.

Why is this so difficult? Because for me, like many of you who will read this, the political road ahead seems treacherous and options for avoiding the worst are so constrained.

The Debate's Impact on Biden's Chances

Fifty million people who watched the debate will not unsee or unhear the Joe Biden who showed up for it, no matter all the post-debate spin of bad cold, bad night. Some 72% of respondents told CBS pollsters they believe Biden doesn’t have the mental or cognitive fitness to be president before the debate. His performance just served to validate that belief.

But to be the recipient of votes from those concerned about Biden’s mental health, Trump had to veer to something close to normal. Instead, he filled his debate time with dozens of obvious lies and grievances and refused to unequivocally agree to concede if he lost the election.

Not a winning argument for someone facing felony charges for provoking January 6 violence to overturn the 2020 election. Or running this year on a platform that would gut the nation’s system of justice, turn the impartial civil service into an army of his political lackeys, and side with Putin rather than our democratic European allies. (“Let Putin do anything the hell he wants”).

Faced with this choice, post-debate polls tell us that the majority of Americans would vote “no” for president if that were an option. 

Participants in every presidential election during my voting years have claimed that THIS election is the most consequential ever. Well, other than those that brought Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt to the White House, 2024’s presidential election likely is. 

There’s still time to salvage it and provide a reasonably strong path for giving voters what they want, another option. But that option needs to be exercised by a Joe Biden who at this writing refuses to acknowledge the problem. So what’s to be done?

The Urgency for Voter Action

Logically, a united front of elected Democratic leaders and campaign funders would encourage Biden to withdraw. But telling truth to power isn’t easy. We’ve seen that on the Republican side where even those members of Congress whose lives Trump endangered January 6 haven’t had the backbone to confront him. Not only do Republican leaders fear Trump’s retribution, they fear his so-called “base,” of voting loyalists.

For the Democrats, the loyal base would not punish its leadership for urging Biden to withdraw, they would welcome it. And that’s likely the key to the solution, tens of millions of rank-and-file voters deluging their members of Congress and candidates with urgent requests to change the top of the ticket. 

Pressure from Republican voters is keeping Trump afloat. Enough pressure from Democratic voters, not just in polls but with real action, might be the only way to change Biden’s decision to remain on top. Do you want him to make that change? Let your Democratic party leaders, governor, senators, members of Congress, and other candidates hear from you. Loudly. And now.

Comments? Criticism? Contact Joe Rothstein at jrothstein@rothstein.net