In Greek tragedy, hubris — overconfidence or vanity — leads in any other case succesful leaders to their downfall. Delight 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 most important 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 rankings had sunk into the low forties. Ballot after ballot confirmed majorities of People doubted his means to serve one other time period as a result of age. Surveys in battleground states positioned him in a lifeless warmth — or trailing — in opposition to Trump.
But Biden, satisfied of his indispensability, insisted on working 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 Unique Sin” captures this second: the Democratic management, removed from trustworthy, stored doubts personal. They demanded transparency and accountability from opponents however didn’t follow it themselves. Believing they knew what was greatest for the individuals, they denied voters an actual selection. This, too, was hubris — and hypocrisy.
In Boston, we are going to endlessly bear in mind the failure of Purple 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 correct factor. Like Little, they left Biden in too lengthy, and the consequence was the political equal of dropping the World Collection.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, like Biden, was a large 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 might affirm a successor. She refused.
Ginsburg believed she might proceed, insisting that her work on the Supreme Court docket was unfinished. Her choice, like Biden’s, mirrored confidence turned to delight —the assumption that historical past nonetheless required her private presence.
The consequence was historic. Ginsburg’s demise 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 choices, taken collectively, compounded catastrophe for the progressive challenge. Ginsburg’s refusal to retire enabled Trump to seize the Supreme Court docket. Biden’s insistence on working once more handed Trump the presidency. Between the Court docket and the White Home, Trump and his allies have unraveled reproductive rights, local weather protections, civil rights enforcement, and democratic norms.
The tragedy isn’t just 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 Court docket she enabled.
The sample is acquainted. Lyndon Johnson’s mastery of Congress couldn’t save him from Vietnam. Richard Nixon’s landslide reelection collapsed below Watergate. Leaders mistake indispensability for future. They confuse previous success with future viability.
For Biden, the assumption that his 2020 victory proved he alone might cease Trump blinded him to shifting situations in 2024. For Ginsburg, the conviction that she couldn’t get replaced blinded her to political realities below Obama. Every believed the causes they embodied couldn’t proceed with out them. Every was fallacious.
Democracy depends upon humility. Leaders should acknowledge that establishments should outlast people, that succession is as vital as stewardship. Delight isn’t a political asset; it’s a legal responsibility that corrodes judgment and blinds leaders to their very own limitations.
The lesson isn’t partisan however common. In democracies, the well being of establishments depends upon 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.
In contrast, 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 Court docket majority.
Hubris blinded two of probably 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 chance 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 Govt Director of Larger Grove Corridor Important Streets and founding father of Sunday Celebrations
