"When Joe Biden ran for president in 2020, he spoke with a calm, deliberate conviction about the "battle for the soul of the nation." It wasn't a campaign slogan so much as a warning. He talked about restoring decency, dignity, and democracy, the sacred trifecta of our national character. Related: Joe Biden Is Giving the World a Lesson on Moving Forward During the 2022 midterm races, Biden renewed the call to "battle for the soul of our nation.""
"His voice would often lower when he invoked that word, "soul," as if he knew he was speaking of something very fragile that, like a delicate flower, could fall apart easily if we weren't vigilant. In his farewell address, Biden returned to the same theme, reminding us that the soul of the nation is not a partisan idea but the very essence of who we are, our empathy, our decency, our respect for truth and each other."
"I listened to that speech again and mourned that loss of unmitigated decency and eloquence from the Oval Office. President Biden was eloquent in a way that reflected some of America's greatest presidents, and most certainly not the current one. He was earnest, reflective, and deeply human. Biden believed in America's better angels because he'd wrestled with his own hardships and, perhaps, because he saw that under a Trump presidency, the soul of the nation would fall into the abyss."
Joe Biden framed the 2020 campaign as a battle for the nation's soul, calling for restoration of decency, dignity, and democracy and renewing that call during the 2022 midterms. His voice softened when invoking the fragile idea of the nation's soul and he warned it could fall apart without vigilance. In his farewell address he described the soul as the country's empathy, decency, and respect for truth and others. Observers mourned the loss of decency and eloquence from the Oval Office and contrasted Biden's earnestness with the current presidency. Two monuments embody the nation's soul: the Capitol as the people's voice that enacted laws expanding liberty and correcting injustice, and the White House as the people's home, a stage and sanctuary for proud and painful moments.
Read at Advocate.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]