This week, President Joe Biden became the 9th among the 46 Presidents we have elected since the beginning of our nation to decide not to run for re-election. I don’t know all the reasons previous Presidents made that decision, but I do know about two: our Founding Father, George Washington, and the only one to do so during my lifetime, Lyndon B. Johnson.

Our records of George Washington lead us to believe he was a man of service, not personal ego. After serving as the General who won the War of Independence, he appeared happy to return to a private life in Virginia. James Madison convinced him that all the original states would only participate in the development of the US Constitution if he presided, and so he did. Then he was unanimously elected by the Electoral College as our first President. (A side note: If you want a great book about how George Washington became our first and primordial leader, I recommend a book written by MY BROTHER, David Cross: Indispensable: Learning How to Succeed and Lead from George Washington — link to purchase).

Our first President was also the first to resign. Knowing his popularity, he wanted respect for the job to transcend respect for him personally. Mostly, he was concerned about establishing that the presidency should change and evolve and reflect different perspectives in the country, not be centered in one person or one family. He stepped aside to make sure the presidency became a recurring referrendum, not a monarchical following of a single personality/family.

And then there was Lyndon Johnson. He never had the romantic adulation of the man from whom he tragically obtained the Presidency, the assassinated John F. Kennedy, the king of Camelot. But he was the man who turned a lot of those ideas into reality. He was the architect of the Great Society, and the man whose long years in Congress produced the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which was the most significant protection of African American rights since the 15th Amendment in 1870. But he was also a pragmatic man, telling his press secretary, Bill Moyers, on the night of the signing of the bill: “Well, I think we may have lost the South for your lifetime — and mine.”

As things stand now in 2024, those words seem prophetic. But they are the words of a man who put principle over politics.

President Johnson did not refuse to run for a second term over that, however. He had health concerns, and was more worried about a presidential disability than over his own death. He did not want to be a repeat of the final terms of Woodrow Wilson or Franklin D. Roosevelt, who struggled to fulfill the demands of the office while in ill health. But ultimately, (in my interpretation of history) he believed that as he tried to de-esculate the war in Vietnam, his attempts to seek peace would not be believed by the Vietnamese, given that his biggest opponents in the Democratic party were anti-war advocates. So he decided the best thing for the US was for him to forego seeking another term.

I believe that President Biden follows in the footsteps of these admirable men, who put country before ego. And I appreciate that his stepping aside allows a candidate who represents so many millions of Americans who have not seen themselves represented in the Presidency before. Including me.

But for the most beautiful expressions of how I see this political event unfolding, I turn to one of my great idols, Lin-Manuel Miranda. Please consider the wisdom from this number from his most famous Broadway show, Hamilton.