A potential Biden administration would need prove that democracy is still the best form of government. U.S. competition with China, Russia, and Iran is no less ideological than the Cold War was. Those states want to make the world in their own images, an ambition that includes promoting likeminded autocracies. The current sorry state of affairs in the United States strengthens their case against democracy. That these arguments are picking up steam globally is even vivid in American political debates, as some commentators on the center-left, like Tom Friedman, routinely praise China’s centralized system while right-wing intellectuals are dangerously fascinated by and fond of a kind of Christianist nationalism with a Putinist twist.

Rehabilitating American democracy for the world to see is not a task that Joe Biden, or any one president, can accomplish alone. It takes two to tango, and a new president will also need the Congress to once again become a legislating body (as opposed to a performative one, as it is now).

Joe Biden’s campaign’s theme has not been heavily ideological; rather it has focused on restoring the soul of America. That’s exactly what he needs to do. For the sake of the soul of America, he will need to put governance above ideology. He would have working to his advantage the widespread assumption that he will not seek re-election—so Republicans won’t have as much of an incentive as they had with Barack Obama of undermining his administration for electoral reasons.