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cessions are too painful, there’s always the possibility of staking out some genuinely new ground in the democracy debate itself. Imagine if Biden said that democracy is so important that no one should be striking his probable opponent from the ballot. Or if he said he now realizes that he, too, let down the constitutional order by undertaking executive orders that exceeded his authority and that, on second thought, he needs to lead by example in complete faithfulness to the system.

Would that kill him? Evidently, yes.

Biden’s position is that democracy is under such a threat that he — the man with abysmal approval ratings who most Americans believe can’t possibly serve a second term — needs to run again to eke out a narrow, nomargin- for-error victory against the man who embodies the threat.

Faith in our system of government, patriotism itself, supposedly demands nothing else. And if Biden flubs it, which is a real possibility? Then, I guess it’s, “Oh, well, democracy can always be saved again in the 2026 midterms.”

Rich Lowry is editor of the National Review.

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