Biden is a patriot. He should do the patriotic thing, and step aside

There was one true patriot on the stage Thursday night, and it wasn’t Donald Trump. Reprising his 2016 inaugural address, where he warned of an “American carnage,” Trump painted the country in relentlessly dark and gloomy colors.

We are weak, scared, and angry. We are threatened by evil forces, within and without. We are, Trump said repeatedly, a “third-world nation.”

President Joe Biden wasn’t having it. “We are the most admired country in the world,” Biden replied. “We are the United States of America. There’s nothing beyond our capacity.”

He’s right. But as anyone who watched the debate could see, Biden’s own capacities seem greatly diminished. The most patriotic thing he could do right now is withdraw from the race.

I say that with an enormously heavy heart. Biden steadied America after the last election, which Trump attempted to overthrow. The country faced a huge stress test, and Joe Biden helped us pass it.

But now we’re facing a second test, and Biden doesn’t appear to be up to it. Yes, he has looked and sounded more fit in recent interviews, but to many Americans that won’t matter. When millions of voters were watching him last night, he seemed like a very old man who has no business running for office again.

At no point in Thursday’s debate did Biden state directly that Trump had sought to overturn the last election. And Trump would do that again, of course, if the vote goes against him. Trump evaded the question of whether he’d accept defeat in 2024, which means just one thing: he won’t.

We survived that debacle four years ago, thanks to the steady hand of Joe Biden. But that hand — indeed, Biden’s entire being — looks like it has grown much shakier since then, as we all saw on Thursday night. So this time, we need someone else at the helm.

And I don’t care who it is. Kamala Harris? Gretchen Whitmer? Gavin Newsom? Pennsylvania’s own Josh Shapiro? Take your pick. All that matters is defeating Trump, and — most of all — preserving the republic when he tries to overthrow it again. And he will.

All of Trump’s lies, fantasies, and conspiracy theories were on rich display during the debate.

Rioters on Jan. 6, 2021 were ushered into the Capitol by police. (They weren’t.) Nancy Pelosi was offered National Guard troops to contain the riot, and she refused them. (She didn’t.) Trump had “the best environmental numbers ever.” And so on.

The best. The greatest. We’re used to that, of course. Trump was just being Trump: bombastic, hyperbolic, and completely self-centered. It’s always — always — about him.

When the moderators asked him about the opioid crisis, Trump said “we were getting very low numbers” before “the COVID came along.” That too, was a lie — overdose deaths were at a record high before COVID, and kept rising after it — but it was also right on brand.

Trump even went on to brag about his administration’s “great equipment” for detecting smuggled drugs, and a “certain dog” that did the same. “That’s the most incredible thing you’ve ever seen, the way they can spot it.”

It’s not about the millions of Americans who have suffered from opioids. It’s about Donald Trump: his numbers, his equipment, even his dog. (And Trump hates dogs.)

Joe Biden, by contrast, is an empathetic human being. He suffered the deaths of his first wife, their daughter, and his son Beau. And he has watched his other son, Hunter, descend into addiction. He knows first-hand about the deep pain that life can bring. And he feels for other people who experience it.

A little of that, but not much, came through during the debate. Biden spoke about the struggles of Americans who can’t afford child care. And when Trump was asked about the subject, he simply ignored it and — yes — turned the question back to himself. “I will be the best,” he said.

But here’s the point: Biden didn’t call him out on that, or insist that Trump say what he’d actually do to help needy families. Nor did Biden have any riposte when Trump flayed him for not firing enough people. A more agile Biden would have said: I actually care about the people who work for me. I don’t fire them; I try to make them better.

Joe Biden has made all of us better, through his service and his example. Now we need one more favor from him.

Joe Biden has made all of us better, through his service and his example. Now we need one more favor from him, and the hardest one of all: to step aside, and let someone else run in his place. Safe travels, Mr. President. And thanks — for everything.

Jonathan Zimmerman teaches education and history at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of “Free Speech and Why You Should Give a Damn” (with illustrations by cartoonist Signe Wilkinson) and eight other books.