The Gold Watch Club is a conversation regarding Joe Biden’s retirement as the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee for President.

This conversation is meant to be candid, timely, and prophetic.

If the leaders of the Democratic Party squander this last chance to nominate a younger, sharper candidate for President, America will have made a place for itself among history’s pantheon of tottering gerontocracies. That will be true even if Joe Biden somehow surprises the world by showing up with his A game on a clutch play just in time to beat the odds in November and win.

Otherwise, if Biden insists on keeping power but fails to defeat Trump, the Democratic Party he leads will have utterly discredited itself, proving too sclerotic to avert authoritarian capture of our government.

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There’s no question that I’ll vote to reelect President Biden if need be. Mark Cuban is right: The choice we face today is “Feeble, Capable and Ethical” versus “Vigorous, Unethical and Incapable of telling the truth.”

Being a fan of ethical truth, I’m all in on Bye Don. I’m with those who are revolted by Trump and appalled by his enablers. I know his deeds and their creeds, so I’ve signed the petition at passthetorchbiden.com. It’s a pledge of unswerving commitment to support the Democratic ticket this year, coupled with refusal to be silent about the need for a stronger one.

Millions of Americans will be voting to stop Trump, regardless of whom the Democrats put up. We prefer this President on a bad day over the King of the Birthers on any day. We share a gut resolve to preserve core American traditions… especially liberty, rule of law, democracy, plain honesty, and welcoming of diversity. Win or lose, our votes will honor these traditions by saying no to Trump’s spite for them.

Still, I resent being stuck with this perennial American exercise of having to sign on with the least bad option. I know a lot about how my consent is manufactured. I know why my vote has virtually no effect outside the confines of brute bipolarity. And I know I’m not alone with this frustration. Two thirds of the people polled as likely to vote for Biden will be driven by a sense of existential necessity rather than hopeful enthusiasm.

Let’s not be feeble about the question we need to ask: How do we go about elevating a new nominee with broad national appeal and wide political acclaim who will ensure Donald J. Trump gets the drubbing his minions can’t deny?

The Democrats have a long bench. There’s no time like the present to start vetting candidates for Biden’s successor. In a normal election year, after all, political journalists would be giddily indulging speculation about the 2028 horse race by now. Coverage of an ad hoc “mini primary” to survey the field is well within their capacity.

We see Europeans pulling off this kind of thing very quickly… Why can’t we?

James Zogby of the Democratic National Committee is already engaging discussions about how to organize a transparent process ahead of the convention.  Over the next few weeks, presuming President Biden joins this club, he could simply request that his delegates vote for his anointed successor, or he could release them, allowing the DNC to schedule a process for candidate competition.

Democrats would be doing the country a huge favor by giving the pundit class something more substantive to chatter about than Biden’s stumble of the day. Spare us the white knuckles of waiting for the next one. Stop wasting peoples’ time endlessly rehashing Biden’s shaky post-debate status and obsessing over palace intrigue. Instead, offer a novel process for introducing and evaluating all the Governors, all the Cabinet members, and all the Senators. The Democrats have a remarkable opportunity to do this, unburdened by the need to fund a long, expensive primary season. With giant donors corralled by circumstances that keep their thumbs off the scales, voters would have more ability than ever to decide for themselves which potential candidate is the most qualified, who has best mastered the facts, how their values align, and who is likeliest to win by the biggest, safest, most undeniable margin possible.

But this is not so easily said and done. Though a steadily increasing handful of distinguished Democrats had been expressing misgivings about Joe Biden’s infirmities since before the primaries began, millions of Americans voted for him once the voting was underway. Many did so enthusiastically. Undeterred by his recent fumbles, Biden’s most stalwart supporters continue to fund his campaign. They clearly want him to serve another term, and they are a force to be reckoned with.

