POLITICS
Joe Biden Speaks: Yes We Can!
President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris delivered victory speeches that highlight their desire to heal the nation.
President-elect Joe Biden addressed the nation earlier this evening with his running mate, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, who is the first woman ever to be elected Vice President of the United States. The sentiment of the moment was beautiful; inclusive even of the Trump supporters who have falsely accused Biden of a slew of outlandish crimes that lack any sort of evidence or truth to them. And America is hurting right now. We are sick with the coronavirus, our economy is in a state of dire neglect, and the administrative state has barely survived its close brush with fascism.
Harris brimmed with joy as she spoke of her administration’s far-reaching policy goals and what would be done to create opportunity for people of all backgrounds. The joy was palpable to everyone watching, all of the Americans in such desperate need of healing. It was remarkable to watch, and it is ultimately quite poetic that the traumatic terror speeches and hate rallies held by Donald Trump have been replaced by tough, loving leaders espousing equality for all and healing.
Biden’s speech deliberately mirrored President Obama’s style, as he spoke of inflection points and shouted into the microphone: “YES WE CAN!”
YES WE CAN!
— Joe Biden, President-elect of the United States
The President-elect began his statement by speaking about his wife, Jill, who is an educator and directly stated that good things were coming for education in the United States. As a former educator who quit teaching college during the Trump years because the pay was too lousy and I didn’t have healthcare, that simple message resonated deeply with me. All of the teachers currently risking their lives to continue their work during the COVID-19 pandemic anxiously await an administration that refuses to neglect their plight.
Though Biden invited contention when he declared that he and Kamala had a mandate, he declared that the mandate was to cooperate toward solutions with other Americans. As Jake Tapper is tweeting that the Trump voter fraud hotline has become something of a nightmare with prank calls, it’s absolutely accurate and perhaps even necessary for Biden to remind Americans that the President of the United States is supposed to cooperate with the rest of the government to reach solutions to problems — Trump hasn’t ever attempted anything so communitarian.
Biden closed by reminding Americans to “Never give up, never give in,” and pronounced his faith that we’re all good people. Though perhaps some might call this into question were it to be fact-checked, the message is designed to convey a deeper moral message that we should treat one another as though we’re good people and they are too. This is the root of the see no evil idiom, a parable designed to remind us that judgment is a lot like violence. It isn’t usually a good idea to go around igniting conflicts for no reason. This is an administration that will forgive over seventy million voters for attempting to put Donald Trump in the Oval Office for another four years despite his failures in the face of the coronavirus and common decency.
It would appear that things are going very well for the Democrats and frankly for the Republicans too. We’ve all gained a President who speaks presidentially and seeks to write and enact legislation for the benefit of all Americans. As the nation awaits the outcome in the Senate run-offs in Georgia, spirits are incredibly high because the popular vote finally aligned with the electoral vote in a Presidential election again. The times have not gotten easier, but if the quality of leadership improves dramatically we could find ourselves on better footing to deal with the problems facing us.
