If Joe Biden won’t pass the torch now, then when?

An 81-year-old president who once promised to be a ‘bridge’ to a new generation of Democrats, but who finds himself trailing a wildly authoritarian opponent, ought to have bowed out gracefully by now. As a new bout of Covid leaves him unable to campaign, Sean O’Grady says the patriotic and statesmanlike path is clear – make the right call, Mr President…

President Joe Biden has tested positive for Covid-19 (Reuters)

This is surely now the strangest presidential race in history.

It already features the two oldest candidates ever, neither at the peak of their powers, both prone to mixing stuff up. We’ve had bizarre interviews, a disastrous presidential debate, an assassination attempt – and now, as if the writers in this drama wanted to push the credulity of their audience a little further, one of them just got Covid.

At any time in any adult, Covid can be a nasty disease – but in an 81-year-old president of the United States, let us be clear, it could be rather more than that.

Enough already. The stakes are too high, for America and for the world, to view the prospect of a second term for Donald Trump with equanimity. Last time round, Trump was a disaster, but still restrained, a bit, by constitutional and human guardrails. He had cabinet members and staffers who would question him, ignore the madder stuff, and moderate the effects of his furies, at least until he fired them, which he did frequently.

As we saw on January 6th 2021, he had a vice president who would not break his oath of office just because Trump couldn’t stand losing an election. Next time round, God forbid, Trump will not only appoint slavishly loyal figures to the top jobs in government, but clear out much of the rest of the civil service and implant Maga fanatics whose only qualification to run the government of the United States is their cultish allegiance to Trump.

In JD Vance, he would have a vice president who, unlike Mike Pence, cheerfully admits he’d steal an election; and the Supreme Court, influenced by Trump-era appointees, has just granted the presidency blanket immunity from criminal prosecution for any executive actions. Trump has said he wants to be a dictator, and the system is presently preparing to make him a king. Seeing the role played by Lara and Eric Trump at the Republican convention, America could soon be in the hands of its first ruling dynasty.

Another stint in the White House wouldn’t just be a change of president, but the beginnings of an authoritarian revolution. By all democratic, peaceful means possible, it cannot be allowed to come to pass.

Obviously, Biden should step down from the race. More and more senior Democrats are saying so publicly and, which amounts to the same thing when we know about it, “privately”. Covid is not usually fatal even in the elderly, but the fact that the oldest president in history has got it reminds us of just how frail he is. He cannot run again on the basis that he is a temporary incumbent, a man whose undoubted qualities and abilities may not last the next four years – and even if they did, they will inevitably further fade in office.

Joe Biden is a good and honourable man, but this is not a respectful proposition to put to the American people. When Biden contracted Covid a couple of years ago, it caused concern, not a crisis. The fact that the reaction now is so different tells us all we need to know about the viability of a Biden candidacy.

We have reached the tipping point. The Democrats need to put country before party, and do it before the American people do it for them. They need a candidate who will beat Trump, and in whom the people can have confidence will last the course – which they cannot in the case of the 77-year-old Trump either.

Many would still prefer Biden to Trump whatever condition Joe happens to be in, but it’s simply wrong to make Americans choose these two old declining men. It’s not fair on Biden himself. As Biden himself said when he was running for the nomination in 2020, his job was to beat Trump and to be a “bridge” to a future generation of Democrats. He needs to fulfil that promise now.

After a lifetime of public service, this would be a fitting act of statesmanship and patriotism. The time has come to pass the torch.