I’m writing this in anticipation of President Biden’s announcement of whether or not he plans to run for reelection in 2024. I’d like to add my 10 cents (adjusted for inflation) before the president makes that decision.

As a lifelong Democrat who started my political advocacy by holding an “Elect Adlai” sign on the wintry streets of St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1952, my commitment to our party has never wavered – except during the Vietnam War, when I participated as a medical student in peace demonstrations against the Johnson administration. For the past 60 years I’ve always voted a straight Democratic ticket, the one exception being my support for John Lindsay for the mayor of New York City in 1965.

Now that my party credentials are out of the way, let me tell you how I really feel.

President Biden entered the 2020 presidential campaign as a welcome transitional figure between the nightmarish years of the Trump administration and the offer of vibrant and talented leadership from one of several younger, moderate Democrats who would in four years carry on and advance the many programs and policies President Biden initiated and skillfully enacted. The president should understand that I and tens of millions of other Americans, especially the younger generations, have little enthusiasm for a Biden-Trump rematch.

Mainstream Republicans know that if Donald Trump secures the Republican Party nomination, one of two identical outcomes will occur. If he runs only against a moderate Democratic candidate, he will lose outright. If the “Never Trumpers” nominate a moderate conservative as a third-party candidate, Trump will also lose.

It remains for the Republican Party to help Trump find a respectable backdoor-exit rationale to withdraw from the presidential race that outwardly preserves whatever dignity and pride remains.

Wouldn’t Trump relish the grand spectacle of a gala extravaganza at the 2024 Republican National Convention, honoring their past president? With the conservative media abandoning Trump and with evangelicals and staunch Zionist supporters searching for a candidate without Trump’s baggage of immoral and illegal conduct, racism and antisemitism, only his most stalwart supporters remain.

If the Republicans succeed in dethroning Trump and nominate a DeSantis or DeSantis-like candidate, I believe that President Biden will lose. With the current president’s ratings in the low 40s, a Republican alternative may look rather attractive to some independents and suburbanites. It will take very few of these voters in selected states to change the 2024 Electoral College outcome.

President Biden should take pride in his accomplishments and in leading the country back from the brink of disaster, work with a divided Congress without the pressure of seeking a second term and help the Democratic Party choose a worthy successor.

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