Biden must boldly restate the case for democracy

It is the predominant advice to the new president that he focus his budget address to Congress on jobs, jobs, jobs. This reflects a consensus that the Republican Party’s culture war can be defeated by serving the economic interests of average Americans — that blood-and-iron appeals can be overcome by bread-and-butter issues. This sets up a type of political conflict that is difficult for social science to describe. How do you poll a contest in which one side offers a child-care proposal and the other side alleges a nationwide conspiracy to steal a presidential election? Or in which some set out an infrastructure plan and others warn of a satanic conspiracy to rape children? It’s like comparing apples to existentialism.

Democrats are in a constructive and ambitious mood, trying to squeeze a vast heap of pentup liberalism through a legislative aperture the size of a mouse hole. The few establishment Republicans who remain are going through the motions of an ideological response, defending fiscal responsibility, limited government and a spirit of inclusion. This will be the substance of South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott’s response to President Biden’s address.

Scott can credibly claim these traditional Republican themes for himself. But if he attributes those values to his party, he will be lying. Trumpism in power cared nothing about the level of government spending; Donald Trump’s main fiscal concern was getting his name printed on the stimulus checks.

Biden’s return to normalcy and basic humanity has led to a great unclenching in our public life. It is a pleasure to be occasionally bored by politics again. But it would be a mistake for Biden to assume that our political system has returned to its previous state, à la memory foam. The Republican Party remains dominated by an apocalyptic politics that accuses liberals of dismantling Western civilization and authorizes undemocratic means to save civilization. Many conservatives — parroting media outlets that profit from incitement — have become reactionary and authoritarian. Their return to power in a second Trump term would be a threat to the republic.

I am fully aware that my description of this apocalyptic movement is itself apocalyptic. But it’s absurd to deny that the American right is infected by a strain of authoritarian thinking that has turned other democracies into repressive shadows of their former selves.

We remain a democracy at risk. But how can Biden confront this development without further polarizing the country? It would certainly not be helpful to call out these trends in the GOP directly, as I have done.

Biden’s challenge in his first speech to Congress is to make a compelling, even poetic, case for procedural democracy.

This is not an easy rhetorical task. Fanatics can easily appeal to rage, envy or fear. Capturing the romance of self-government requires more craft and thought. The democratic virtues of civility, tolerance, decency, fairness and empathy announce themselves quietly. The social bonds created by these virtues — respect for the rule of law, respect for the rights of political minorities, a sense of shared destiny despite large differences — are inherently vulnerable. A democracy is held together by millions of invisible ties — ties of memory and mutual regard — that are easier to cut than to repair.

In the shadow of Jan. 6, the case for democracy needs bold restatement. A government of divided and balanced powers, created by the consent of the governed and dedicated to the rights and dignity of the individual, is a tremendous moral achievement. The historical exclusion of many people from the protection of this ideal does not discredit it; it demands that ideal’s more rigorous application. Our shared commitment to these democratic principles is what makes a nation out of nations. In his address to Congress, Biden will have an opportunity, like every president, to advance his agenda. He faces the need — as few presidents have before him — to defend democracy in a time of peril.