About That Speech …

As his presidency spirals downward, Joe Biden lashes out.

By
867

Hey,

I’m going to try to not lose my temper, but I make no promises.

This is from Joe Biden’s inaugural address, which is eight days shy of exactly a year ago.

We can join forces, stop the shouting and lower the temperature. For without unity there is no peace, only bitterness and fury. No progress, only exhausting outrage. No nation, only a state of chaos. This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge, and unity is the path forward. And we must meet this moment as the United States of America. If we do that, I guarantee you we will not fail. We have never ever, ever, failed in America when we’ve acted together.

Keep reading with a free account
Create a free Dispatch account to keep reading Get Started ALREADY HAVE AN ACCOUNT? SIGN IN
867
By
Comments (867)
Join The Dispatch to participate in the comments.
 
  1. Avatar photo
    Duke_59

    Wow - so I could not give the time and attention I would give before commenting when you said if my opinion was no ok with you “go to hell”. Your opinion, as much as I agree with some parts is lost as it should be with every reader when your position is “go to hell”. Hmmm- not what I expect.

    Collapse
  2. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    “ —particularly when it’s not true (and when Biden himself played footsie with the very segregationists he’s now associating with his political opponents). ”

    Boom.

    I don’t excuse the things Trump did. He was bad. But when he said disgusting things, you expected it of him, just like when a pig sleeps in its own excrement you aren’t surprised and you don’t lose sleep. But Biden was elected to be a grown up. He was elected to NOT say disgusting things. To turn the temperature down.

    He should know better.

    Collapse
  3. Avatar photo
    Alex Marshall

    Jonah, your normally astute powers of observation and analysis failed you here. For example, you say "If Georgia has been moving toward Jim Crow 2.0, one has to wonder: Why are so many blacks moving there, never mind staying there? The black population of Georgia nearly doubled from 1990 to 2019." You Jonah are apparently failing to see that the rising black population in Georgia could be a prime motivator of Republicans to restrict or suppress voting. More black voters will certainly make it harder to retain a Republican-leaning state. I'll leave it at that for now, but you make some similar errors elsewhere in this piece.

    Collapse
  4. Avatar photo
    Martin Sulkanen

    I just watched Brooks and Capehart on PBS news talking about the upholding of the filibuster. Jonah, NOT ONCE DID THEY TALK ABOUT THE CONTENT OF THE GEORGIA LAW. As the Dispatch has shown in detail, the law is not the Bogeyman that every mainstream meatpacker proclaims it to be. But we don’t discuss the content of legislation, we just hear what Team Red and Team Blue says how the bench should stand on it.

    Collapse
    1. Avatar photo
      Stacey Sovereign

      So true! It seems that reporters don't report or do their homework; they merely parrot what the team they support tells them.

      Collapse
  5. David Vornholt

    Agree

    Collapse
  6. Richard Fulmer

    Among the many tragedies of January 6 are the now-ruined lives of people who sincerely believed that they were following their commander-in-chief’s orders and were saving democracy by marching on the Capitol. It’s easy to roll our eyes at their gullibility – Trump is, after all, a conman whose patter is not nearly as believable as the average piece of spam that appears in our junk folders every day. Still, people believed him, and they acted on that belief.

    In his speech, Biden made the same sort of Flight 93 claims that drove people on the right to fear that their freedom was at stake. Again, we understand that it was all politics, all rhetoric, all red meat tossed to the crowd. But in that crowd are people who believed him, believed that failure to pass the Democrats' voting-rights legislation really will result in tyranny and in Jim Crow 2.0. Will some of those people, believing they are fighting for their freedom, recreate January 6 or worse?

    Collapse
  7. Bill Collins

    And as it does spiral down, we see his lack of character and integrity. What a hollow individual and perhaps more like Trump than he realizes.

    Collapse
  8. Avatar photo
    KB

    Jonah left out these stats below from the article he linked regarding voting laws.

    States that expanded voting laws (25 total states): 68% controlled by Democratic legislatures
    Out of the 62 laws that expanded voting rights: 80%(!!) were created in states controlled by Democrats


    Now let's look at the other side:

    States that reduced voting rights (19 total states): 89% controlled by Republican legislatures
    Out of the 33 laws that reduced voting rights: 94%(!!) were created in states controlled by Republicans


    I certainly think Biden's messaging could/should have been better. But Democrats have a right to be pissed off about this. And Jonah being more upset about a Biden speech than these stats above seems strange. Having said that, I do really enjoy the perspective of Jonah/French even though I disagree with them pretty frequently.

    Collapse
    1. Avatar photo
      Joel B

      That’s a pretty weak tea rebuttal to a column with a much broader point to make. Which is that most of those laws are of minimal impact either way, and that the overblown rhetoric that Biden is employing in the debate over these mostly inconsequential changes in voting is irresponsible.

      Collapse
  9. Avatar photo
    LJKeating

    Great analysis. Just watched Ben Sasse’s speech on the Senate floor from earlier today. Absolutely outstanding- he and The Dispatch are kindred spirits. Given the fact that there is no way to reasonably argue against anything in that speech, I feel like it should be assigned to all Americans for homework. I think he won the prize for best assessment of Biden’s speech- even tougher than all of your takes on yesterday’s podcast

    Collapse
  10. Avatar photo
    Joyce Stoer Cordi

    About the G Letter -- Jonah hit the nail on the head and then drove it deep into the wood!

    The Freedom to Vote Act is a Democratic effort to once, again, try to end run the checks and balances between BIG states and Small states -- difference between republic and direct democracy. What is needed is some form of John Lewis Act that addresses SCOTUS concerns and a serious revision of the Election Accountability Act to protect the certification and counting of citizen ballots.

    The greed of "progressive" Democrats will cost them the House and, maybe, the Senate in 2022. Then, GOD HELP US ALL!

    Collapse
Load More