Biden’s classy call for an ‘America united’
“America has been tested, and we’ve come out stronger for it.”
The Bible promises, in Ecclesiastes, “a time to kill and a time to heal… a time to mourn and a time to dance.”
We’re not yet ready to dance, but we can begin to heal. President Biden isn’t an orator, but he was effective in his appeal from a fortified Capitol for an “America united.”
“Let’s start afresh,” he urged in his inaugural Aaddress. “Hear one another. See one another. Show respect for one another.”
“Every disagreement doesn’t have to be a cause for total war,” he added.
A sign that America was turning a page – make that starting a new chapter, even a new book – came on Wednesday as Biden appeared to delay his morning schedule so as not to divert television attention and step on former President Donald Trump’s farewell speech at Joint Base Andrews. It seemed a classy gesture to a departing president so graceless that he didn’t attend the inauguration.
When Biden announced his campaign almost two years ago, he declared, “We are in a battle for the soul of this nation.” That battle is still underway, because only 19 percent of Republicans said in a CNN survey that they believe Biden legitimately won the presidential election.
Biden reached out to inhabitants of alternative realities in his inaugural address, calling for “the most elusive of all things in a democracy – unity.”
“I will be a president for all Americans. All Americans,” he said. “And I promise you, I will fight as hard for those who did not support me as for those who did.”
Over the last four years, many Americans have wondered whether American democracy would survive. Books of this epoch included the best seller “How Democracies Die.” Yet while Trump and his accomplices mounted a continual assault, our institutions and norms survived.
“Democracy is precious, democracy is fragile,” Biden declared. “And at this hour, my friends, democracy has prevailed.” He added, “America has been tested, and we’ve come out stronger for it.” To be continued