‘Safety beats idealism’: our panel reacts to Biden’s decision to run again | LaTosha Brown, Jill Filipovic, Osita Nwanevu, Bhaskar Sunkara

After surviving the Trump debacle, it was important that we had an administration that could re-establish some level of credibility in the political arena. Given the volatility of the current political environment and the depth of political division in America, Biden has demonstrated he is able to hold together a big tent of diverse groups and push an agenda.

We need political leadership from someone who believes in democracy, can navigate the intense political polarization of this moment, and bring some sense of civility back to American politics.

While I remain a critic of Biden's criminal justice reform policies, it is astounding, given the obstructionist efforts of the Republican party to block any measurable progress, that he has been able to get so much of his agenda through a deeply divided Congress. Whether or not one agrees with all his policies, he has been an effective president.

We live in a country that is riddled with "isms" - including ageism. Aside from the false and fear-based narratives planted by rightwing Republicans, there is nothing in Biden's leadership, decision-making or policies that indicates he is incapable of leading or serving as president.

It pains me to say this, but Joe Biden should run for re-election.

Biden was toward the bottom of my picks during the 2020 Democratic primary. He's a moderate Democrat, and he's lackluster when it comes to the issues I care most about: women's rights, abortion rights, LGBT rights, immigration. While Biden has become more adept at using the right language on these issues, his administration's policies have ranged from largely absent (abortion) to terrible (immigration).

Still: he should run, and I will vote for him if he does.

The specter of another Donald Trump presidency, or a Ron DeSantis presidency, is a national emergency. Trump attempted to foment a coup; he is on the campaign trail making clear that, if he wins, he will lean even harder into American fascism than he did the last time around. DeSantis, who seems less and less likely to win the Republican nomination by the day, is well into the process of turning Florida into an authoritarian state, where the government is seizing everything from the right to one's own body to the right to knowledge.

Biden has proven he is capable of beating Trump. He's also been a surprisingly good president, pushing through legislation that fights climate change, supports American job growth, and helped Americans stay afloat during the pandemic.

There are other candidates I would be excited about: Senator Elizabeth Warren; Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer; and Congresswomen Katie Porter and Ayanna Pressley. But I worry that any of those women would lose to Trump, despite their superior intelligence and qualifications.

Joe Biden is not the most thrilling choice. But he's the safest one. And with the country facing a grave threat from Donald Trump, safety beats idealism.

Is it a good idea for Biden to run again? Well, let's think through what would happen if he didn't. While most Americans and a substantial proportion of Democrats don't want to see him in office again, bowing out would still take most of his party by surprise. Harris hasn't cemented herself as a natural successor; a chaotic, unwieldy, and wide-open primary would begin immediately. There'd be a mad scramble for donors and attention followed by months and months of doubtlessly amusing heat and noise that would end with the nomination of a candidate that would be perhaps unknown to most of the public and lack the advantages of incumbency.

Republicans would argue that Biden's about-face reflected a lack of confidence in Democratic accomplishments and the Democratic agenda; many Americans, already rather unimpressed with Biden's substantively respectable legislative record, would probably agree.

If the goal is the surest route to beat Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, or whatever Republican emerges out of the 2024 primary, then the answer to whom the Democrats should run should be clear. Joe Biden is an incumbent who just beat a sitting president in an election less than three years ago.

Even if he doesn't always take advantage of it, Biden commands the White House's bully pulpit. And, amid the backdrop of an improving economy, Trump's legal issues, and the public outrage at the Republican party's crusade against abortion rights, he would enter any contest as a favorite.

Still, we should be very clear that Biden will only be favored to win an election because of the people he's up against. The president is unpopular, he hasn't made good on his self-proclaimed "New Deal-sized" ambitions, and a large majority of Americans don't want him to run again.

Yet at the national level, there appears to be no real successor to Biden. Even if health were to prevent him from running again in 2024, among mainstream Democrats Kamala Harris is also unpopular and plagued by reports of mismanagement within her office. On the left, the situation is just as bleak. Bernie Sanders is even older than Biden, and none of his vaunted successors, such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have proven electorally viable beyond deep-blue districts or managed to emulate the Vermont senator's plainspoken class-warrior language.

Hopefully, that will change by 2028. In the meantime, however, both centrist and progressive Democrats alike have a lot of work to do cohering a base and getting candidates ready to contest for power. Biden may be the best answer to 2024's stupid question - and that's an indictment of the Democratic party's last few years.