A VOTE FOR JOE BIDEN IS A VOTE FOR CITIZENSHIP
The headlines for November’s rematch between President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump have correctly cast what this election is about. It’s obvious. We are deciding between Trump and democracy, Trump and the soul of our nation, Trump and competent leadership.
Those choices are stark, but have we stopped and asked: Are we acting like a country who wants a president like Joe Biden?
“I don’t think President Biden is on trial. I think we are. This is a test of citizenship,” historian Jon Meacham said on MSNBC late last year. “It requires two beats of thought. It requires saying OK, ‘I don’t agree with 25% of what’s going on’ but ya know what? He’s not gonna break the law. He’s not gonna storm the Capitol.”
Meacham asks whether the electorate is lowering the bar for its leaders. Well, the answer is yes, but we darn near dropped it in 2016 when we ignored Trump’s blatant inadequacies to hold the nation’s highest office.
We need to remember who Joe Biden is and why a vote for him is best for the country.
The way we do that is remembering the power of citizenship.
BECOMING CITIZENS AGAIN
We’ve heard it before: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”
The question from former President John F. Kennedy is etched into our country’s moral compass. It is a call for us to work for the public good.
This country has never not gotten it right the first time, but this country has corrected its moral failures. If that were not the case, women would still not be able to vote, and many of us would still be drinking from different water fountains.
Our nation’s presidents have led us through extraordinary challenges, our darkest moments, from Abraham Lincoln to Franklin Roosevelt and Kennedy, whose moral clarity and authority were the foundation on which progress was made.
Have we thought deeply about what happens to this country if a man like Trump, who believes that when it comes to white supremacists and everyone else, there are “good people on both sides,” as he bluntly said in 2017 after a Unite the Right rally, returns to the White House?
Do we really want to vote for a man who didn’t want to condemn the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin? Do we really want to give our precious vote to man who tried to sell voters at the Black Conservative Federation in Columbia, South Carolina, on the idea that his 91 criminal charges and Ronald McDonald-style shoe makes him cool with Black people?
FINDING OUR BAR
The ugly truth is that Donald Trump and his MAGA supporters didn’t lower the bar, we all did. But in 2024, we have the ability to reset the bar by voting again for a candidate who has the moral responsibility that it takes to be president.
Biden hasn’t been a perfect president, but we shouldn’t be asking for perfection. We should be asking for decency, for the willingness to listen to supporters and to people across the political aisle. Biden has done that in his four years as president and will do so in the future.
We have lost our way as a country when elections are characterized as the “lesser of two evils.”
Does the world look bleak at the moment? Sure, but that doesn’t and shouldn’t keep us from completing our duties as Americans by having a basic understanding of what’s at stake and then voting.
We don’t see the lowering of gas prices, the boom of Wall Street or the resurgence of jobs without a leader like Biden who is committed to solving our nation’s issues, not playing to his base. We’ve seen in situations like that of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who was ousted by MAGA Republicans after he chose to work with Democrats to avoid a government shutdown, that the house built by men like Lincoln is on fire. We must avoid getting burned.
No matter how you want to present Trump vs Biden, this much is true: A vote for Joe Biden isn’t just a vote for democracy, the soul of our nation or against the undemocratic MAGA nation. It’s a vote for Joseph R. Biden Jr., a man who has led this country with decency, the notion that by listening to other people, we can achieve our common goal of bettering America.
The president has a moral obligation to lead this country in the right direction, but it’s our obligation as citizens to be engaged in the political process of our country.
The America that will live on is the America built by concerned citizens who want to be on the right side of history, but also understand the difficult waters that a president must navigate.
Citizenship requires a great deal of empathy. Are we giving that to Joe Biden? Consider that as you head the polls on Tuesday.