In his first speech as president, Joe Biden emphasized unity, situating his inauguration among other tense moments in American history where democracy prevailed despite the country’s divisions and crises.
Referencing the Civil War, the Great Depression, and World War II, Biden’s address stood in stark contrast to the “American carnage” references his predecessor used four years ago, clarifying the challenges facing the nation but asking Americans to appeal to their better natures. While calling out the toxic nature of the misinformation that has divided the country — a notable mention while speaking to dozens of Republican lawmakers who denied his electoral win — Biden affirmed his belief in a unified country.
“Politics doesn’t have to be a raging fire, destroying everything in its path,” Biden said. “We must reject the culture in which facts themselves are manipulated and even manufactured. My fellow Americans, we have to be different than this. America has to be better than this. And I believe America is so much better than this.”
Biden’s speech is about appealing to “our better angels,” “history, faith, and reason,” “dignity,” “respect,” “unity.”
It’s literally a rebuttal to Trump’s “American carnage” Inaugural address.
— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) January 20, 2021
Biden presented a harmonious, hopeful vision of the country — something of a continuation with his (perhaps overly) idealistic campaign rhetoric that painted America as a nation better than its actions under President Donald Trump. On Inauguration Day, however, he did not gloss over the country’s issues, clearly calling out white supremacy, domestic terrorism, and racial injustice as being challenges to the soul of the nation, promising his “whole soul” was in the fight to make America “once again the leading force for good.”
The solution to America’s problems and the divisions it faces, Biden said, “is not to turn inward, to retreat into competing factions, distrusting those who don’t look like you or worship the way you do or don’t get their news from the same sources you do.”❐
