Post columnists debate the weight of their bags of despair.

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The election is 111 days away, I think! Monday was Day 1 of the Republican National Convention, themed “Make America Wealthy Once Again.” Yesterday was “Make America Safe Once Again” night.

There’s lots of campaign remaining, yet I am seeing Axios report in which a senior House Democrat says, “We’ve all resigned ourselves to a second Trump presidency.” So I’m here with my friends and Post colleagues Shadi Hamid and Perry Bacon to ask: Are these doom levels correct?

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Alexandra Petri: Shadi, Perry, I want to ask you: What do you make of this feeling of resignation? On a scale from “1” (not resigned) to “Richard Nixon on Aug. 9, 1974,” would you describe yourself as resigned?

Shadi Hamid: I’m resigned. If Biden refuses to step aside, I just don’t see any plausible path to victory. And so, I’m preparing accordingly, steeling myself for a Trump presidency and trying to adapt mentally for the new reality.

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I’m angry that it’s come to this. I feel betrayed and gaslighted by the Democratic Party. We were fed a fictional Joe Biden and, once we realized the truth, we were expected to just go along with it and not ask too many questions.

While I might be resigned, I’m not sure senior House Democrats should feel the same way. Unlike me, they still have the power to change the race before it’s too late. This would be the moment to *not* accept defeat.

Perry Bacon: Three. I think Biden can still win. Not because of him but because I hope/imagine/wishcast that on Oct. 16, or so, it clicks that Donald Trump could be president against and voters/civic society/the business community/everyone rises to stop that. Also, Biden is close in lots of states.

Alexandra: Perry, thanks for the specific numerical response! And I also love the specific October date! Oscar Wilde’s birthday! And Angela Lansbury’s! Shadi, you sound pretty disillusioned with Democrats’ handling of the Biden situation. What do you think now?

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Shadi: If Democrats working for or on behalf of Biden really think, as they say, that Trump is an existential threat, then you’d think they’d try to win instead of being “resigned.” If a majority of congressional Democrats came out and called for Biden to step aside and said they would not support him, then that might actually make a difference.

To Perry’s point about the threat of Trump dawning on voters as we get closer to November, I’d question the whole premise — why do we assume that voters are going to be so frightened about a Trump presidency? If Democrats can’t be bothered to run a good candidate, why should the rest of us treat this as some existential battle between good and evil? As the Financial Times’s Edward Luce pithily put it: “Seems people prefer a probable loss to the risk of winning.”

If we think that Trump will end democracy as we know it, then we’d presumably run someone who can prosecute that case. Biden can’t make that case; it’s unclear he can make any case in a cogent enough manner to convince anyone who has real doubts.

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I’d also note the profound enthusiasm gap between Republicans and Democrats now. I watched Day 1 of the Republican National Convention with envy. They have a candidate and now a VP that they’re excited about. On the Democratic side, we’re all depressed about the future.

I’m thinking to myself: What would it feel like to be excited about our own candidate? I forgot how that feels.

Alexandra: Shadi, yeah, I do wonder for these senior folks, which is it? “A second Trump term will seriously undermine our democratic institutions” or “I don’t want to stick my neck out to preserve my chances for 2028 when I anticipate those institutions will be sufficiently intact for me to run”?

Perry: Most of my friends sound like Shadi. They are mad that party leaders are not pushing Biden out. I am less sure Biden will lose or another Democrat would win. Still, I wish Biden would stop acting like he alone is the presidency and read the room. He should step back without a fight. But I am not resigned.

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I feel like a lot of people will fight really hard to stop Trump from winning when Election Day is in sight. I will not assume failure even if the Democratic candidate is a flawed one.

Shadi: I think part of the problem here is that senior Democrats may think they believe Trump will destroy democracy — even if they actually don’t. People are complicated, and they deceive themselves. This is why looking at “revealed preferences” can be helpful. Rhetoric is nice but you have to look at how people behave in real life.

I don’t think any of this is particularly conscious, but when Democrats don’t seem particularly exercised about a Trump presidency when they still have the power to........

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