Leading Democrats need to go to the White House to ask Biden and Harris to step aside

Playtime is over. We have to put the toys away and have the adults in the room re-exert their authority.

It’s one thing when the issues of the day are identity politics; “green” energy; organized looting; cashless bail; Trump’s legal exposure; political corruption; or who’s really in charge of the border, when having a president and vice president in power who even countless Democrats no longer have faith in. It’s quite another when the world is teetering on the edge of massive violent conflict or outright nuclear war and that leadership looks demonstrably lost and feeble. 

The barbaric attack by Hamas upon men, women and children in Israel, coupled with the war in Ukraine inching us ever closer to a nuclear conflict, should serve as stark reminders that real and resolute leadership does matter and is needed before it is too late. 

Unfortunately, history reminds us that it is not uncommon for presidents — or vice presidents — to find themselves in untenable or overwhelming positions in which they can no longer cope or effectively govern. They often can’t see the proper course forward because they are either standing too close to the problem or are shielded from the negative fallout by overprotective aides or a partisan media. 

Such a case came during the summer of 1974. It was becoming obvious to all that the Watergate break-in and the subsequent widespread coverup had politically and legally ensnared President Richard Nixon in a trap from which there was no viable escape.

A growing number of senior Republicans feared Nixon was too isolated from reality, and quite possibly misinformed by aides, to rationally ascertain his dire predicament. For those reasons, and others, a few decided that an intervention at the White House was urgently needed.

With those credible concerns in mind, on August 7, 1974, Sen. Barry Goldwater, House Minority Leader John Rhodes and Senate Minority Leader Hugh Scott traveled to the White House to make it clear to Nixon that he faced all-but-certain impeachment, conviction and removal from office.

The next night, Nixon announced his resignation to the nation, effective noon on August 9, 1974.

It can be argued that the domestic political turmoil the nation was enduring during the summer of 1974 pales in comparison to the growing divisiveness, escalating chaos and anarchy engulfing our country today — coupled with wars in Israel and Ukraine that could ensnare hundreds of millions around the world in a flash of the unthinkable.

Knowing that, it can also be stated that the time has now come for the Democratic National Committee, senior Democratic members of Congress and the Democratic powerbrokers behind the scenes to march to the White House as one to ask President Biden and Vice President Harris to step aside for the good of the party, our nation and the world.

The world is in crisis and escalating jeopardy, and the U.S. is already feeling the deepening repercussions. The only question is: how severe will it get? Much of that will depend upon the sound judgment and steady hand of our leaders.

Unfortunately, and quite dangerously, too many minds in our nation — be they in the political, military, corporate or academic class — are now consumed with partisan or ideological rubbish, to the outright exclusion of irrefutable facts and life-extinguishing danger.

As this insanity plays out and rational voices from both sides of the political divide try to warn of the spreading fire that could consume us all, the only response from some of these troubled minds is “Trump is evil,” “Biden is evil,” “Putin is evil,” “Zelensky is evil,” “Netanyahu is evil” or “Abbas is evil.”

Such a pronouncement might make them a hero in their own minds, but it does nothing to solve the problem. 

We need Biden — and Harris — to rise above that nonsense while turning the eyes of our nation toward the true threats that could destroy us. We need a president who is actually “presidential.”

We need a Thomas Jefferson, an Abraham Lincoln, a John F. Kennedy, or a Bill Clinton. This is not a partisan point. It is one about mutual survival. 

In the United States of America, we have one president and vice president at a time for all of us. At this moment, those two people are Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

I can’t find a Democrat I know who wants either one on the ticket for 2024. Be it for age reasons; cognitive-health concerns; potential Hunter Biden corruption issues; plain competency fears; or record-low polling numbers, a second act of Biden-Harris comes across as political kryptonite for many Democrats hoping to retain the White House in 2024.

And beyond that rather partisan reason, we again have the larger issue of a world-wide order sliding towards domino-toppling destruction. One need only to pull one’s head out of the ideological silos to clearly see the threats to us all. 

That stated, where are the “adult in the room” Democratic powerbrokers willing to emulate the 1974 Republicans and travel down to the White House to tell Biden and Harris that they are “in over their heads” and that their “time has come and gone”?

History tells us every second can count. The “People’s White House” needs an immediate shake-up to save … the people. 

Douglas MacKinnon, a political and communications consultant, was a writer in the White House for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and former special assistant for policy and communications at the Pentagon during the last three years of the Bush administration.