One might describe the purpose of a new President’s Inaugural Address to be inspiring the people of the nation to follow his leadership.
The need of the United States both for good leadership and for a population ready to follow that leadership has rarely been more intense than now. That’s because we are now a nation in crisis. Indeed, in more than one crisis, all coming together. Much in our nation is presently not in good shape, and much of the repair work will require well-designed, well-coordinated action from our national government. And the American system is designed for the President to play a major leadership role in navigating through such difficult times.
Crisis is a time when there is an especially great gulf between the best possible scenarios and the worst. That’s because navigating well through difficult times can turn our dangers into opportunities, while a government that cannot act effectively can mean drifting rudderless into even greater dangers.
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So that is the circumstance under which Joe Biden will be launching his Presidency with his Inaugural Address. And that’s why it is important that he address the Big Lie that threatens to hobble his ability to lead.
Polls show that three-fourths of the Republican base — which amounts to tens of millions of Americans — still believe the Big Lie they’ve been told by their leaders, i.e. the Lie that Biden stole the election.
That matters because if so many people believe that Biden is not legitimately their President, if they look upon him with resentment and rage for his alleged theft of the Presidency from their guy, they will support their representatives in Congress making war on him.
Only if they relinquish their belief in that Lie does Biden have a shot at bringing them around to that unity he aspires to— a unity behind his efforts to steer the nation successfully toward the better future for America that is the best of the possible future scenarios for our nation.
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It shouldn’t be necessary for a President, just sworn in, to tell the American people that he won the election fair and square. But that’s the circumstance we’re in now. It’s a circumstance that’s profoundly symptomatic of one of the main crises besetting the United States— that a politically toxic force has taken over one of our nation’s two major political parties, a Republican Party that still has the power to cripple the nation at a time when effective action for the common good is essential.
Tackling that Lie in an Inaugural Address verges on the inappropriately “political,” when we’re looking for soaring rhetoric that inspires us all forward. (“With malice toward none...” “A torch is passed to a new generation...”)
But President Biden assumes office at a time when the “political” has not been resolved as it should have been— because of the Lie. It has been clear for more than two months what the American people decided, through the constitutional process set up for that decision, about who would be playing the role of President in these coming fraught four years.
But it is not clear to the supporters of the Republican obstructionists who are sitting in wait to do to him what they did to Barack Obama (despite the nation’s economy then (2009) being on the edge of an abyss): i.e. to make him fail.
That Lie about the stolen election must therefore be confronted, right out of the gate, because there will never be a better time to get the American people to see the reality.
So Biden needs to find the words — rhetoric as powerful and as suitable to the occasion as possible — to attack that Lie, to credibly challenge those tens of millions to see the unambiguous evidence that it is a Lie. And that the Truth requires all Americans — whether they voted for him or not — to recognize that Joe Biden is the President of the whole nation, as legitimately as any other that we have.
All he needs from the American people should be unexceptional: Whatever he proposes should be supported if it is judged that it would benefit the nation. Disagreement over what is the best policy is legitimate. But opposition on the basis of a Lie — a Lie that makes him, rather than the Liars, the one who tried to steal an election and trample on the will of the people — would be wholly unjustified.
Not only unjustified— but it would be self-destructive even for those who buy the Lie. Because this is a moment where paralyzing our government verges on national suicide.
Biden need not put any focus on the Liars. That is more “political” than suits the occasion. It can be left to the listener to infer that what they’ve been told is a Lie, those who told them the Lie were trying to use them for their own nefarious purposes. And that those people — more than half the Republicans now in the House of Representatives -- cannot be trusted but must be repudiated.
What Biden needs is for the people to be ready to follow the good leadership he offers. And right now the chief visible barrier is the belief by so many people that he stole the powers now vested in him.