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For the past year, at least, the so-called wisest Democrats in Washington have not simply been telling me that President Biden is a strong candidate for president, or even their best candidate but also that he is the only candidate who can possibly beat Donald Trump, because he is the only one who has done it before.

This was always a childlike rationale. Trump has only beaten one very flawed Democrat, and his party has lost every national election since, so its not like you have to be the love child of Lyndon Johnson and Margaret Thatcher to have a chance at beating him. But within the first 20 seconds of Thursdays debate, as Biden shuffled slowly and unsteadily toward the lectern, it must have occurred even to the presidents admirers that, far from being the only candidate who can win, he might not even rank in the top 10.

The question everyones asking is: What comes next? If the answer is chaos and contention, I think Democrats would be wise to bring it on.

Of course, the party, such as still exists, should never have put the country in this kind of foreseeable peril to begin with. As Ive written several times, Democrats were dead set on nominating an 81-year-old incumbent with a 40 percent approval rating, with democracy hanging in the balance, largely because they feared that his vice president would otherwise inherit the top spot on the ticket and lose.

Now, they find themselves in the predictable position of having realized possibly too late that the imagery of a Biden campaign will overwhelm anything he has to say about policy or judgment. Democrats committed the age-old political sin of confusing hope with strategy, and the country is now at risk of paying for it.

Biden might yet be persuaded to step aside and let the party choose another nominee. But that would likely mean a scramble for votes and a floor fight at the convention (assuming the party couldnt unify behind Vice President Harris by the time of a virtual nomination vote in August). This scares Democrats to death. It shouldnt.

Democrats harbor a deep, almost pathological fear of disorderly conventions. This goes all the way back to 1968 (and, to some extent, 1980 as well), when divisions inside the party burst into the open, cleaving constituencies and creating an indelible image of disarray. In both of those years, Democrats controlled the White House and, both times, their internal bickering seemed mostly responsible for squandering it.

For generations of Democrats, maybe the worst nightmare imaginable involved an alien race of little Richard Nixons and Newt Gingriches beaming down from space and enslaving the human race. But a raucous convention ranked a pretty close second.

Let me, however, state what should be regrettably obvious: Nothing about our society looks like it did in 1968. Parties, like all big institutions in American life, are losing their currency. Nominating conventions barely register on the public radar these days, for the few hours that anyone bothers to televise them while the rest of America is at the lake or the beach. We skim right over the dull choreography of the modern convention; it is the junk mail of prime-time programming.

Unscripted TV, on the other hand, is now the closest thing we have to a culturally shared experience, outside of the Super Bowl. What is the genesis of Trump, if not a national thirst for unscripted entertainment? He represents the triumph of personality over party, a creation not of politics, but of everything that is impolitic and impolite.

If Biden were to accept reality and step aside, for once, Democrats would have a genuine opportunity to match Trumps theatrical dominance. What better way to recast yourself with the electorate than through a gripping, episodic fight for leadership? What could draw more people into politics than a must-watch nightly drama, with the fate of the nation at stake? I have to believe that Trump a modern-day P.T. Barnum who feeds off the boring artifice of his adversaries fears that spectacle more than anything.

And in a political age in which familiarity breeds distrust, what could be more advantageous than choosing a nominee preferably one from outside Washington with only two months to campaign? Imagine the explosion of interest that would surround some fresh, non-octogenarian Gretchen Whitmer, Gavin Newsom, Gina Raimondo, Josh Shapiro during a 10-week barnstorming tour. Hows Trump going to handle that?

Even Harris, for all her flaws as a political messenger, would benefit immensely from an open fight, should she ultimately triumph. It would reintroduce her as a unifier and a winner, and afford her a rare opportunity to commandeer the national stage.

I understand why Democrats flinch at the thought of blowing everything up now, with the primaries over and the convention approaching. I get that chaos and dissension always come with a mountain of risk.

Is it more risk than the one theyre taking with Biden at the top of the ticket? If you watched the debate, you already know the answer.

Read more here:
Opinion | An open Democratic convention would be must-see TV (and smart politics) - The Washington Post