Democrats need to stop panicking and figure out a process

To put an end to all the hand-wringing and prove his own mettle, Mr. Biden should direct the party he leads to hold a series of public conclaves before the August convention. Think of these as platform meetings on steroids, to which every Democrat with legitimate presidential aspirations would be welcomed to debate the issues Americans want solved. Mr. Biden should also release all of his delegates to vote their conscience when the time comes.

This novel process would make mincemeat of tired Republican accusations, while exposing the utter lack of substance in the former president’s empty pronouncements. Pundits and reporters would be compelled to explain and handicap the horse race. Most importantly, this approach would give Mr. Biden time to find his own path. Like the rest of us, he would get to see who has the right stuff.

If this historic undertaking succeeds, Mr. Biden could confidently entrust a new generation to lead America across the bridge to the future he once promised us.

Thomas Bruce, Washington, Va.

Learn from House Republicans

Everyone is talking about President Biden withdrawing, but they have a chicken-and-egg problem. Mr. Biden can’t drop out if a divisive free-for-all would follow. And no major candidate will step up while Mr. Biden is still in the race. Democrats should take a lesson from an unlikely source: the House GOP process that gave them Speaker Mike Johnson (La.).

The situations are surprisingly similar. A slim majority made GOP unity a requirement for choosing a new speaker. Likewise, a tight election makes Democratic unity a requirement for switching candidates. In both cases, alienating any faction of the party is catastrophic. What finally got the GOP a speaker was finding consensus through ranked-choice voting in the backroom. Democrats should do the same.

Of course, Republicans failed three times before they wised up. But once the House GOP got serious, it held what amounted to a ranked-choice vote, a process that allows lesser-known candidates with broad appeal — such as Mr. Johnson — to emerge ahead of more polarizing candidates. It favors consensus. When the goal is unity, ranked-choice voting is the means.

To find a candidate who can unite the party, Democrats should conduct an anonymous straw poll in which respondents rank up to, say, eight candidates. Because party unity means consensus among factions, not leaders, poll respondents must be representative — so neither convention delegates nor the whole Democratic National Committee would be suitable respondent pools. Democratic and independent members of Congress, though, would be approximately representative.

If Mr. Biden decides from the poll results that someone else could better unite the party and win the election than he could, then he should secure the commitment of faction leaders to that consensus candidate and then withdraw. Mr. Biden has been, in my opinion, the best president in at least 50 years. He is fully capable of managing a politically delicate substitution of candidates, if he believes the time has come.

Jerry Cayford, Brunswick

Poll the delegates

If President Biden decides to step aside, the Democratic Party should not simply appoint Vice President Harris to the top of the ticket. To select the right candidate using the best democratic process available, the party should allow all delegates to vote via a secret ballot as soon as possible. By considering party delegates as primary voter representatives, we can ensure a fair and representative selection process. The individual who receives the most votes should lead the ticket, with the runner-up being offered the vice-presidential position.

Jack Kallis, Pittsburgh, Pa.

Candidates must step up

I was a 19-year-old American university student in Paris in March 1968 when Sen. Robert F. Kennedy announced he would be running for president. President Lyndon B. Johnson, also a Democrat, was up for reelection. Johnson was only 60 and his accomplishments as president were substantial, but the votes weren’t there, and the country needed a wake-up call.

It is time for a courageous Democrat, or Democrats, to take the initiative of announcing his or her candidacy and take on Donald Trump. It shouldn’t be a party decision, and the candidate shouldn’t be Vice President Harris unless she autonomously takes the initiative.

Mark Lombardo, Santa Luce, Italy

Let the party decide

Suppose the Democrats offered President Biden the promise of an active White House role as éminence grise? He would be spared the exhausting exigencies of the office while providing expertise and savvy that could ease a transition and create credibility and stability for a new team.

Then, party leaders, including Democratic National Committee CShair Jaime Harrison, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), could get together and agree on five candidates (Vice President Harris being one) they could all support. Let those contenders make their case (and raise some money) in the weeks before the convention, where other candidates could make their cases. Democrats would all get in line behind the convention winner while the DNC figures out how to get Mr. Biden’s unspent money into the chosen nominee’s hands.

An open convention would generate the excitement and energy we all long for. The Democratic bench is deep, and our chances of producing a strong winning ticket are good. The world would see American democracy at its messy best.

Anne Dorsey, Sausalito, Calif.

Flip the ticket

Regarding the July 5 letter “Biden should stay on the ticket. But he should replace Harris.”

The best ticket for the Democrats is Kamala D. Harris as candidate for president and, yes, Joe Biden as vice president. This ticket would offer three advantages: There would be no split at the Democratic National Convention because the delegates still would be voting for a Biden ticket, the campaign money would remain unquestionably available for the election, and Mr. Biden could keep the promise that he is staying in the race to beat Donald Trump.

Ms. Harris’s presence at the top of the ticket would remove concerns about Mr. Biden’s age and related cognitive acuity, and she could benefit from Mr. Biden’s 50 years of political experience and connections. With Mr. Biden still on the ticket, voters who value what he has accomplished would be reassured that his policies and beliefs would be likely to continue over the next four years. It’s hard to think of a more complementary ticket.

Tsze Chan, Falls Church

Jacqueline Higgins, Bethesda

Think this through

Well-intentioned Democrats are making a huge mistake if they think President Biden should “step aside” in favor of another candidate. They simply haven’t given adequate consideration to what happens next.

Do they expect him to step aside just from his candidacy for a second term, or from the presidency itself?

If he only forgoes his candidacy, he will become an immediate lame duck. And he’ll also be providing fuel to a Republican narrative that he is already incompetent. Anybody who watched CNN’s “State of the Union” on July 7 and listened to the comments made by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Scott Jennings will realize that message is already being delivered.

And if the new nominee will be selected during the Democratic National Convention in August, what topic of conversation do Democrats think will dominate the airwaves between now and then? Won’t it be all about who the new Democratic nominee might be? Shouldn’t it instead be about Donald Trump and the threat he poses to our American democracy? Two weeks have already been wasted. How many more weeks do they want to waste before they start focusing on Mr. Trump and Project 2025?

And why should Mr. Biden step aside from the presidency? At this time, he’s still perfectly capable of doing a good job. If he needs to step aside from the presidency in two or three years, the person who would replace him then is the same person who would replace him now. And if Vice President Harris is capable of becoming president now (or on Jan. 20, 2025), won’t she be even more capable and much better prepared two or three years from now?

Instead of kvetching about Mr. Biden’s occasional verbal stumbles and lost trains of thought, his critics should roll up their sleeves and get to work exposing Mr. Trump for what he is and doing what’s necessary to save our American democracy.

Kenneth P. Katt, Chesterfield, Mo.