When I was young, Eugene McCarthy and Bobby Kennedy challenged the sitting president, LBJ. No one thought it was weird for them to do so. In 1980, Teddy Kennedy challenged the sitting president, Jimmy Carter. No one thought it was weird for him to do so. People simply thought that was the democratic process. Because it is. The narrative that there's something *wrong* with challenging an incumbent president - as though there's an unwritten rule that it's a bad idea - is ridiculous. It's part of the "but it has to be this way" illusion by which political elites have trained people to limit our political imaginations for decades. People should run who feel moved to run, and everyone should have a chance to hear their ideas. Three people are running for the Democratic nomination in 2024 and three people should be seen together on a debate stage. *That* is the democratic way.