Biden and Trump should both drop out. Our country is too important.

Last Thursday night, June 27, two very different men stood on stage to debate the issues and to attempt to persuade the American voting public that they are the best person to be the next president of the United States. Debates give voters a rare opportunity to hear directly from the candidates themselves. This matters when it comes to matters of policy, but also how they comport themselves. Voters are wondering: Is this the person best equipped to hold the most powerful job in the world?

Nothing about the debate made us feel comforted. Jokes about golf skills, when existential questions face our country, the world order, peace, prosperity and health?

And yet those were among the more coherent moments of the debate between President Joe Biden and former president Donald J. Trump, the presumptive nominees for the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, respectively.

When Trump at one point said, “I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence, and I don’t think he did, either,” it was a rare moment of truth for the serial liar. Biden seemed lost and dazed throughout. While his surrogates have dismissed it as an off night, we are not convinced. This is a time for intense clarity to hold Trump accountable – and if not Trump, what about Vladimir Putin, Benjamin Netanyahu and other world leaders?

The Biden campaign’s fundraising email the next morning was just as tepid as Biden the debater: “I have never heard so much malarkey in my whole life.”

Sure, it’s a cute line, his signature “malarkey.” But Biden failed even in writing – as he failed to do verbally the night before – to convey the real dangers associated with a second Trump presidency. Who says malarkey when talking about a candidate who’s promised to leverage his elected office to go after his political enemies, pardon the convicted Jan. 6 insurrectionists, let Putin have his way in Europe, undo smart climate change initiatives, and effectively shut down the country’s borders and build a permanent wall around a nation of immigrants?

This is much, much worse than malarkey. It is a threat to undermine the whole American experiment.

We like Biden – his lifelong spirit of service, his measurable achievements in the past four years (the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Inflation Reduction Act, rallying to support Ukraine, a long-overdue exit from Afghanistan, his overall human decency).

It’s precisely because of all of this good that we hope the people who have his ear will urge him to step aside. Biden can walk away gracefully on a high note, and also empower the next generation of leadership.

Or he can fight for another term and in so doing imperil not just his own political sendoff, but also a 50-year legacy of Democrat-led legislation that has done good. Remaining in the race would almost definitely mean a Trump presidency, after his halting debate performance.

And that’s not just bad for advancing Democrats’ policy goals and Biden’s legacy – it’s bad for America, and dangerous.

Trump wants to double down on a xenophobic state, effectively shutting down our borders and deporting people he doesn’t agree with. He wants to strip the government of knowledgeable staff, in his attempt to root out the elusive “deep state.” He threatens to pull out of NATO, undermining the world order. He would exit the Paris climate accords, and would ramp up oil production just as the world is beginning a serious shift to renewables. His policy platform is an existential threat to American ideals, to freedom and liberty for all – including women.

It’s not just Biden who should step down from his candidacy – it’s Trump too. Even after 62 lawsuits making claims of 2020 election fraud failed, he still claims the election was stolen. Instead of celebrating our free and fair elections as a bedrock American institution, he continues sowing doubt that imperils the credibility of the system infrastructure itself. He is evasive about whether he will accept the 2024 election results.

This says nothing about Trump’s true character: that his company is barred from doing business in New York for continual corrupt practices, that a jury (twice) convicted him of sexual harassment and he owes E. Jean Carroll $83 million in damages, that he was convicted of 34 felonies for misreporting payments to his lawyer and a porn star to suppress unfavorable stories – news that may have upended his first run for president had the public known he was an adulterer and liar.

While some find Trump strong, even charismatic and charming, we do not – he is a threat to our society’s government and is unfit to lead.

We are not knocking Biden for his age, 81. (Trump is 78.) With age and experience comes wisdom. But Biden was muddled, sometimes incoherent. He did not exude presidential capability. And to win against Trump, it will require someone who is strong, clear and ready for the most difficult job in a difficult time.

What happens next is up to Biden. When delegates vote at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August, it’s typically mostly ceremonial. Eleven delegates representing Monterey County’s two congressional districts (18 and 19) will be there, all pledged to Biden. They will join 3,937 pledged delegates from all over the country at the convention. If Biden were to drop out, pledged delegates could vote for any candidate they choose, in an open convention.

An open convention would be wild. Kamala Harris is even less popular than Biden in polling, and he may hand over his delegates to her. But it could give the next generation of Democrats – with their own strengths and weaknesses, their own ideas and leadership styles – a chance to compete on a national stage.

With Election Day on Nov. 5, it would still give voters plenty of time to fairly compare the choices, and for another debate.

It’s a time for country first, over party. The Republicans have doubled down on Trump; that doesn’t mean the Democrats should follow suit and go party first.

We expect more from our elected leaders. We ask our highest-level elected Democrats representing Monterey County, congressional representatives Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, and Jimmy Panetta, D-Carmel Valley, to urge Biden to step aside, to put country over personal ambition. If our elected leaders are not willing to do so, we need new leaders – it is only fair to expect boldness and a willingness to step outside of the party lines when duty to country first demands it.

The party line remains: We support Biden unless and until he decides to back out.

“As of now, the California Democratic Committee is with Biden, and we are subordinate to that,” says Karen Araujo, chair of the Monterey County Democratic Central Committee.

“The president is a decent and good man, a true public servant, and has a proven record of passing historic legislation during his presidential term,” Panetta says. “Since he has already won the Democratic primary, only the president can choose to stand aside.”

Biden may be listening to Democratic leaders, but he needs to listen to voters. The message from voters is clear: We need and deserve a president who can win, and more importantly, who can persuasively lead.

“Whether our president had a flawless 90-minute debate or not, we are committed to magnifying the Democratic Party values,” Araujo says. “Everything Biden is promising to do, we are behind 100 percent, and almost every policy shared by the other candidate, we oppose. That has not always been the case between the Democratic and Republican parties, but that’s the way it is now.”

It’s that wide gulf that makes it important for the Democrats to get a stronger candidate; the same goes for the Republicans, too.

We don’t believe Biden will beat Trump. There’s too much at risk to let that happen.

As Claudius says about Hamlet in Shakespeare’s great tragedy: “Madness in great ones must not unwatched be so.”

The Weekly’s editorial board comprises Founder & CEO Bradley Zeve, Publisher Erik Cushman and Editor Sara Rubin.