I think your attempt to be “fair and balanced” has capsized your ship.

Ah, my ship is fine. But I think others' attempts to decide that Democrats are substantially different from Republicans, overall, is a bit listing.

What happened with Biden doesn't show that Democrats are inherently different than Republicans, but that Biden is inherently different than Trump. Biden has loyalty and affinity for the party, and was willing to take one for the team. There were plenty of Democrats that were 100% on board with fighting for Biden had he stayed in the race - a ton of the party willing to get behind a patently flawed candidate because they felt it was more important to advance their other priorities. But Biden got out of the way, because he didn't want to hurt the party.

So ask yourself - what if he hadn't?

Seriously - if Joe Biden had stayed in the race and remained the nominee, do you honestly think that the Democratic party would have simply conceded the race to Trump? Just not supported the nominee? Said, well, Joe's not up for the job so the right thing to do is just let the GOP win the Presidency? I don't believe that for a second. They would have done exactly what the Republicans did - held their nose and rallied around the nominee they had, and tied themselves in knots to justify it.

If you think that's just because Trump was uniquely awful, I'm pretty sure the same thing would have happened if Platner had refused to withdraw as well. You think the Democrats would concede that Collins could get to be Senator for another six years, and abandon the effort to retake the Senate? I think instead they would have found away to rationalize it away, that controlling the Senate was more important than any one candidate's flaws. Collins isn't History's Greatest Monster like Trump, but it's still too important to try to win the Senate and stop Trump than to abandon that goal over a flawed candidate. Etc.

The difference was that Trump had the means and the utter narcissism to hold onto that nomination. There were Never Trumpers and folks who didn't want him to be the nominee - both in 2016 and 2024 - but once it became clear he couldn't and wouldn't be dislodged, most of the party accepted that it's better (for them) to win the election with a deeply flawed candidate than lose it. The Democrats were able to avoid that situation because Biden isn't Trump - but if Biden had refused to yield, dollars to donuts it plays out similarly on the Democratic side.

The Democrats are fortunate that they've never been tested this way - but I do not believe they would refuse to support a candidate in a must-win election like the Presidency or the deciding Senate seat if they couldn't dislodge them. They'd make the same, terrible choice that the GOP made.