Should Democrats Stick With Biden?

Welcome to Up for Debate. Each week, Conor Friedersdorf rounds up timely conversations and solicits reader responses to one thought-provoking question. Later, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here.

Question of the Week

Should Democrats stick with Joe Biden or replace him with a younger presidential nominee in 2024?

Send your responses to conor@theatlantic.com or simply reply to this email.

Conversations of Note

At Brian Beutler’s new Substack, he compares the posture toward coalitional politics that led to Barack Obama’s rise with the less confident posture that characterizes the Democratic Party today:

Fifteen years ago, it seemed natural rather than heretical that new ideas and leaders should challenge older ones, and Democrats had more confidence to confront Republicans directly across a range of liabilities. They correctly identified a “culture of corruption” that had run rampant in the Bush years, and exposed much of it on their march back to power. They didn’t reflexively close ranks around whichever leaders felt most safe—far from it, one of the big reasons Barack Obama challenged Hillary Clinton for the presidency, and was able to win the nomination, is because Nancy Pelosi (who was then House speaker) and Harry Reid (who was then Senate majority leader) encouraged him to run. Liberals argued