Consequently, the success of the Gold Watch Club depends on Joe Biden freely and decisively choosing to join. If he fully embraces the role of Nominee Emeritus of the Democratic Party, his biggest supporters will gladly join the bandwagon. Everyone else intent on beating Trump will be profoundly grateful. Imagine the national sensation as a resurgently popular Joe Biden kicks off a series of celebratory money bombs during the process of selecting and coalescing around the new nominee.

Once this pivot is complete, focus can return to substantive issues. It must. After not even bothering to write a platform in 2020, the Trump loyalists now firmly in control of the Republican Party have gone behind closed doors to revamp it entirely. They’re crafting palatable wrappers to cloak their extremist agenda. Democrats need to hold the GOP’s hard-right feet to the fire by inviting voters to engage with the facts, values, and propositions that undergird each Party’s opposing planks.

That’s what the #goldwatchclub is for… forward-thinking moves. The intent is not simply to resist Trump’s wanton mendacity.  The battle against criminal fascism is only part of this decade’s American story. The other part, no less urgent, is about prevailing in a manner that redeems America’s exceptional legacy for innovative renewal.

If we wish to live as citizens in a democratically constituted republic worthy of the name, we must honor that aspiration with a formidable strategy. Donald Trump and his Magaloon army wrecked America’s perfect record for peaceful transfers of power. They’re back for more, still poisoned by the Big Lie, vengefully intent on imposing an autocracy. Stopping them here, in 2024, will allow us to begin the task of restoring our national reputation. But that requires being utterly frank about the orderly transition America needs now.

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In late 2019, as primary season loomed, so did questions about Joe Biden’s age. Without naming names, Politico reported discussions with a campaign official who had “signaled” and “quietly indicated” that Biden would serve only one term. The candidate would not “publicly commit” to that unpledged plan, however, wishing to avoid the dreaded handicap of a lame duck term if elected.  That signal was spun as an open appeal to younger voters, portraying a prospective Biden presidency as a “bridge” or perhaps a “transition” to a “new generation of leadership.”

This would have been their year.

Memories have consequences. They confer a right to keep Joseph Biden firmly accountable to that tacit pledge. He was elected to start a relay race, and he has run an undeniably strong leg. To Joe Biden’s everlasting credit, he set a rapid pace and put himself in an ideal position to hand off a thriving, world-leading economy to his successor. The task ahead is making the exchange to a fit and fleet-footed nominee who, like the Democrats of Joe Biden’s generation, truly values an economy that’s thriving for everyone. That would be a magnificent finish to the lap he signed up for.  

History has anniversaries. In 2026 the American Revolution reaches the quarter-millennium mark. Our Constitution, that genius document, turns 250 in 2037. It salvaged our Revolution, endured a Civil War, and was the cornerstone of our rise as a great nation in the 20^th century. But now, early in the 21^st, our constitutional order faces an onslaught of sedition, insurrection, and disregard for truth like nothing seen before.

What could be lost if Trump and his enablers retake control of the government? Contemplating that possibility, it’s clear what we stand to gain by winning: another victory for the durability of the American Republic, cemented in history by our role in securing it.

On the other side of this confrontation, which prophecy of the future will ring truer?

Perhaps someday it will be said that American Democracy had fallen so far, and had proven so unable to escape its ossification, that it was finally deemed broken beyond repair.

Or perhaps it will be said that Americans recognized a challenge of momentous of peril and faced it head on… pulling together and lifting their country’s reputation for creativity and vigor higher than it had ever been before. If so, it was because they learned to be truthful with themselves.

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The Gold Watch Club is one of several ranked choice polls currently running at Mini Herald, a web app I’m building. That poll currently lists 20 potential candidates for Joe Biden’s successor as party nominee. Watch for changes.

Mini Herald and other projects such as AimsPoll, Secular Progress, and the Indaba Application Network are about building platforms optimized to hold issue-oriented conversations I believe Americans need and deserve to be having. They are not, unfortunately, because existing political media has no business model for it.

I could offer many conversation topics that would take us forward. But for America, right now, enlisting Joe Biden into the Gold Watch Club strikes me as the most important one.