During his unusual speech to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night, President Joe Biden used the word “democracy.” over and over again.
Some of them were trite invocations, as was the case when he talked about “reviving” our democracy – a promise made by more than one president and a bromide intended to soothe the soul of the nation. Others were more stern, as when he spoke about the Jan. 6 sacking of the U.S. Capitol, calling it “the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.”
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However, one mention of democracy in Biden’s primetime speech really stood out. It came to an end when he spoke about the challenges facing a country that looks down on geopolitical allies who hope for our failure as a nation. But he could just as easily be talking about forces in the country that are similarly hoping for the downfall of his administration, which is being fueled by an aspiring autocrat in exile in South Florida.
It is reproduced in full below:
“The question of whether our democracy will last is both eternal and urgent, as senior as our republic and still relevant? Can our democracy fulfill the promise that all of us – created equal in the image of God – have the opportunity to lead lives of dignity, respect and opportunity? Can our democracy meet the most urgent needs of our citizens? Can our democracy overcome the lies, anger, hatred and fears that have torn us apart?
“America’s enemies, the world’s autocrats, assume we can’t. And I promise you, they assume we can’t. They think we are too full of anger, division and rage. They look to images of the mob that attacked the Capitol as evidence that the sun is setting on American democracy. But they are wrong. You know it, I know it. But we have to prove them wrong. We must prove that democracy still works, that our government still works, and that we can serve our citizens.
There, Biden spoke about both our present and our history.
It’s no secret, as Vox notes democracies around the world are under siegeand that the promises of authoritarian regimes appeal to a certain section of society.
Look no further than growing popularity French presidential candidate Marine LePen. There are Trump-aligned Republicans on Capitol Hill like U.S. Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, who recently urged repulsive “replacement theory” during a House of Representatives committee hearing.
Future historians will evaluate how democratic governments around the world respond to these threats. And the price of failure is high.
During Wednesday’s speech, Biden again called on Republicans to join the effort to find compromise on the radical shift in the economic outlook that has been the hallmark of his first 100 days. However, he made it clear that he was ready to proceed without them.
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“I just want to make it clear that from my point of view, doing nothing is not an option. Look, we can’t get so busy competing with each other that we forget about the competition we have with the rest of the world to win in the 21st century,” he said, warning that Chinese President Xi Jinping was “deadly eager to become the winner of the most important and influential nation in the world. He and other autocrats believe that democracy in the 21st century cannot compete with autocrats because it takes too long to reach consensus.”
He made the same appeal to Americans, especially those who did not vote for him, to join these efforts, recalling the words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt: “…in America we do our part. We all do our part. That’s all I’m asking. Let us all do our part. If we do this, we will have met the central challenge of our era, proving that democracy is tough and sturdy. Autocrats will not win the future. We will do it. America will do it. And the future belongs to America.”
At no other time would an American president have had to make such an emotional and urgent appeal to his fellow citizens to rally around and support our nation’s core values, the ones we drill into the heads of our children in social studies classes.
But as the last four years, ending with the outbreak of violence and high treason at the Capitol on January 6, have shown, these are not ordinary times. And while Biden invoked the memory of America’s 32nd president to make his case, I will invoke the memory of another, the 16th, from whom Republicans who have strayed so far to make mine.
I’m talking in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, November 19, 1863President Abraham Lincoln exhorted Americans to “…resolve firmly that these dead have not died in vain – that this nation under God shall be born again in freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
This is the debt we owe to those we have lost during the pandemic; for the American soldiers who gave their lives to preserve our democracy. Biden bet on such democracy on Wednesday.
And then, as now, we will all have to ensure the survival of American democracy.
