President Biden’s State of the Union address last week may go down in history as one of the greatest ever. He has my vote.
The speech has marked a sea change in the 2024 Presidential election campaign. Through the force of Biden’s political voice and acumen, the focus on his age has retreated and the contrasts have shifted from age (given, alas, his opponent is almost as old as he) to competency.
For the sake of posterity I am reprinting the transcript of the concluding portion of his epochal speech, as follows:
“I’m optimistic. I really am. My fellow Americans, the issue facing our nation isn’t how old we are; it’s how old are our ideas. Hate, anger, revenge, retribution are the oldest of ideas. But you can’t lead America with ancient ideas that only take us back. To lead America, the land of possibilities, you need a vision for the future and what can and should be done. Tonight, you’ve heard mine.
“I see a future where we’re defending democracy, we don’t diminish it. I see a future where we restore the right to choose and protect our freedoms, not take them away. I see a future where the middle class finally has a fair shot and the wealthy have to pay their fair share in taxes.
“I see a future where we save the planet from the climate crisis and our country from gun violence. Above all I see a future for all Americans. I see a country for all Americans. And I will always be President for all Americans because I believe in America. I believe in you, the American people. You’re the reason I’ve never been more optimistic about our future than I am now.
“Let’s build the future together. Let’s remember who we are. We are the United States of America. And there is nothing — nothing beyond our capacity when we act together.”
Biden cited his age as a strength, not a weakness. He referenced his entire adult lifetime of adept political achievements, having been born when the fight against Hitler, both here and abroad, was fully engaged as well as the fight for the achievements of FDR’s New Deal, including the establishment of Social Security and other critically progressive programs that have made such a difference for Americans of all ages.
Biden has been on the side of good on these matters his entire adult life, since becoming the nation’s youngest U.S. Senator. His opponent, and his father, have been that whole time on the other side, the side of Nazi sympathizers.
Biden’s State of the Union speech underscored the need for a revival of core American values in the general population, and there has been a lot of talk about reviving civics in high school classrooms or even instituting a civil service draft for American youth post-high school, something along the lines of the Civilian Conservation Corps under FDR which contributed to the kind of sentiments in the U.S. which contributed so much to the morale and commitment of U.S. troops and our war machine to beat the Nazis in World War II.
The subject of an op-ed in the Washington Post last week by Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, was entitled, “The Founding Fathers Knew the Antidote to Demagoguery. We’ve Forgotten It.”
“Classical and Enlightenment thinkers defined happiness as the pursuit of virtue – as being good rather than feeling good,” he wrote. “It remains to be seen whether Americans today can find the virtuous self-restraint to put the public interest before the angry partisanship the Founders most feared. What’s clear, however, is that nothing less than the future of the republic is at stake.”
He cited Madison, who wrote in the “Federalist Papers” (No. 57):
“The aim of every Constitution is or ought to be first to obtain for rulers, men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue to the common good of the society, and in the next place, to take the most effectual precautions for keeping them virtuous, whilst they continue to hold their public trust.”
“Virtue” is the indispensable component of democracy.