Operation Coadjutor

“Operation Coadjutor”: What the Episcopal Church may have to have to teach the Democratic National Party  

In the Episcopal Church, which I have had the honor of calling my spiritual home for five decades now, a bishop nearing retirement can choose to call for the election of a what’s known as a bishop coadjutor. Unlike an assistant bishop, who is appointed directly by the bishop to serve as an additional pair of hands, the bishop coadjutor is chosen by the diocesan convention (the governing body of the diocese) in a convention specifically appointed for this purpose. Once elected, this person becomes the officially designated successor to the active bishop.

 There is no formal time limit attached to the coadjutor post; the diocesan bishop is not obligated to vacate immediately. But typically, a period of intentional transition ensues, in which the retiring bishop gradually brings the new incumbent up to full speed and shifts more and more of the leadership onto his or her shoulders. When the moment arrives, the retiring bishop stands down and the bishop coadjutor becomes the full-fledged diocesan bishop.

For generations this process has served the Episcopal Church well, providing both orderliness and openness (i.e., new blood) in the process of episcopal succession.

The proposal I am about make here is that with only a few minor adjustments (i.e., substitute “Democratic National Convention” for “diocesan convention”), the same protocol might serve our deeply embattled Democratic National Party equally well.

Under this proposed scenario Joe Biden remains the Party’s presidential nominee. But the novel element in what I'm suggesting is that rather than having the nominee choose his running mate, as has traditionally been done (the V.P. thus functioning essentially as an “assistant bishop”), the decision is instead placed in the hands of the Democratic National Convention, who will elect the vice-president from among a slate of candidates. The winner essentially becomes “PRESIDENT COADJUTOR,” the party’s designated successor to Joseph Biden, whose impending retirement is also thereby discretely announced.

One can only hope, of course, that the Convention, recognizing the do-or-die stakes of the present game, might temporarily rise above political correctness, traditional “diversification” strategies (the V.P. should be a woman, a person of color, etc.), and instead pull together to choose the most electable candidate —i.e., the one with the best chance of emerging as an inspiring standard bearer for the American democracy that Biden has so valiantly stood in the breach for these past four years.

If Joe Biden is re-elected under this scenario, it is with the full acknowledgement that his second term will be a period of active mentorship and transition to get the new “president coadjutor” fully up to speed, including an increasingly equal leadership in policy and decision-making. The outside limit for the completion of this transition would obviously be four years. To the degree that the timeline could be accelerated, it would give the new incumbent a huge head start in the 2028 election.

Not all presidential nominees could handle this arrangement, of course. But because Joe Biden is the man that he is, I believe that he can rise to the challenge of working with a person he did not hand-pick—and even more, the challenge of consciously and publicly “diminishing,” releasing authority to the person who will succeed him. The silver lining for him in this that it allows him to transition himself from faltering player to wise coach, surely a more fitting final role for a man who has given so many decades of selfless service to his country.

Among the various options being currently floated (“Operation Consistency,” “Operation Carnival,” “Operation Convention,” Operation Kamala” as Timothy Snyder dubbed them in a July 9 Substack post) this “OPERATION COADJUTOR” option tics several of the boxes missed by the other proposals:

1.     It acknowledges the source of voter jitters (Biden’s age) squarely and without evasion, but lifts the whole issue out of the humiliating ballpark in which it’s currently playing out (“Is Joe Biden still fit to be president?”) and proactively reframes it in terms of the deeper underlying question: the clear need for responsible successorship and the active midwifing of a new generation of American leaders. It reframes the entire vision and voter perception of the Democratic party.

2.     It preserves order and consistency in the electoral process, unlike a ‘survivor’- style sweepstakes on the floor and the likely emergence of an untested new front runner without a sufficient national profile to carry the day against Donald Trump.

3.     It honors and utilizes the impressive skill, leadership, and mature experience that Biden has brought to the role of president and draws on the power of his incumbency in respectful and stabilizing ways.

4.     By deflecting the electoral contest onto the VICE-presidency rather than presidency, it lowers the stakes just enough to make the prospect actually enactable.

5.     Most important, it offers voters an opportunity to “vote their future,” rather than being forced to place all their eggs in the basket of a visibly waning leader in order to maintain a tenuous firewall around the further erosion of democracy under Trump's unabashedly authoritarian pretensions. 

Whether this is sufficient to turn the tide, I do not know. But it seems to me at least a beginning step in the right direction. The Democratic party has a little over a month now make up its mind.