United States President Joe Biden delivered a dramatic speech on Wednesday warning voters that democracy itself is at stake in the Nov. 8 general election. Repeatedly using the first words of the Constitution (“we the people”, we the people), he has called on voters to mobilize in defense of a democracy threatened and endangered by Donald Trump’s refusal, as he has repeatedly stressed against Trump and his Republican Party supporters concede defeat in the 2020 election.
It was an act of the Democratic National Convention, but Biden chose the Columbus Club in Union Station, very close to the Capitol, because of the symbolism of the seat of Congress. In an election where voters are more focused on the economy, Biden has stressed the importance of defending the principles of the system and rejecting political violence.
He began his speech by recalling that what the assailant of Paul Pelosi, husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, said (“Where’s Nancy? Where’s Nancy?”) was the same question theirs asked that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as Trump refused to concede defeat and spread what Biden has called “the big lie” that his election was stolen. This big lie, he said, “has fueled the dangerous rise in political violence and voter intimidation over the past two years.”
It is not the first time that Biden has warned of the risks to democracy posed by extreme Trumpism, and indeed labeled his ideology as semi-fascism, but it was his most armed and complete speech on the subject of particular relevance, enabling him to to pronounce it just six days before an election that will reshuffle the entire House of Representatives and a third of the Senate.
Biden has stressed that this is the first date in the election since the attack on Capitol Hill and that many of the Republican candidates not only do not accept the 2020 result, but also do not commit to respecting the results of next week’s election . “This is the road to chaos in America. It’s unprecedented. It’s illegal. And it’s anti-American.”
“This violence against Democrats, Republicans, and bipartisan officials just doing their jobs is the result of the lies being told of power and profit, the lies of conspiracy and malice, the lies being repeated over and over, around a cycle of anger, hatred, vitriol and even violence. Right now we need to confront these lies with the truth. The future of our nation depends on it. My fellow Americans, we are at a defining moment, a tipping point, when we must speak with one overwhelming, unified voice. To speak as a country and say that there is no place in America for voter intimidation or political violence, whether directed against Democrats or Republicans, there is never a place. Period,” he said bluntly.
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democracy at stake
“I know that there is a lot at stake in these mid-term elections,” he continued, naming some of the issues such as the economy, health or social security. “We have our disagreements and that’s supposed to happen, but it’s about something else: democracy itself. I’m not the only one who sees it. Recent polls have shown that an overwhelming majority of Americans believe our democracy is in danger, that our democracy is under threat.” It’s true that Americans see democracy in danger, albeit for different reasons, and they don’t see it as Have main accelerator for voting.
“Today I call on all Americans, regardless of their party, to face this moment of national and intergenerational importance. We need to know what’s at stake, not only because of current politics, but also because of the institutions that have held us together,” he argued.
Then comes his invocation of the beginning of the constitution: “We the people must decide whether we have fair and free elections and whether every vote counts. We the people must decide if we want to uphold a republic where reality is accepted, the law is obeyed and your voice is truly sacred. We, the people, must decide whether the rule of law prevails or whether power-hungry dark forces are allowed to overtake the principles that have guided us for so long.”
republican response
Without citing him by name, he clearly attacked Trump: “American democracy is under attack because the defeated former President of the United States refuses to accept the results of the 2020 election. If he refuses to accept the will of the people, he refuses to accept the fact that you lost. He has abused his power and placed loyalty to himself before constitutional law. And he spread a big lie.” The Trumpists, Biden said, “are trying to succeed where they failed in 2020: suppressing the right of voters and subverting the electoral system itself,” he said, citing, among other things, the parallel episodes of intimidation were experienced by some electoral colleges, something he has described as “corrosive and destructive”.
Republicans have criticized Biden as “divisive and dishonest” in a statement even before he delivered the speech, when only the subject matter was known. When Biden last month said Trump was a threat to democracy, he replied, “The enemy of the state is him and those who control him.”
Again appealing to the basic principles of the system, Biden continued: “Democracy means the government of the people. Not the government of monarchs or money, but the government of the people. Autocracy is the opposite of democracy. It means the government of one person, one ideology, one party. Now we fight for democracy. The fight for decency and dignity, the fight for prosperity and progress. The Battle for the Soul of America.”
He recognized that democracy is “imperfect”. “It always has been,” he said, but it makes it possible to resolve electoral disagreements rather than “a mob, a bullet, or a hammer.”
Despite everything, Biden has tried to end with a speech of optimism and mobilization. “We know that democracy is in danger. We also know that it is within our power, within each of us, to preserve our democracy. And I think we will. I think I know this country. I know we will. you have the power It’s your decision. It’s your choice, the destiny of the nation, the destiny of the soul of America is there as always: with the people, with your hands, your heart and your voice.
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