Biden and Trump Have Delighted Us Long Enough

Knowing When It's Time to Go.

You have delighted us long enough.

―Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

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President Reagan famously mused that his skills as an actor were vital to his effectiveness as president.

Among the elements: knowing when it’s time to go.

When a performance is going well, when the audience is applauding and calling you back for encores, it may be tempting to remain on stage. Yet, there’s a moment when one’s trained instinct should kick in.

Ideally one should leave the stage at the top of one’s powers, at the moment when one’s primary contribution is complete.

This is something most everyone knows in theory—or recognizes in others. Yet, in practice, it is often difficult for individuals to discern the moment when they should go.

Missing the Moment

That difficulty is particularly pronounced among those holding high office.

Sometimes understandably, other times not so much, they may be persuaded that their continued presence is indispensable.

History shows that overlong periods in the cockpit can render the hardiest pilot liable to succumb to exhaustion or impaired judgment.

Think of Margaret Thatcher: After a decade she lost her connection with the public and the allegiance of her cabinet. Had she departed shortly following the fall of the Berlin Wall, with the British economy and society transformed, her history—and that of her nation—might have been the better for it.

Think, too, of Tony Blair in his latter years as prime minister. Or Winston Churchill in his final term as premier, 1951-55.

Think of Helmut Kohl. He helmed Germany through its successful and theretofore unlikely triumph, reunifying his nation at the close of the Cold War. Yet that would be blemished by his insistence on remaining in office. His administration fell prey to self-indulgence, pettiness, and corruption.

Even Charles De Gaulle, student of history and master of purposeful departures and returns, lost his sure footing amid the tumult of 1968.

Biden and Trump Have Delighted Us Long Enough

President Biden and his immediate predecessor, President Trump, are casting about for their rusty scabbards. Each indicates he will seek the presidency in 2024.

This is one sequel that should be killed off before it goes further.

The polls show it. We all know it: Biden and Trump have delighted us long enough.

As Oliver Cromwell declared in dissolving Parliament in 1653:

You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately ... In the name of God, go!

Biden and Trump—and their dwindling bands of diehard supporters—rationalize their continued service based on their dread of the catastrophe ensuing from the victory of the other.

Everyone needs to widen the aperture. Think not of Biden and Trump. Think not of Democrats and Republicans, or left and right.

Think about America.

The fact that such an admonition will strike some as sanctimonious emphasizes how far off-course we’ve drifted.

Why They Must Go

Biden and Trump are entering octogenarian status.

That, in itself, need not be a problem. But, for each of them, it plainly is.

Taken together, the problem is acute. In the operation of our partisan duopoly, these two individuals are blocking new talent, new ideas, new perspectives, new energy.

If we were in the second half of the nineteenth century, this might not be consequential. From the assassination of Lincoln in 1865 until the unanticipated accession of Theodore Roosevelt in 1901, the United States endured a long gray line of mediocrities in what was then known as the Executive Mansion. Some are memorable mainly for their period-piece beards and moustaches.

Our circumstances are entirely different. The United States is the most powerful nation on earth, arguably in history. Our elective officials, most especially our presidents, can have consequential effects across space and time.

We are at a hinge moment. Who’s president, what they do and say, matters.

Biden and Trump are yesterday’s men. Like punch-drunk pugilists, each stands only by clinching the other.

Neither is attuned to the future struggling to be born.

That is more than enough reason for they—and us—to move on.

But wait! In the immortal words of the late Ron Popeil, There’s more!

Biden and Trump are subject to ongoing investigations. Each faces prospective civil and criminal liability. Their families are vulnerable to if not compromised by related matters.

Biden and Trump each face serious questions about links to corrupt dealing relating to Ukraine and China.

These would be troublesome matters at any time. At a time when the world is grappling with challenges relating to those nations, it poses a grave threat to American international leadership and security.

For many years, in the words of Daniel Patrick Moynihan, we have been defining deviancy down.

This should be the moment when that decline, as reflected in presidential politics, is brought to an end.

Presidential Farewells

Nothing in his life became him, like the leaving it.

—William Shakespeare, Macbeth

As in so many things, our first president set an example of enduring relevance.

