Phil Roeder (CC BY 2.0)
Joe Biden on the campaign trail in Iowa in February 2020.
Each issue, The Progressive poses one question to a panel of expert voices—writers, thinkers, politicians, artists, and others who help shape the national conversation. For our February/March 2024 issue, we asked: Should Joe Biden Run for Re-Election?
Norman Solomon
National director of RootsAction and author of War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine
The polling numbers for Biden vs. Trump are frightening, and the record of Joe Biden’s presidency is in many ways appalling. What this administration has done—or not done—on climate is a betrayal of the next generations and of the Earth’s biosphere. The militarism—including huge boosts in the Pentagon budget, failures to pursue nuclear arms control, and active support for Israel’s genocidal war on Palestinians in Gaza—threatens our future on this planet.
Meanwhile, Biden’s weakness as a candidate is a gift to Donald Trump, and Biden’s foreign policy is a gift to the likes of the Saudi government and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Our team at RootsAction launched the Don’t Run Joe! (now Step Aside Joe) campaign more than a year ago, and ever since we’ve been disappointed by the refusal of so many left-leaning groups and leaders to publicly oppose Biden’s renomination. Progressives should not be enablers of a weak neoliberal candidate against a fascistic party.
Chris Edelson
Assistant professor in the department of government at American University
Joe Biden has said that he understands what’s at stake in the election, and I believe him. He’s talked about the book How Democracies Die [by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt], which explains that when you’re dealing with somebody like Donald Trump, a would-be authoritarian, you have to do all you can, legally and peacefully, to oppose him.
Biden needs to objectively consider whether he is the best candidate to beat Trump. Of course, he may be. He beat him once. But for people who are concerned about his poll numbers and other vulnerabilities, those questions have to be taken into account. He needs to consider that. And it’s understandably difficult for someone to do that. It means putting aside your ego.
But at this stage of the process, what would it mean for Biden to step down? Let’s say he goes through the kind of analysis I’m suggesting, and he decides he’s not the best option. What would he do? It’s likely too late for new candidates to enter the Democratic primaries. Now, of course, the party could change that in extraordinary circumstances, but time is running out.
Biden claimed to run in 2020 to protect democracy. But it can’t just be about one person.
Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J.S. Davies
Journalists and organizers with CODEPINK for Peace
With a 39 percent approval rating and 77 percent of the public saying he is too old, Biden shouldn’t run because he doesn’t deserve another four years, particularly because of his cruel and irresponsible foreign policies. He is supporting Israel’s genocide in Gaza and risking a wider war by dropping bombs on Yemen and antagonizing Iran—including by refusing to renew the Iran nuclear deal.
He has been fueling the war in Ukraine and sabotaging efforts at peace talks, setting the stage for World War III. He has maintained Trump’s brutal sanctions on Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Iran, North Korea, and Syria. He refused to return billions of dollars of Afghan funds. And under his watch, funding for the Pentagon has risen to more than $1 trillion, money that is desperately needed for social services. Biden should retire and pass the baton to someone more capable of creating the peaceful future the world needs and deserves.