Editor's note: Poet and novelist Jay Parini teaches at Middlebury College. His latest book is “Borges and I,” a memoir of a 1971 trip through the Scottish Highlands with Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. Opinions expressed here are his own. Find more opinion at CNN.
CNN —
Dear Joe,
I am writing to you with urgency as your old neighbor from Scranton. My mother was your babysitter and decades ago, you and I sat at my kitchen table. I have been your fan for years, sending you checks, knocking on your door, writing articles in support of you.
Courtesy of Oliver Parini
Jay Parini
Few leaders in American history have had your generous heart and sense of moderation. You led our nation back from disaster in 2021, returning us to normalcy after a brutal riot in which a crazed mob smashed the windows of the Capitol and threatened to hang then-Vice President Mike Pence. You helped our plummeting economy and ended a pandemic that has killed more than a million people in the United States alone and made America one of the hardest-hit wealthy countries in the world.
You introduced vital support for infrastructure. Joe, you passed the Safe Communities Act, which included the most significant gun control measures in nearly 30 years. Crime has fallen and continues to fall, despite Mr. Trump's rhetoric to the contrary. And you have tried, with some success, to tame stubborn inflation. Under your leadership, consumer prices have fallen slowly but steadily.
You rallied allied support for Ukraine, and according to the Pew Research Center, our country is deeply respected around the world for our technological leadership, strong military, enviable research universities, and hugely influential entertainment industry.
All that is good, but you are an old man, just like me. I know what it's like to muster the energy to power through the day. Our bodies don't cooperate like they used to. Sometimes it even hurts to get up in the morning.
Sadly, that was clear to me from the moment you walked up to the stage looking dazed and confused at Thursday's debate with former President Donald Trump in Atlanta. You looked old, pale and frail. You practically fumbled your way to the podium. Your speech was halting and often incoherent. Your jokes were off-base, poorly timed and out of context. You let a crazy Donald go unpunished while you chuckled at your own responses.
I found myself crying. I was crying for you. I was crying for our country.
Joe, you are a man of great integrity. You must step down. You absolutely must step down. Do it for the good of the country and the good of your party. The threat of another four years of the charlatan and con man Trump is an existential threat.
Democracy is truly at stake. Trump has tried to overturn the 2020 election and topple the government. He has done everything in his power to confuse his supporters and make them believe that he was really elected four years ago.
A Trump return to the White House would give Russian President Putin free reign to oppress poor Ukrainians and anyone else who annoys him. He would give Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu a blank check. NATO would be in danger. Trump would impose huge tariffs on imports from China and elsewhere, accelerating inflation as economists say. He would populate the Supreme Court with right-wing justices, and women would forget forever about their right to abortion. Guns would proliferate, just as they did during Trump's first term. Trump would try to convince Americans that global warming is a hoax, undermining progress in this important effort to combat climate change. And so it would all happen again. Disaster is looming.
Joe, it is your responsibility to listen to the leadership of your party.
Speaking of which, if Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Akeem Jeffries, and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi are not heading to the White House today, they should be immediately removed for dereliction of duty. Their job is to see that their party field the best person they can to win in November, and if they can't, Trump's election should fall to them. Joe, it's past time for wise people to shower you with love. They need to tell you, for the sake of the country (and your own legacy, which is on the verge of collapse), that it's time to go.
The lesson of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's desperate attempt to hang on to power under President Barack Obama when she could have been replaced by a better judge should reverberate in your head, lest she be remembered as Joe Bader Biden.
You've done your job, and you've done it well. This country is stronger because of you. But we need a mediated, open convention, like we used to. Governors Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Gavin Newsom of California, and JB Pritzker of Illinois, just to name a few, should make their case. The most powerful Democrats should run against Trump in November. Any one of them could beat him.
It's a shame that it has come to this, but it has come to this.
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We both share what I call Scranton values. We grew up among hardworking, ordinary people who understood that this was a country founded on equality. Our neighbors were Irish, Italian, Ukrainian, Lebanese immigrants. We believed in a place called the United States of America where values and character mattered.
Joe, you are a great man, without a doubt. We have watched and admired you for decades. We salute you. It will be hard, we know, but your final act is now unfolding before our eyes.
Do it. Retreat.
Sincerely yours, Jay