Washington’s Farewell Address endures as the model of its genre.

Assisted and influenced by extraordinary intellects including Alexander Hamilton and the young John Quincy Adams, Washington took care to speak to the American people and the world, of his time and for all time.

Subsequent presidents have followed his lead. Among the most notable is Dwight Eisenhower’s prescient and poignant speech, from his last week in office, warning of an emerging “military-industrial complex.”

90 Seconds to Midnight

Should they initiate their departure from the stage, Biden and Trump could reach for the respect that George Washington earned from relinquishing power.

Our first chief executive not only decided to forego a third presidential term. He previously resigned his commission following the American Revolution, declining the grant of untrammeled power that was his for the taking.

When the artist Benjamin West told King George III of General Washington’s decision, the monarch declared: "If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world."

Biden and Trump have a comparable, historic opportunity.

If President Biden were to declare his intention to leave office following his term, he could lay claim to a series of accomplishments valued by his supporters, including: defeating President Trump; repairing international alliances; responding to the rise of China; and working with Congress to address climate disruption in the Inflation Reduction Act.

Likewise, President Trump could depart the scene, pointing to a series of accomplishments valued by his supporters, including: breaking the undue influence of the Bush and Clinton political operations; resetting the United States-China relationship; unleashing economic growth; dramatically curtailing illegal immigration; and changing the composition of the Supreme Court, yielding the Dobbs decision, overturning Roe v. Wade.

The moment is propitious, indeed urgent.

The continued devastation wrought by the Russian invasion of Ukraine poses a threat not only to Europe, but to the global order established in the aftermath of the Second World War. The United States is edging, in fits and starts, toward a great power, high-intensity conflict with Russia.

Many agree with the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, that the world is at a moment of great, arguably unprecedented danger. The risk of nuclear conflagration has risen with public threats issued from Russian sources.

In a better world, one might hope that Presidents Biden and Trump would place their enmities aside. They could jointly withdraw from the upcoming election, seeking to unite the nation in a moment of peril.

This appears highly unlikely.

Nonetheless, the sitting president has the capacity to change the weather on his own.

With two years remaining in his term, Biden could commit to dedicating every hour, every day toward an honorable, enduring resolution of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Presidents are granted great latitude in international relations. This is one reason why second-term, lame-duck presidents often turn their attention abroad.

The gravity of our current circumstances also points to the need for President Biden to attend to the home front. He should work with Congress to establish war aims, to enable oversight, and to expedite and rationalize execution of strategy.

A Credible Succession Plan

In not seeking reelection, President Biden could also attend to a major vulnerability of his own making: placing Vice President Harris in the line of succession.

To put it gently, Harris’ performance has been disappointing.

Should Biden exit the field in early 2023, he could provide space for new figures to emerge in the runup to the 2024 election.

The currently lackluster Democratic field might expand overnight. New, promising figures might rise, such as Governor Whitmer of Michigan, Governor Shapiro of Pennsylvania, and Governor Moore of Maryland.

Biden’s departure might also doom Trump’s remaining hopes for returning to the presidency.

Trump would remain in the ring alone. He would be recognized as a forlorn figure, shadow boxing with apparitions arising from his imagination.

Moral Authority

During the 1932 campaign, Franklin Roosevelt observed:

The Presidency is not merely an administrative office. That’s the least of it. It is more than an engineering job, efficient or inefficient. It is pre-eminently a place of moral leadership.

Such sentiments can sound forced to our jaded ears. Given the failures of our political system in recent decades, that may be understandable.

President Biden has an opportunity to exert historic, moral leadership, setting aside his personal preferences for the greater good.

Or, in the down-to-earth words of Mark Twain:

Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.

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Image credits: Washington's Farewell Address, September 19, 1796, Public Domain via Wikipedia, United States Library of Congress; Farewell address by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, January 17, 1961; Final TV Talk 1/17/61 (1), Box 38, Speech Series, Papers of Dwight D. Eisenhower as President, 1953-61, Eisenhower Library; National Archives and Records Administration; Press Announcement, “A time of unprecedented danger: It is 90 seconds to midnight,” 2023 Doomsday Clock Statement, Science and Security Board
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Editor, John Mecklin, January 24, 2023.