Democrats are energized, with party leaders lining up to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris, and campaign cash is pouring in. But time is short, and they face an uphill battle.
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Explore values journalism About usMy fondest memory of Joe Biden comes from The Onion. For a time during Mr. Biden’s vice presidency, the satirical website cast him as the mortifying but lovable everyman in the White House. “Shirtless Biden Washes Trans Am In White House Driveway” was one classic.
But as with many things, The Onion perceived something deeper. Somewhere between gaffe-prone and refreshingly honest, the vice president was someone to whom we could all relate.
With his withdrawal from this year’s presidential race, the coming months will mark his coda in American politics – 50 years of service. It is not the way he might have wished. But as our editorial today beautifully states, Mr. Biden’s career has always been a study in success tempered by disappointment. His exit only underlines the humility he has gained along the way.
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Democrats are energized, with party leaders lining up to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris, and campaign cash is pouring in. But time is short, and they face an uphill battle.
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President Joe Biden described his reason for ending his reelection run as simply being in the “interest of my party and the country.” Among Democrats, concerns had mounted over his ability to win as well as his mental acuity. Yet his decision ultimately reflects a deeper reason, one based on Mr. Biden’s understanding of where power lies in a democracy.
“The American story,” he said in his 2021 inaugural address, “depends not on any one of us, not on some of us, but on all of us.”
“Let us listen to one another,” he urged. “Hear one another. See one another. Show respect to one another.”
Mr. Biden’s humility – the kind that both sees and seeks the good in others – won the day, as is often the case in democracies compared to autocracies. Mr. Biden’s withdrawal echoes the wise decision by President Lyndon Johnson to bow out of the 1968 race. Perhaps the greatest moment in U.S. history was George Washington’s decision not to seek a third term. As he told Americans in his farewell address, “The unity of government which constitutes you one people ... is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence.” His example also set a critical norm for the world in the peaceful transfer of power from one political party to another.
In a much newer democracy, that of postapartheid South Africa, a very popular President Nelson Mandela left office in 1999 with an appeal to his people not to demand his return. “Don’t call me,” he said. “I’ll call you.”
Humility, writes Christopher Beem, a political science professor at Penn State University, is an essential virtue of democracy – a disposition that yields to generosity for those with whom we disagree. “If we enter into the rough and tumble of politics knowing that none of us has a hammerlock on the truth,” he wrote in The Conversation, “we might be more likely to find it.”
Mr. Biden began his political career more than 50 years ago as the youngest member of the U.S. Senate. He sought the presidency multiple times until winning it in 2020. Looking back, perhaps the best line in his inaugural address was in asking Americans to “turn to the tasks of our time ... devoted to one another.” Out of devotion to a cause greater than himself, the 46th U.S. president has now taken his own sage advice.
Each weekday, the Monitor includes one clearly labeled religious article offering spiritual insight on contemporary issues, including the news. The publication – in its various forms – is produced for anyone who cares about the progress of the human endeavor around the world and seeks news reported with compassion, intelligence, and an essentially constructive lens. For many, that caring has religious roots. For many, it does not. The Monitor has always embraced both audiences. The Monitor is owned by a church – The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston – whose founder was concerned with both the state of the world and the quality of available news.
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We can look to Christ for the truth of our real nature as God’s children, and experience healing as a result.
Thank you for joining us today. Please come back tomorrow as we continue to look at the consequences of President Joe Biden pulling out of this autumn’s election. Among the stories we’re following: Did the Democrats just invalidate the choice of their primary voters? And as attention focuses on Vice President Kamala Harris, what more should voters know about her?