This is how President Trump would destroy our democracy

Even after that, careerism, cowardice, and indecision paralyzed party leaders for weeks. Meanwhile, the media was dominated by negative stories about Democratic Party dysfunction, internal discord, a greatly weakened candidate, and collapsing voter morale. Although calls for Biden to withdraw eventually began to trickle in, the agony dragged on. Ultimately, it took Representative Nancy Pelosi—who, at 84 and no longer speaker of the House, had no direct stake in staying in power—to persuade and manipulate enough people to insist that Biden withdraw, for the good of the country and the party.

It would be hard to find a more glaring example of how inertia, fear, self-interest, tradition, and sentiment can prevent the actions necessary to preserve our system of government. The stakes were enormous: If Biden did not concede, Democrats would face almost certain defeat in November, and the scenarios we have outlined in the Democracy Futures Project would almost certainly come to pass.

Thankfully, Biden ultimately did the right thing, and with Vice President Kamala Harris now the presumptive Democratic nominee, new energy and creativity are fueling collective action among Democrats and those opposed to Trump’s victory, and we may be starting to learn from our brush with disaster. Technologies like Zoom are being used to mobilize vast numbers of people and attract a flood of new donations. Early polling suggests that key groups essential to winning in November—voters of color, women, young voters—are enthusiastically joining the movement to elect Harris president.