Bruce Ledewitz: I sent $1,000 to the Dean Phillips' Democratic presidential campaign — here’s why

Joe Biden has done a very good job as president. I want to see his record vigorously and effectively defended in the 2024 presidential election. Because of his age, I don’t think Biden is the right candidate to do that. That is why I sent a campaign contribution to U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota, who is challenging Biden for the Democratic Party nomination for president.

Millions of Americans have doubts about Biden, who will be 81 on Nov. 20. Biden is making good and courageous decisions now, as shown by his going to Israel after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas. But even now, he is not an effective speaker and will not be an effective candidate. If reelected, he is unlikely to be fully functional by the time he leaves office in 2029, when he will be 87.

Age is the major reason that Biden is tied in the national polls with his likely Republican opponent, Donald Trump. With Biden as the Democratic Party nominee, we are one physical stumble or one verbal gaffe from electing Trump. Electing Trump would be a disaster for America and must be avoided at all costs.

Even popular concern about inflation, which is the other criticism of Biden, is as damaging as it is because Biden has not been effective in defending his record. Americans do not know that inflation is lower here than in most of the rest of the world.

Nor is the issue of Biden’s age to be assuaged by ridding the ticket of Vice President Kamala Harris. Most of the criticism of her is exaggerated and unfair. But even if she were very popular, people are not going to vote for a presidential candidate they consider infirm because they like the vice president.

Phillips is a national unknown. He was first elected to Congress in 2018, flipping a previously Republican district. I would have preferred a nationally known figure to challenge Biden, like U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, also of Minnesota.

Reports are that Phillips felt the same way. He tried to get other Democrats to run. Only when they refused did Phillips announce his candidacy.

Phillips is not running out of vanity. He is a patriot, probably ruining his own political career, but doing what is right for his party and his country.

Phillips’ candidacy will not hurt the Democratic Party in the presidential election.

First of all, Phillips admires Biden and his record and has and will say so. He will not provide any campaign fodder for Republicans. Trump, at 77, can hardly use an ad in which Phillips calls for “generational change.”

Second, the most likely outcome of a Phillips challenge, as Phillips himself admits, is that a reinvigorated Biden campaigns hard and defeats him for the nomination, fair and square. That effort would make Biden a far more effective candidate for reelection against the Republicans.

Right now, Biden’s handlers want him to sleepwalk his way to the nomination. They want to keep him off the campaign trail. That is no way to allay the concerns of the millions of Americans, including many Democrats, who are skeptical about Biden’s fitness.

If the Democratic Party wants Biden, let the party choose him. He should not be shoved down our throats because no one had the guts to challenge him.

There is another possible scenario. In this one, which is what I believe will happen, Phillips does very well against Biden in the early primaries. Biden is then brought to see, as Lyndon Johnson did in 1968, that he should not run for reelection and withdraws. But if that happens, surely it is better to have exposed Biden’s weakness as a candidate in the primaries than have the Republicans do so in the general election.

Obviously, Biden’s withdrawal would prove messy. Phillips could catch fire and win the nomination. He is an articulate and appealing candidate. An open convention might choose someone else. Republicans may believe this would hurt Democrats, but it would only happen if Biden falters. And if Biden falters, he would have done so in the general election.

In 1968, as a high school sophomore at Mt. Hermon, I trudged through the snow going door to door in the New Hampshire primary to defeat an incumbent Democratic president because I opposed his policies. Now, 55 years later, I have given money so a new generation can help defeat an incumbent Democrat. But this time, I am doing it because I support Biden’s policies but believe the party needs new blood and a new start.

Bruce Ledewitz is a professor and the Adrian Van Kaam C.S.Sp. Endowed Chair in Scholarly Excellence in the Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Duquesne University. The views expressed do not represent those of Duquesne University.