Decency, duty will drive Biden’s decision on his future

By Brian Greenspun (contact)

Sunday, June 30, 2024 | 2 a.m.

There are just two dates to remember when discussing the concept of selfless patriotism.

The first is March 31, 1968. The other is June 27, 2024.

We all know about the June 27 date. That’s the night that the president of the United States, Joe Biden, tried to stand up to Donald Trump on the debate stage and, by all accounts, failed miserably.

I suppose many of us were expecting/hoping for a better performance (that’s what these debates have become, performances) from President Biden. After all, the man has fully proved his capabilities at home and abroad when it comes to running this country. So how hard could a debate be?

While there are many who claim he is too old to run again — he will be 86 at the end of his next term — there are just as many people who understand that even with the toll that the presidency takes on people half his age, Joe Biden can and does run circles of competence around the likes of Trump.

And that brings me to that other date. It was a time that few Americans alive today will remember — mostly because they weren’t here or if they were, they weren’t in a sufficiently cognitive state to recall.

That was the night that President Lyndon Baines Johnson announced to the world that he would not seek re-election to a second term as president. It was like an earthquake hit the land and shook up everything any of us knew about politics, the presidency, personal ambitions and, most importantly, personal character.

Even though Johnson had been singularly successful in helping to create a society based on fairness — think civil rights and voting rights, which started an undercurrent of resentment that continues to this day — there was an even greater turmoil boiling over in the land way back then.

The Vietnam War had cleaved the country in half. One side (the younger side) was vehemently anti-war and, therefore, antigovernment. They were against its institutions and their parents’ generation upon whom they placed full responsibility for the death and destruction that naturally came with the war.

On the other hand, there were many Americans who believed in God and country and were supportive, patriotic and measured in their reactions to what had become clear mistakes of policy surrounding the prosecution of that most unpopular war.

The issue wasn’t about age like some would claim it is today but it was about common sense, decency, patriotism and purpose. And President Johnson realized that his purpose and his patriotism were being put to the test.

That’s when he told the world and his fellow Americans the following:

“With America’s sons in the fields far away, with America’s future under challenge right here at home, with our hopes and the world’s hopes for peace in the balance every day ... I do not believe that I should devote an hour or a day of my time to any personal partisan causes or to any duties other than the awesome duties of this office — the presidency of your country.”

For a man who had enjoyed the kind of quality and quantity of success that Johnson did on behalf of the United States, stepping aside at the pinnacle of his power was a most difficult decision. And yet he made that decision because he knew it was best for the country he loved and the country to which he had dedicated so much of his adult life.

Joe Biden is an older man. He is not a fool. He is not blind to what he plainly sees in America’s heartland and he is not deaf to the cacophony of complaints that are driving his every waking moment about now. He knows he didn’t show up for the debate. And he knows he left more Americans wondering about his ability to carry on than existed before he took that debate stage.

And he also knows that the reason he ran for president in the first place four years ago was because he, like so many millions of other Americans, understood the clear and present danger that is Donald Trump. A danger that threatens the very existence of American democracy.

A poor night at the debates has changed none of that.

Trump is still a grave threat to our democracy no matter how much his MAGA minions delude themselves into believing it weren’t so. Trump can still look America in the eye and lie through his teeth — creating a new norm for aberrant American presidential behavior rather than set an example of honor and decency for younger generations both here and abroad to emulate.

And it may be that only Joe Biden, who beat Trump in 2020 and made the world a safer place, can be the guy to do it again — regardless of how well he performs on a debate stage.

But we live in more complicated times than did America in 1968. Sure, back then there were assassinations, marches without end and claims of police brutality that would not stop. And, like now, back then we had a president who appeared ready, willing and able to carry on for another term.

But in politics as in life, things change. Decisions have to be made. Even unpopular ones. Even the ones we can’t see coming.

This one is different. We should all be able to see this one coming. And just like President Johnson faced down his reality in 1968 and called it quits in the hopes that a new generation of leaders could pick up the cudgel and carry on so, too, must President Biden deal with a similar decision tree.

But that decision is his and his alone. He is fully capable of being our president and commander-in-chief even though debater-in-chief is no longer on the table.

I trust the patriot in Joe Biden. I trust the decency in Joe Biden. And I trust the determination of Joe Biden to do all that he can to rid this country of the scourge that is Donald Trump.

None of this could be said about that bum who shared the debate stage with Joe the other night.

And therein lies the difference.

Brian Greenspun is editor, publisher and owner of the Sun.