In Greek tragedy, hubris — overconfidence or vanity — leads in any other case succesful leaders to their downfall. Satisfaction blinds them to actuality till nemesis arrives, undoing each their achievements and their legacies. In recent times, two towering figures of American liberalism, President Joe Biden and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, succumbed to hubris. Their refusal to acknowledge when to step apart opened the door for Donald Trump and his allies to undo the causes they’d championed.
Joe Biden’s 2020 victory over Trump was historic. He handed laws of generational significance: the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Regulation, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the biggest local weather funding in historical past. Biden believed, not unreasonably, that his expertise and temperament had uniquely positioned him to regular the ship.
However by 2023, warning indicators have been unmistakable. Biden’s approval scores had sunk into the low forties. Ballot after ballot confirmed majorities of People doubted his potential to serve one other time period as a result of age. Surveys in battleground states positioned him in a useless warmth — or trailing — in opposition to Trump.
But Biden, satisfied of his indispensability, insisted on operating once more. His household urged him ahead, his longtime aides feared irrelevance if he stepped apart, and Democratic leaders —unwilling to problem him — closed ranks. Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s “The Authentic Sin” captures this second: the Democratic management, removed from sincere, saved doubts personal. They demanded transparency and accountability from opponents however didn’t apply it themselves. Believing they knew what was greatest for the individuals, they denied voters an actual alternative. This, too, was hubris — and hypocrisy.
In Boston, we are going to perpetually keep in mind the failure of Crimson Sox supervisor Grady Little to take away pitcher Pedro Martínez from Recreation 7 of the 2003 ALCS, and the disastrous penalties. Democratic leaders acted the identical manner — ready too lengthy to do the proper factor. Like Little, they left Biden in too lengthy, and the end result was the political equal of dropping the World Sequence.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, like Biden, was an enormous within the liberal creativeness. Over a long time she reshaped gender equality jurisprudence and have become a pop-culture icon. However by 2013 –2014, at age 80 and with a number of bouts of most cancers behind her, progressives urged her to retire in order that President Obama and a Democratic Senate may affirm a successor. She refused.
Ginsburg believed she may proceed, insisting that her work on the Supreme Courtroom was unfinished. Her choice, like Biden’s, mirrored confidence turned to satisfaction —the assumption that historical past nonetheless required her private presence.
The consequence was historic. Ginsburg’s dying in September 2020, simply weeks earlier than the presidential election, allowed Donald Trump to appoint Amy Coney Barrett. Her affirmation cemented a 6–3 conservative majority that has since overturned Roe v. Wade, gutted affirmative motion, narrowed voting rights, and undermined environmental protections — undoing a lot of what Ginsburg had fought for.
Biden’s and Ginsburg’s selections, taken collectively, compounded catastrophe for the progressive venture. Ginsburg’s refusal to retire enabled Trump to seize the Supreme Courtroom. Biden’s insistence on operating once more handed Trump the presidency. Between the Courtroom and the White Home, Trump and his allies have unraveled reproductive rights, local weather protections, civil rights enforcement, and democratic norms.
The tragedy is not only that their private legacies suffered. Their hubris, joined by Democratic leaders’ hypocrisy, imperiled the very establishments they’d sought to strengthen. Biden’s achievements on local weather are being reversed. Ginsburg’s jurisprudence on equality has been dismantled by a Courtroom she enabled.
The sample is acquainted. Lyndon Johnson’s mastery of Congress couldn’t save him from Vietnam. Richard Nixon’s landslide reelection collapsed beneath Watergate. Leaders mistake indispensability for future. They confuse previous success with future viability.
For Biden, the assumption that his 2020 victory proved he alone may cease Trump blinded him to shifting circumstances in 2024. For Ginsburg, the conviction that she couldn’t get replaced blinded her to political realities beneath Obama. Every believed the causes they embodied couldn’t proceed with out them. Every was flawed.
Democracy will depend on humility. Leaders should acknowledge that establishments should outlast people, that succession is as necessary as stewardship. Satisfaction shouldn’t be a political asset; it’s a legal responsibility that corrodes judgment and blinds leaders to their very own limitations.
The lesson shouldn’t be partisan however common. In democracies, the well being of establishments will depend on leaders understanding when to exit. George Washington set the precedent by stepping down after two phrases. Nelson Mandela served one time period to safeguard South Africa’s democratic transition. These have been acts of humility that strengthened establishments.
Against this, Biden’s and Ginsburg’s refusal to let go weakened theirs.
The Greeks warned that hubris invitations nemesis, and nemesis brings downfall. The hubris of Biden and Ginsburg has delivered a nemesis within the type of Donald Trump’s restoration and a conservative Supreme Courtroom majority.
Hubris blinded two of essentially the most consequential figures of recent liberalism, and Democratic leaders, complicit in silence, compounded the error. Like Grady Little with Pedro Martínez, they knew the danger however acted too late. They believed they knew what was greatest for the individuals however denied voters a real voice. That was not solely hubris. It was hypocrisy.
Ed Gaskin is Government Director of Larger Grove Corridor Important Streets and founding father of Sunday Celebrations
