The answer, as we now know, is that it did a lot of damage, deepening America’s divisions into hellish chasms and ensuring, with the Capitol riots of January 6, that the next president would have to raise America, phoenix-like, from the ashes to restore legitimacy to political office and turn Trump into a ghost from a nightmare past. The election of Joe Biden was seen by many, myself included, as a merciful rematch and a promise of a return to the America of the great (or at least the democratic). Yes, Biden was alarmingly old and crotchety, but his lack of aggression, his grandparental aura, his integrity and experience as an elder statesman, seemed to make him almost a plausible solution to America’s immediate crisis. Reality, unfortunately, has not confirmed this desperate hope. Instead of persuading Americans to abandon the savage battles over the ghosts of the culture war and end its enslavement to rabid identitarianism and heart-wrenching conspiracy theories, he seemed to stoke division, albeit in his feeble way. His speech in Philadelphia on Thursday, as the political season and midterms begin, was a case in point. Housed in impressively old (by American standards, that is – dating back to 1753) Independence Hall, the same site where America declared independence, Biden set the stage for a powerful national address. But instead of using it to uplift, inspire and embrace it, she used it to complain, scare and whine. Called the Ongoing Battle for the Soul of the Nation, the speech managed to be both blunt and negative. Americans rallied a bit around clichéd images, which, I admit, still resonate with anyone who still remembers what it was like to be proud of the world’s most amazing country. But in this speech, it just sounded painful. “We the people burn within each of us the flame of freedom that was kindled here in Independence Hall,” he said. But in Biden’s mid-2022 America, many Americans believe that freedom means the right of every citizen to own the kind of gun that can (and is) easily used to kill five-year-olds. Many believe it means banning abortion and even, for some fundamentalists, contraception period. Meanwhile, on the social justice-crazed left, many believe that freedom means disbanding the police and letting men compete in women’s sports. In other words, it was a woefully empty piece of rhetoric, and the fact that it felt like it was being shouted from the depths of water only shed light on how far a real understanding of freedom – freedom and justice for all, just as he had to recite in school every day – has been. out of sight. Crucially, the depressing bulk of Biden’s speech focused on the threat to American democracy posed by Trump’s continuing threat: the MAGAs (Make America Great Again). supporters and organizers of the January 6 invasion of the capital, activism to nullify the 2020 election and, of course, the threat of Trump returning to the White House. It’s not that Biden portrayed Maga’s ideology, his addiction to conspiracy and violence, and the truly terrifying threat to democracy if the White House returns to Trump or one of Maga’s cronies. But he was still mad to use this reason to grab him. Did he really believe that dividing America into those who feel the “flame of freedom” and those who support Trump would actually achieve what it so desperately needs to achieve? Of course not: it only proves what Maga fans already believe: that they are enemy aliens in an America gone mad. A speech that condemns them is not going to make them recognize that they are terrible. It never works that way. Nor does he tend to muster the strength to fight the good fight. It just depresses them. A more gifted orator than Biden, like Barack Obama, might have been able to make a virtue of the speech terror tactic. But Biden is one of the worst orators in American presidential history. It’s surprising, then, that none of his advisers pointed out the obvious: the only way Biden could begin to unify America would be with a carrot, not a stick. An enticing proposition, in other words, like a road map to promote wealth creation, create a rocket in the back of the economy, unleash tremendous scientific and technological advances that are only possible in America, and restore a sense of dignity and hope. in people’s effort to make a decent living. What Biden failed to note in his lofty speech about Americans’ love of freedom is Americans’ love of making money through hard work and ingenuity. Make America Rich Again would be a decent competitor to the MAGA slogan – and it need not be hostile to Democratic politics. After all, if America returns to the Trump model, it will become more violent, but not richer: creating widespread wealth requires stability, a well-functioning state, strong democracy and the rule of law. Biden intended to end the Trump nightmare. Now we need an end to Biden. I just hope it’s not Trump.
