Dear President Biden:

Thank you for 52 years of public service. And especially for saving our country from the curse of four more years of a would-be tyrant who governed us the way a baby governs a playpen.

But, Mr. President, it’s time to rest on your laurels. And they are significant.

Not only have you saved us from slipping into tyranny, you have restored America’s good name in Europe. You have begun to restore our good name in other parts of the world, though the damage is deep and lasting after a president called African countries “s—thole nations.” Your support of Ukraine has held fast America’s commitment to democracy.

At home, you have brought back our economy from the doldrums of the pandemic, even though Congress trashed some of your programs. David Brooks, conservative columnist for The New York Times and no fan of federal spending, fully endorsed your plans because they would have aided the middle class. As you put it, build from the bottom up, the middle out, not the top down.

So, we needed your successes after four years of chaos. As conservative Bret Stephens said Monday in The Times, “Trump spent like a sailor on land and governed like a drunk at sea.”

Nonetheless, ambushes loom.

Inflation was inevitable after the pandemic. With 2 million more people retiring than otherwise would have and millions more unable to get child care, we had a huge labor shortage that pushed up wages and therefore prices. We’re working through the inflation, and millions of low- and middle-wage earners earn far more now. One of my sons is paid 65% more an hour than in 2020.

You have steered us through inflation better and faster than leaders in any other country, but inflation happened on your watch, and voters may hold you accountable.

As a man two-and-a-half years your senior, I can tell you that physically it’s not gonna get any easier. The body just says, “No, I’m not gonna do that anymore.”

Optics matter, Mr. President. But stumbling several times on an airplane ramp is more than just optics. It suggests a physical decline that I am living through, too. Things I used to do easily I no longer even try. Cutting firewood with a chainsaw. Walking through fields on dark nights or down a hallway without turning on a light or tiptoeing across ice without cleats on my boots.

In-party challenges have hurt or ended presidencies. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, ran in the 1980 primaries, damaging President Carter. As did Sens. Eugene McCarthy, D-Minnesota, and Robert F. Kennedy Sr., D-New York, damaging President Johnson in 1964.

So far, Mr. President, no strong Democratic challenger has shown up, though that dam may be about to spring leaks larger than Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Marianne Williamson. Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minnesota, has resigned as a party leader to run in the primaries. Sensing weakness, more may come. Several Democratic governors can tout their experience running big operations.

I know it’s hard to leave a life’s work. There’s always one more goal to reach. From the turkeys we grew on our farm, we tried to introduce new products every year. Even knowing 2015 was our final year, we created a turkey and portabella mushroom meatloaf that was dyno-mite!

But we leave our life’s work or die trying, literally. That has to be in the back of voters’ minds, which makes the vice presidency crucial. Your choice for vice-president in 2020 was brilliant politically but could turn on you in 2024. Kamala Harris will be a major Republican target.

Migration at our southern border hasn’t eased under her “oversight.” The debacle has dogged us for decades. It won’t improve if Republicans regain the White House, no matter who their leader.

Insiders called her presidential campaign a disaster. She hasn’t shown a talent for organizing or leading, key traits in a president. Her politics are to the left, so she’s an easy target for right-wing attacks. Franklin D. Roosevelt saw such a problem in 1944 and replaced Henry Wallace with Harry S. Truman.

Your record, strong as it is, isn’t unblemished. Two examples. The conduct of Senate Judiciary Committee hearings in 1991 humiliated a truth-telling Anita Hill and gave us 31 years (so far) of Justice Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court. In 2021, with two months to help our Afghan allies flee, our State Department processed only 2,000 of the 200,000. That gave support to all who doubt government can work. Today, 70,000 Afghans remain, likely targets of the Taliban.

Please, Mr. President, don’t make the mistake of hubris that doomed your predecessor. Had he had the common sense to take credit for the warp-speed development of vaccines for COVID-19, he might still be in office. But his ego and his handlers couldn’t have that.

So, instead of resting on his laurels, he kept on railing at and lying about the people who did the actual work. Please step aside while time remains. And thanks again.

Very truly yours,

Bob Neal, New Sharon, Maine

Though an optimist, Bob Neal fears democracy can’t outlast four more years of the man Joe Biden called “the former guy.” Neal can be reached at bobneal@myfairpoint.net.

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