I spent last week at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where a GOP once skeptical of Donald Trump made him their nominee for the third straight time—and celebrated the 78-year-old demagogue in the way that only a party of shameless grifters and blind loyalists can. How refreshing it was, then, that the whole spectacle ended with an act of real political selflessness: President Joe Biden’s decision to end his reelection campaign and pass the baton.

It didn’t come easy; Biden spent weeks resisting pressure to drop out, and in increasingly Shakespearean reports came off as petulant and unwilling to part with the power he’d spent his storied career chasing. That he ultimately relented—forgoing what he likely saw as an opportunity to once again get the better of his doubters to make way for someone better able to campaign against Trump—is a testament to the character so central to Biden’s political identity, but that has seemed hard to find more recently as he dug his heels in against the “elites” and “bedwetters.”

But it is also a testament to the Democratic Party, which—for its multitude of issues—drew a clear distinction between itself and the Party of Trump: “President Joe Biden is a patriotic American who has always put our country first,” wrote Nancy Pelosi, a key architect of the effort to get the president to pass the torch. “The exact opposite,” the former Barack Obama speechwriter and “self-important podcaster” Jon Favreau noted, “of Donald Trump.”

Biden’s presidency is not without its blemishes, of course—particularly in the way he has embodied both the great and terrible impulses of American foreign policy. But in ending what seemed almost certain to be a doomed reelection campaign, the president preserves some of the key aspects of his legacy—namely, his formidable domestic accomplishments and his having ended Trump’s disastrous presidency in 2020. Perhaps more importantly: His party preserves its institutional credibility, which was increasingly at risk as the Biden campaign asked voters to reject what their eyes and ears were telling them about the fitness of the commander-in-chief.

“Can’t help thinking Nancy Pelosi just did with Biden what Mitch McConnell never had the guts to do with Trump,” as the New Yorker’s Susan Glasser pointed out. The 2024 election was shaping up to be a rehash between two diminished men most Americans don’t seem to see as fit to serve in the highest office in the land. Only one will end up at the top of a ticket in November.

The move doesn’t just help Democrats retain the moral high ground over Republicans—they may soon see a tremendous political upside, as they line up behind Vice President Kamala Harris, whom Biden endorsed on Sunday. “I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party—and unite our nation—to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda,” Harris wrote after Biden’s stunning announcement. Democrats were clearly energized Sunday by the news, with more $50 million in online donations pouring in.

Harris has recently shown herself to be a strong surrogate for Biden, making a better case than the president himself for their administration’s accomplishments. And while her candidacy comes with its own issues—her own particular vulnerabilities, as well as the barriers she seeks to break down to become not only the first woman, but first Black and South Asian woman to win the presidency—it also would come with a tremendous advantage: the ability to prosecute the case against a second Trump term with the vigor Biden no longer has.

Trump has outpaced Biden all year, expanded his lead in polls after their excruciating June debate, and may still be considered the favorite to win in November—as things stand now. But with Biden’s exit, and the likely ascension of Harris, the dynamic of the race has changed: Days ago, Trump seemed to be facing a wide-open path back to power, as reflected by his choice of Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate—a selection that would enhance his right-wing governing power, but may not expand the electoral reach he needs to obtain it. Now, without the benefit of running against a fading 81-year-old, the focus of the whole contest could shift back to Trump—a widely loathed, twice-impeached 78-year-old convicted felon who has never won a popular vote and is running on an extreme agenda.

He’s put on a performance of defiance, insisting that—despite preferring to run against Biden—he views Harris as easier to beat. But, as Brian Stelter observed, Trump already seems to be trying to weasel his way out of the second debate in September.

None of this is to say the path forward against Trump will be easy. The Democratic candidate—and whomever they choose as their running mate—will face an ascendant right-wing, a Republican Party more unified around Trump than it was eight or even four years ago. And it will have to do it all in under four months, with enormous stakes for the country. But, as Nikki Haley put it as she challenged Trump for the GOP nomination earlier this year, “The first party to retire its 80-year-old candidate is going to win this election.”

We’ll see if she’s right. But either way, there’s this: Haley, the self-styled traditional Republican in the GOP primary, spent months calling Trump unfit, likening him to national “suicide,” and giving voice to the plain fact that he is “not qualified to be president of the United States.” On Tuesday night at the RNC, she offered him her “strong endorsement.”

For its faults in handling this Biden matter recently, and come what may in November, the Democratic Party at least remains one in which you don’t need to sacrifice that much dignity to remain in its graces—in which the ideals it purports to hold can still win out over individual ambitions.

That might not be much in normal circumstances. But in 2024, this year of disillusionment and tumult? I’ll take it for now.